Actually... that is not the title. The author of this cake, Dorie Greenspan, misread the word tigré (which is a mini-sponge cake speckled with chocolate, topped with a dollop of chocolate cream - something like this) as tiger and has pronounced that cake as tiger ever since. I did the other way around and after reading her story I mispronounced her recipe title (Chocolate and Almond Tiger Cake) as Tigré so... so now the name stays, okay?
Greenspan based this cake on financiers, which is a French cake made especially for stockbroker clients - so they can eat it on the go. Hence why I call my cake financier even though it is not the same shape as a financier. But since this blog is only for yours truly, I will name the recipes in my recipe index (this is what this blog is after all) with the names I use.
This is a perfect coffee cake - they go so well together. Silly me took no picture from the side so that you can see the chocolate-speckles, so you will have to take my word for it.
My tin is tiny (16 cm diameter) so I used 2/3 of the original recipe. So if you have a normal 22 cm cake tin, keep that in mind and recalculate your ingredients.
Ingredients (for a 16 cm cake tin):
- 50g butter
- 45g flour
- 100g sugar
- 1/4 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1 pinch of salt
- 50g almond flour (I make my own in the food processor)
- 1 tsp vanilla extract (I did not change the amount for this one because I like my cakes very flavourful)
- 4 eggs (we will only use the egg whites)
- 95g chocolate (I mixed milk chocolate with 85% dark chocolate)
For the chocolate ganache (which is optional):
- 60ml heavy cream
- 60g chocolate (used a mix again, but with more dark chocolate now than for the cake)
- crushed almonds or almond flakes to decorate the cake
Method:
Prep your cake tine. Line the bottom with baking paper. Butter and flour the sides. Preheat the oven to 180°C.
Chop the chocolate for the cake. I used more milk chocolate for the inside of the cake.
Melt the butter in a small saucepan. Turn off the heat but leave the saucepan there to keep it warm.
In a bowl whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Add the almond flour and mix it in.
Separate the eggs. Lightly whisk the egg whites, then add them to the flour in small batches, while mixing it together with a spatula, until you get a smooth batter. Add vanilla and mix. Then fold in the melted butter in small batches.
Add the chocolate to the batter and mix everything together.
Pour the batter in the cake tin and spread it evenly. Bake until golden-brown and a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean - around 30-40 minutes.
Transfer to a cooling rack and let it cool for 5 minutes, then remove from the tin.
Make the ganache while the cake cools off:
In a saucepan heat up the heavy cream (but do not boil). Remove from the fire and mix in the chocolate until the cream is well blended.
When the cake is at room temperature, pour the ganache over spreading it with an off-set spatula - it was my first time doing this so I made a thick coat over my cake, but next time I will make it thinner so it will not be as dark and bitter and too chocolatey. But you do you! Decorate with the almonds.
Leave the cake on the counter to set - or refrigerate for 15-20 minutes.
Covered, it should keep for 3 days at room temperature - ours only resisted one weekend before it was fully munched.
🍰 Source: NYT Cooking (paywall)