Saturday 31 March 2012

The Easiest and Lightest Chocolate Vanilla Marble Cake



I needed something super speedy to prepare, requiring no attention to bake and that didn't need copious icing or frosting afterwards to make it look attractive. These are the stipulations of someone baking late in the evening whilst simultaneously making and eating dinner, but with a surplus of eggs to use.

Chocolate vanilla marble cake it was. Quick and easy to mix and bake, and the marbling effect means that the lack of icing is not noticed in the way it would be in a plain cake. Stork margarine is your friend here - straight from fridge to mixing bowl in the way that butter just won't do. I'm fairly sure it's the secret to the superbly light texture of this cake too.


Chocolate and Vanilla Marble Cake
Ingredients
200g stork
200g caster sugar
3 very large eggs (mine weighed 214g total, so probably 4 smaller eggs)
200g plain flour
2tsp baking powder
1tsp vanilla extract
2tbsp cocoa powder

Method
- Preheat the oven to gas 4/180C. Grease and line an 8"/20cm square cake tin and put liners in a 6 hole muffin tin too.
- Place all ingredients (except cocoa powder) into the bowl of a stand mixer (or a normal bowl and use a handheld electric mixer). Mix until all the ingredients are well combined and the mixture is light in colour and texture.
- Dollop half of the mixture randomly into the tin. I also made four little cakes too - it looked as though there would be too much mixture for the tin.
- Add the cocoa powder to the mixture remaining in the bowl and mix again until all combined.
- Dollop the now-chocolate mixture into the gaps left from the first time round.
- Swirl. I used the handle of my silicon spoon - you don't want something too narrow, but neither does it want to be too chunky.
- Bake the smaller cakes for 20-25 minutes and the large cake for 40 minutes.
- Allow to cool slightly, then remove to a wire rack to cool completely.
- Slice and serve.


That's it. Simple as.

Super light, super moist and extremely easy. Not too much washing up either, which is always a bonus :-)   

10 comments:

Suelle said...

This looks so light and pretty!

I've never really used non-butter spreads in baking, but I never expected to find so many good recipes when I needed to start baking with oil, so perhaps my prejudices against 'margarine' were wrong.

Mary Berry uses it, after all!

Choclette said...

Doesn't look in the least super speedy C, it looks superb. So attractive.

Chele said...

I'm liking the sound of this bake a lot! I echo Choclette, looks like you've pent ages making it, perfectly swirled ;0)

Janice said...

What a great bake, must remember this one for instant good impression!

Johanna GGG said...

Marble cake is always so pretty! We often buy a butter called buttersoft here that is quite soft even from the fridge and is great when you need a soft butter - but I grew up with my mum using margarine a lot in baking - probably for the same reason as you

Baking Addict said...

I'm bookmarking this! I love marble cakes but can never get the right marbling effect. I'll have to get some margarine for 'just in case'

celia said...

Beautiful! I love how gorgeous the top of the cake is too - it really didn't need icing at all!

Unknown said...

Oh I used to adore marble cake as a kid but i don't think i've ever made it as an adult... this does indeed look so easy, I must give this a try... I was thinking I could put banana in the vanilla bit... just to mix it up a bit, or is that too dense? Also, I agree that marge does make things lighter... my mum swears by it for cakes!

Anne said...

Aww this reminds me of growing up - my mum always made marble cake as it was my brothers favourite! Will have to ask him if it still is now he's in his 30's!

I always bake with stork, so much easier than waiting for butter to soften and does make for lovely, light sponges

Caroline said...

Suelle - my mum always used Stork, but I have tended to use exclusively butter. It is handy to have stork in for those occasions where softening butter is a faff. And I really do think that it makes a lighter cake.

Choclette - it was superspeedy though :-) My aim was for something pretty that didn't need icing!

Chele - I'm glad you think it looks pretty, that was the aim!

Janice - marble cakes always impress don't they!

Johanna - is your buttersoft 100% butter, or partly oil too? We can get 'spreadable' butters here, but they are almost always oil blends.

Ros - I think my marbling is more luck than skill sometimes! Stork is great for just-in-case!

Celia - thank you. No icing was my aim here :-)

Dom - I don't know how banana would work - you'll have to let me know if you try it.

Anne - Stork does seem to make lighter cakes than you'd expect doesn't it! I wonder whether your brother's favourite has changed over the years!

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