Marble Cake

I haven't been blogging recently because we're still trying to get settled in.    The kitchen has taken some time to get used to, so a few meals have been failures.  Boo.


But, this cake turned out pretty well.  I decided to bake this cake shortly after moving in to celebrate my new oven.  It was moist, chocolately and delicious.  It was also very simple to make and very quick to put together.  


I enjoyed this cake.  Ron did too.  But, he seemed rather confused that there was no icing to go on the cake and requested some icing.  After what seemed like the tenth day in a row of cleaning and de-bugging our house and basically no relaxing whatsoever, I told Ron to stuff it.  I made the cake because it was simple and I was tired and wanted an easy treat.  


The cake was eaten as prepared, with no icing, and no further complaint.  

Marble Cake
from Martha Stewart
Yield:  1 9x5 loaf cake
Ingredients

• 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temp
• 1 3/4 cups cake flour (not self-rising)
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 cup sugar
• 3 large eggs, at room temp
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 2/3 cup buttermilk, at room temp
• 1/4 cup + 1 T dutch-process cocoa powder

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and butter a 9x5 loaf pan; set aside.
2. Whisk together the cake flour, baking powder, and salt; set aside.
3. In a separate bowl, beat together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.  Add eggs, one at a time, beating until combined after each addition and scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed.
4. Mix in vanilla.
5. Add flour in 2 batches, alternating with the buttermilk and beginning and ending with the flour.
6. Set aside 1/3 of the batter.
7. In a bowl, mix cocoa and 1/4 cup + 2 Tbsp boiling water w/ a rubber spatula until smooth.  
8. Add the cocoa mixture to the reserved 1/3 of the cake batter; stir until well combined.
9. Spoon batters into prepared pan in 2 layers, alternating spoonfuls of vanilla and chocolate to simulate a checkerboard.  To create marbling, run a knife through the batters in a swirling motion.
10. Bake, rotating the pan halfway through, until a cake tester comes out clean, 40-50 minutes.  
11. Transfer pan to a rack to cool 10 minutes.  
12. Turn cake out from pan and cool completely on the rack.