Saturday 6 November 2010

Marbled chocolate and vanilla bundt cake


A quick and easy cake for a worknight to deal with a surfeit of eggs. I had been wondering all day what to bake when I arrived home. I knew it needed to be something fairly quick and easy - I generally don't have a lot of energy left by the evening, and preferably something that would not require decoration to look good. (Although even things that could really do with some sprucing up often go into work as is - no one seems to mind that their cakes don't look amazing!)

Luckily, Suelle at Mainly Baking had just posted a chocolate orange cake, with a delicious looking marbled appearance. It was just the inspiration I needed to make this marbled cake. Without the time to look for a novel recipe, this is just my standard cake recipe. As I mentioned, the primary purpose was to use up eggs so I decided to dust off my bundt tin as it takes quite a large capacity without taking an age for the cake to bake. A half used packet of white chocolate also caught my eye, so chopped and in it went!

Marbled chocolate and vanilla bundt cake
Ingredients
225g butter, softened (I love my microwave!)
225g caster sugar
4 eggs
225g self raising flour
4 tbsp cocoa powder
4 tbsp milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
50g white chocolate, chopped

Method
- Preheat the oven to Gas 4/180C. Grease your bundt tin well.
- Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
- Add the eggs and flour and beat well to combine (I know that I should add the eggs first, one at a time, beating well after each addition, but these were fridge cold, and I never have any luck when it comes to cake batters curdling. To avoid curdling, I add the flour and eggs at the same time. My palate isn't sophisticated enough to be able to spot any loss of texture suffered by using my cowboy methods!).
- Spoon half of the mixture into a small bowl, add the vanilla and mix it in well.
- To the remaining mixture, sift in 4 tbsp cocoa powder and then add 4 tbsp milk; beat well to combine then add the chopped white chocolate.
- Dollop alternate blobs of mixture into the tin, then swirl with the back of a table knife. You don't want anything too narrow or too wide.
- Bake for 40-45 minutes, until a cake tester inserted comes out clean.
- Leave to cool in the tin for a while. I didn't and it's quite a delicate cake.

Decoration was too much effort for a work night, so I left it plain. I'm sure a chocolate glaze drizzled over it would have been very well received too.

As you can see, I was a little cack-handed getting the cake out of the tin, so it cracked, but this didn't matter when it was all sliced up and ready to eat! I was pleased with my marbling this time - it seems to be a bit hit and miss but this was a hit occasion! Very well received - I had thought that there would be some left as a few of my colleagues were away on Friday, but never fear, it all disappeared. Good and moist, with a light texture and chocolate flavour, you can just see a little piece of white chocolate peeping out in the top picture. A reliable favourite!

12 comments:

The Caked Crusader said...

Looks great - you got some nice marbling; the cut slice looks lovely.
I love cakes like this - I would be more than happy with it as is i.e. sans frosting.

José Manuel said...

Precioso y además tiene que estar divino.

Saludos

Chele said...

Oh yeah! A white chocolate marbled bundt cake would get my vote too ;0)
Really must extend myself and actually make a bundt cake one of these days lol

Liz said...

This looks moist and sugary! yum!

Anne said...

Love the white choc addition and the stripey effect!

I always struggle to get sponges out of my round tin too, always seem to leave a bit behind!

joanna said...

Lucky recipients - I bet there was none left! and great marbling - I must dust my bundt tin off and have a go again, coming up to birthdays here so that might be just the time!

Unknown said...

This looks lovely, really yummy x

Suelle said...

It looks great - good idea to add the white chocolate too!

Jacqueline Meldrum said...

It looks so gorgeous! I have always been meaning to buy a bundt tin, but never got around to it.

General Knowledge Library said...

Wow that's a great and it takes water in my mouth as well. LOL

My Taste Heaven said...

looks really nice. the colour mixture makes the cake looks really cute

Caroline said...

CC - thank you.

Chele - I love the way bundt cakes immediately make it look like you've made a huge effort when that's not necessarily true....

Liz - thank you.

Anne - thanks. It's so frustrating when bits get left behind isn't it!

Joanna - I look forward to seeing a bundt from you!

Suelle - thanks for the inspiration - you posted at just the right time for me!

HtbP, GKL, my taste heaven - thanks guys

Jac - bundt tins are great, I thoroughly recommend them!

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