Marble Cake
John Barricelli of "Everyday Food" makes a marble cake as part of our Chefs' Secrets series; learn how to iron a tablecloth.
Marble Cake
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Marble Cake
John Barricelli of "Everyday Food" makes a marble cake as part of our Chefs'...
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The Martha Stewart Show, February Winter 2007
- Yield Makes one 9-by-5-inch loaf
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Ingredients
- 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature, plus more for pan
- 1 3/4 cups cake flour (not self-rising)
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup sugar
- 3 large eggs, room temperature
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 2/3 cup buttermilk, room temperature
- 1/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon Dutch-process cocoa powder
Directions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Generously butter a 9-by-5-inch loaf pan; set aside. Whisk together the cake flour, baking powder, and salt; set aside.
- In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes. Add eggs, one at a time, beating until combined after each addition and scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed. Mix in vanilla. Add flour mixture in 2 batches, alternating with the buttermilk and beginning and ending with the flour. Set aside 1/3 of the batter.
- In a bowl, mix cocoa and 1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons boiling water with a rubber spatula until smooth. Add the cocoa mixture to the reserved cake batter; stir until well combined.
- Spoon batters into the prepared pan in 2 layers, alternating spoonfuls of vanilla and chocolate to simulate a checkerboard. To create marbling, run a table knife (or wooden skewer) through the batters in a swirling motion.
- Bake, rotating the pan halfway through, until a cake tester comes out clean, 40 to 50 minutes. Transfer pan to a rack to cool 10 minutes. Turn out cake from pan and cool completely on the rack. Cake can be kept in an airtight container at room temperature up to 3 days.
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I tried this recipe for the first time tonight. The cake turned out great! Moist and not too sweet, just how I like it. Overall pretty easy to make, given that there's a video too. However, I had to bake the cake for almost an hour because when I took it out after 50 mins, there were parts that still needed more baking. I guess everyone's oven is different. Next time I make this I'll aim to make prettier marbles. :)
This recipe is great! I've made it three times and learned I had to be careful not to overbake it (which can be done easily). I've dialed down the sugar by just 1/4 cup and didn't miss it at all. I've blogged it here: http://butteredup.blogspot.com/2011/11/marble-cake.html
Tested this out last night and it is amazing. Moist and soft texture, absolutely delicious. Love the marbling technique. Much better marbled look than the old method of putting spoonfuls of chocolate on top of the white.
Since cake flour is so expensive I do not use it. Instead, use 1 less tablespoon of flour per cup, and double sift the flour. I bake wedding cakes and have always received rave reviews for my cake flavor. Am baking a marble wedding cake for next weekend and cannot wait to test out this recipe.
I baked this marble cake twice and it was finished the very next morning. Its so addictive. Now that I've moved to Australia, there is no cake flour to be found. I want to bake this marble cake again. Any suggestions on cake flour substitute? Thanks
Nicolehewson, it's 1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons of boiling water.
This was delicious. Very moist and tasty. I did add a little bit more of vanilla and baked it for 40 minutes.
I found that 2 tablespoons of boiling water was not nearly enough to smooth out the cocoa. I ended up adding more water to make a smooth paste, and it worked fine.
I've made this cake 3 times and it's a wonderful recipe, with a beautiful smooth texture thanks to the cake flour. It's never lasted more than 1 day in my house because it's such a tasty cake!
Perfect recipe.
So you put the cocoa into the 1/3 or the 2/3?
This cake came out perfectly and delicious. I substituted buttermilk with plain yogurt (same amt) and did everything by hand (no mixer) - quick, easy, impressive. THANK YOU for a great recipe that was exactly what I was looking for.
I baked this marble cake buy I do not recommend it
Oops, you are right, 1/3 of the batter...my error...anyway it was very good although I used a loaf pan and it wasnt as high as I would have liked it...thanks
Kitkath-
Just looking this over and it is 1/3 of the batter and not one third of a cup! Hope that helps :)
i just baked this marble cake but havent tried it yet.....my problem is how could 1/3 cup of batter mixed with the cocoa be enough to make the above checkerboard. Maybe it should have been 2/3 cup of batter to save for the cocoa. I added extra batter to the 1/3 cup.