I’m getting a bit behind on my bakes, what with holidays, book releases and putting our house on the market by accident (more on that later in the week). I suspect that come Christmas, I’ll be baking every day trying to catch up before the New Year. Not that lots of festive cakes would necessarily be a bad thing…

Anyway. Marble cake.

I chose this cake because the daughter was having a particularly grumpy day, and has recently decided that everything is boring. (“Trees are boring, Mummy. Games are boring, Mummy. I want to do something unusual that I’ve never ever done before.”)

Cake is never boring. Chocolate cake doubly so. And a cake that has swirls of chocolate and vanilla cake mixed together… well, that’s practically magical, right?

Bake 19 – Magical Marble Cake

Ingredients

• 225g butter, softened
• 225g caster sugar
• 225g self raising flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 4 large eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 tbsp cocoa
• 1 tbsp milk

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180°C.
2. In a large bowl, beat the butter, sugar, flour, baking powder and eggs together with an electric whisk until pale and creamy.
3. Place half the mixture in another bowl, and beat the vanilla into one bowl and the cocoa and milk into the other.
4. Randomly dollop alternate spoonfuls of plain and chocolate mixtures into a greased and lined 8″ by 10″ tin, until all the mixtures have been used.
5. To marble the cake, run the handle of a wooden spoon through the full depth of the mixture, making swirly patterns.
6. Bake for 25-30 minutes until it’s springy and starting to pull away from the tin.
7. Cut into squares, astonishing children (and some adults) with the magic pattern.