Tiger Cake (Tigerkaka)

Popular over almost all the Nordic region, Tiger Cake is a basic sponge cake marbled with chocolate to give it a striking tiger-striped appearance and nostalgic flavor.

Decades ago, marbled cake had quite a heyday in home kitchens. Both my mother and grandmother made homey bundts of chocolate and vanilla butter cakes swirled together for special occasions as well as everyday fika. This was definitely a favorite of mine, made extra fancy when drizzled with fudge icing for a birthday celebration. What I did not know until recently is that this style of cake has been a Nordic staple, found in a variety of forms in Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Finland. Magnus Nilsson shares a recipe for Tiger Cake in his epic bible of Nordic cuisine, The Nordic Cook Book.

His version calls for a different preparation than I was accustomed to, with melted butter and whisked eggs rather than creamed butter and sugar in a basic butter cake format. The result was a more sponge-like texture that was equally as delightful and delicious to enjoy!

The Ingredients:

After making the recipe once as written, I decided to make a few modifications to suit my own tastes. Nilsson calls for using a “soft wheat flour”, so I used cake flour instead of all-purpose. Cake flour is made from soft winter wheat and is milled to a very fine texture. I have been using Swans Down brand as long as I can remember! This was a staple in my grandmother’s pantry, as well.

For the Tiger Cake, you want to produce a very dark chocolate stripe. I love the rich color that a cocoa powder like Hershey’s Special Dark gives to the batter. This is a “Dutched” cocoa, meaning it has been alkalized so that the cocoa’s natural acidity is neutralized to a pH of 7. Dutch process cocoa has a noticeably darker hue and a smoother, more mellow flavor. Since Dutch process cocoa isn’t acidic, it does not react with alkaline leaveners like baking soda to produce carbon dioxide. That is why it works well with the baking powder called for in this recipe.

The original recipe does not call for espresso or instant coffee powder, however in doing some research I found numerous other versions of Tiger Cake that did use this as a flavor enhancement with the cocoa. I have always added espresso powder to my chocolate cake recipes, so it was a natural addition for my taste!

The Process:

As I mentioned earlier, my family typically baked marbled cakes in bundt pans but I wanted to see how the classic loaf pan preparation turned out. The key is to really grease your pan well with either butter or a baking spray so that you do not have stuck corners or sides. Parchment paper on the bottom of the pan is also key. Nilsson’s recipe specifies greasing the pan and then sprinkling with bread crumbs to prevent sticking.

Butter and milk are heated just until the butter is melted, then cooled to room temperature.

The eggs and sugar are whisked together until light and fluffy. I chose to add some vanilla for flavor and used my stand mixer rather than doing the whisking by hand. The cooled butter mixture is then added and mixed until smooth.

Next the flour, baking powder and salt are sifted over the batter to prevent any lumps from the flour. The original recipe does not call for salt, but I think this is a necessary addition in terms of getting a nice flavor from the cake.

A gentle mixing can be done with a whisk attachment or by hand. Do not over mix, as this will create a tough texture.

Nilsson’s recipe calls for sifting the cocoa powder into half of the plain batter. I found that this caused the chocolate swirls to be a bit dry, so I mixed the cocoa with the espresso powder and a little hot water to make a more fluid addition to some of the batter.

Transfer a little less than half the plain batter to a separate bowl, then stir in the cocoa mixture to create the chocolate batter.

Assembly and Baking:

Spread 1/3 of the plain batter at the bottom of your prepared loaf pan.

Next, spread 1/2 of the chocolate batter over top, trying not to mix the two together too much.

Continue with another layer of plain batter then chocolate batter, finishing with the last 1/3 of the plain.

Bake the loaf at 350 degrees for about 45 minutes. Start checking at 40 by inserting a wooden pick into the center. You don’t want to over bake this cake, but it is quite dense so you want to avoid a raw center! The finished cake should be domed and a delightful golden brown color.

Cool the Tiger Cake completely in the pan, then carefully turn out and cut into slices. If carefully assembled, the interior should reveal a striking tiger stripe pattern. This cake is simple yet full of nostalgic flavor that pairs perfectly with a strong cup of coffee 🙂 It is a match made in Fika heaven!