Traditional Marble Loaf Cake

One of my friends once said to me, “you dislike baking because you don’t like to follow the recipe from the baking book; but, you can sure make a marble effect on a Marble Cake!” Hah, to be honest, I don’t know how a perfect marble cake is supposed to look like, do you? Anyway, do you think this marble cake looks okay? It tastes pretty good though I thought.

So, if you think it looks okay, then you can consider trying my method. I am not sure whether it will work with other marble cake recipes; but, it turned out fine using the recipe from Dorie Greenspan’s baking book. This is how I did it - Instead of dividing the batter into 2 parts, I removed about 1 cup of batter and mixed it into the melted chocolate and gently folded the mixture with a rubber spatula until they combined. Then, I scraped the chocolate mixture into the other batter. My little trick here is that I folded the batter as if you were folding the egg whites. (Do not over mix the batter.) Fold it gently for about 5 to 6 times and finally, scrape the batter into the baking pan. Dip a skewer deep into the batter and make 2 big swirls or 2 big zigzags. Then if you like, make a few swirls on top of the batter. That’s it, sounds real easy, doesn’t it? :-)


Recipe adapted from Baking From my home to yours by Dorie Greenspan

Traditional Marble Loaf Cake

Ingredients

2 Cups Flour plus 2 Tbsp All-Purpose Flour
1 ¼ tsp Baking Powder
½ tsp Sea Salt
1 ½ Sticks (12 Tbsp) Unsalted Butter, at room temperature
1 Cup Sugar
4 Large Eggs
½ tsp Pure Vanilla Extract
½ Cup Whole Milk
4 oz Bittersweet Chocolate, melted

Method

Preheat the oven to 325˚F. Butter an 8 ½ x 4 ½ x 2 ½-inch loaf pan, dust the inside with flour and tap out the excess. Place the pan on an insulated baking sheet or 2 regular baking sheets stacked one on top of the other.

Whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt.

Working with a stand mixer with a paddle attachment, or with hand mixer in a large bowl, beat the butter on medium speed until smooth, about 3 minutes. Add the sugar and beat for another 2 to 3 minutes. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Don’t be concerned if the batter curdles and stay curdled-it will be fine. Beat in the vanilla. Reduce the mixer speed to low and alternately add the flour mixture in 3 additions and the milk in 2 (begin with the dry ingredients), mixing only until each addition is incorporated.

Traditional method: Divide the batter in half and stir the melted chocolate into one half and keep the other half plain. Drop spoonfuls of dark and light batter randomly into the pan, and then plunge a table knife deep into the batter and zigzag the knife through the batter, making only about 6 to 8 zigs and zags. Scrape the batter into the pan.

Bake the cake for 1 hour and 20 to 30 minutes, or until a thin knife inserted deep into the center comes out clean. If the cake looks as if it’s getting too brown during its bake, cover loosely with a foil tent. Transfer the cake to a cooling rack and let it rest for about 15 minutes before unmolding, then cool the cake to room temperature right side up on the rack.