Leopard-Print Cake

Ingredients

• 2 and 1/2 cups flour
• 1/4 cup cornstarch
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• 5 eggs
• 1 teaspoon white vinegar
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 1 cup warm water
• 1/2 cup oil
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3 teaspoons cocoa powder
• For more of Nancy’s special desserts, here is the sponge tart
• And for more wonderful cakes on our site, here is the Lotus cake

Method

1. Sift the flour with the cornstarch, baking powder, and vanilla, and set aside.
2. Separate the egg yolks from the whites and beat the yolks with the sugar and vinegar; when the mixture increases in volume, add the warm water and beat, then add the oil and beat.
3. Add the dry ingredients to the beaten egg yolk mixture.
4. In another bowl, place the egg whites with the salt and beat until they become like cream.
5. Begin adding the egg white mixture to the first mixture (yolks) gradually, folding with a spoon or spatula from bottom to top.
6. Take about half a cup of the batter and mix it with one teaspoon of cocoa to obtain a light cocoa mixture.
7. In another bowl put also about half a cup of the cake batter and add two small teaspoons of cocoa and mix well; this way you obtain two cocoa mixtures, one light and the other dark.
8. Put each of the mixtures into a piping bag or cream-dispensing bag.
9. Grease the cake pan with oil and dust with flour, then make circles of the light cocoa mixture on the bottom of the pan and make a dark cocoa circle around each light circle.
10. Repeat the process on the sides as well.
11. Pour the cake batter into the pan and repeat forming circles on the surface using the two cocoa mixtures.
12. Place the pan in the preheated oven at 180°C on the middle rack.
13. Bake the leopard-print cake for 45 to 50 minutes or according to your oven.
    Timers: 50 min
14. Brown the top for just a few minutes—we want only a light color.
15. Let the cake cool at room temperature before serving.
16. Nancy Moussa
17. For more of Nancy's distinctive desserts, here's the sponge tart.
18. And for more great cakes from our site, here's the Lotus cake.