Marble Cake

I love marble cakes. There's something about them that sets them apart from other cakes. The batter is just like an ordinary butter pound cake, with some cocoa powder added  in one part and the other part remain plain, lightly swirl into the pan together to get a marbled effect. Plain and simple, and everyone knows that. But why, does it holds a special place amongst the many cakes around?  It has been around as long as I can remember, good old-fashioned all time favourite.

When I was browsing through Sarabeth Levine's blog a couple of weeks ago, this marble cake caught my attention, and I knew that I was going to make it sooner or later.  This is a lovely cake to have for afternoon tea and great for breakfast too, don't forget that cup of hot steaming black coffee, really goes well with this cake.

This is a really good cake, my sister loves it. There's a light almond fragrance which I find really nice, but not my kids! I thought that since the recipe calls for only 1/4 teaspoon of almond essence in the chocolate batter, my kids might not notice it so much, but they did! That is why I hardly use my bottle of almond essence, as they do not like the smell of almond essence.

I guess that most of us have a marble cake recipe somewhere, either an old family favourite recipe or perhaps a new acquired one. I do have an old family favourite, but then that's another day and another post, as soon as I can find it!

I'm sharing this with Sweets For A Saturday over at Sweet As Sugar Cookies

Marble Cake
(source from : Sarabeth)
Makes 10 to 12 servings
Bakers Note : For the easiest way to transfer the batters to the pan, use a 2-1/2 inch diameter ice cream scoop.
Softened butter for the pan
2 cups unbleached flour, plus more for the pan
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
12 tablespoons (1-1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1-1/2 cups plus 3 tablespoons superfine sugar, divided (I use 180gm plus 3 tablespoons)
4 large eggs, beaten, at room temperature
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/3 cup Dutch-processed cocoa powder
1/3 cup brewed strong coffee, cooled
1/2 teaspoon instant espresso coffee powder
1/4 teaspoon almond extract

1. Position a rack in the center of the oven and preheat to 350F. Butter and flour the inside of an 8-cup fluted tube pan and tap out the excess flour.
2. Sift the flour, baking powder, and salt together. Beat the butter in the bowl of a heavy-duty standing mixer fitted with the paddle attachment on high speed until smooth, about 1 minute. Gradually beat in 1-1/2 cups of the sugar, then add the vanilla. Beat until the mixture is very light in colour and texture, (scraping down the sides and bottom of the bowl with a silicon spatula occasionally) about 5 minutes. Slowly beat in the eggs. Reduce the mixer speed to low. In thirds, add the flour, scraping down the bowl as needed and beating until smooth after each addition.
3. Whisk the cocoa, coffee, instant espresso powder, remaining 3 tablespoons sugar, and almond extract together in a medium bowl to dissolve the cocoa. Transfer a little less than half of the batter to the cocoa mixture and mix with a spoon until smooth. Using a 2-1/2 inch diameter ice cream scoop, alternate scoops of the vanilla and chocolate batters into the pan. With a chopstick, swirl the batters together, taking care not to touch the sides of the pan. Gently smooth the top.
4. Bake until the top of the cake springs back when gently pressed with your finger, and a cake tester inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean, about 55 minutes. Cool on a wire cake rack for 10 minutes. Invert the cake onto the rack to cool completely.

(The cake can be stored at room temperature, wrapped in plastic wrap, for 3 days).