We all experienced it: the dreaded dry marble cake that would only go down with a tall glass of milk or plenty of coffee or tea. Most of the time, it would be at a relative’s house and we would just smile and eat our cake to be polite. Dry marble cake seemed inevitable, so I – like many others – gave up on it and directed my attention towards other goals.
A while ago, I circled back because my nieces and nephews just love marble cake for whatever reason. I assume it’s the fun look, but mostly the chocolate glaze and the M&M sprinkled on top. While looking at recipes, they all followed the same pattern: make a vanilla batter and put 1/2 to 2/3 of it into your cake form. Then add cocoa and sometimes milk to the rest to turn it into a chocolate batter. And this is the fundamental problem. The consistency of the vanilla batter is usually good but the super dry cocoa powder turns the chocolate part bad.
So based on a basic recipe for pound cake by Ben Ebbrell of Sorted Foods, I took a different approach to this version, making a big difference. Instead of making one batter and turning it into something it wasn’t designed to be, I am making the vanilla and the chocolate batter separately with slightly different ratios and I love the results. A lot!
Try for yourself. It takes a little bit more time to make the separate batters but I’d argue the result is well worth this effort! Also: make sure all your ingredients are at room temperature!
Not your average Marble Cake
Course: Baking, Dessert, PastriesDifficulty: Easy10
slices45
minutes45
minutesIngredients
200g / 10 tbsp of unsalted European Butter
200g / 1 cup of Granulated Sugar
4 large Eggs
180g / 1.25 cups of All-Purpose Flour
2 tsp of Baking Powder
2 tsp of Vanilla Extract
20g / 4 tsp of Dutch-processed Cocoa Powder
a pinch of Salt
Directions
- Make the vanilla batter
- Preheat your oven to 350°F (180°C) and line a cake pan with parchment paper for easier removal.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer with the paddle attachment, cream half of the butter and sugar (100g each) together with a pinch of salt until very pale and fluffy. (You can also do this with a hand mixer or just manually with a spatula.
- Mix 100g of flour with 1 tsp of baking powder in a small bowl and set aside.
- Add two eggs, one at a time. With each egg, add a teaspoon of the flour mixture to prevent curdling. Make sure the first egg is well incorporated before adding the second.
- Mix in 1 tsp of vanilla extract.
- Sift in the remaining flour mixture from the small bowl. Then fold in until well combined and pour into the bottom of the cake pan.
- Make the chocolate batter
- Clean out the bowl and start creaming the remaining butter with the remaining sugar and a pinch of salt until pale and fluffy.
- Mix the remaining 80g of flour with 1 tsp baking powder in a small bowl and set aside.
- Add the remaining two eggs, one at a time. With each egg, add a teaspoon of the flour mixture to prevent curdling. Make sure the first egg is well incorporated before adding the second.
- Mix in 1 tsp of vanilla extract.
- Mix the cocoa powder into the remaining flour mixture and sift into the batter. Fold until well incorporated and there are no more dry spots.
- Spoon the chocolate batter on top of the vanilla batter and then use a fork or a skewer to create swirls between the vanilla and the chocolate batter.
- Bake
- Bake for 40 – 45 minutes until a wooden skewer comes out clean.
- Cool on a wire rack.
