This is another dreaded English recipe, but no fear! I fixed up my kitchen scales so I managed to weigh everything this time. My friend Anna, who is also an avid baker, passed this recipe on to me. I don’t know where the original recipe is from.
The Recipe
4oz margarine
9oz caster sugar
12oz self-raising flour
2 eggs
1 tablespoon milk
1 tablespoon cocoa
Mix together margarine, sugar, flour, eggs and milk. Divide mixture into two halves and add cocoa to one half. Put alternate spoonfuls of each into a lined tin and bake at 180C for around 45 minutes, or until a skewer comes out clean. This has a nice crunchy crust and a soft middle.
My Alterations
Thanks to my handy-dandy kitchen scale, I was able to stick to this recipe faithfully. Unfortunately, the batter was very dry with only one tablespoon of milk. I had to add another two or three tablespoons for the batter to get to the right consistency.
I didn’t use a large cake tin to bake the Marble Cake. I thought it would be more interesting to make little muffin cakes, with each cake having a different pattern from the mixture of yellow and chocolate cake. They took about 15 minutes to bake, and came out very fluffy.
The Results
This is a great cake. The marbled effect is very attractive, and the crunchy crust with a soft middle as stated in the recipe is incredibly tasty. The cake isn’t overly sweet, but it’s enough to satisfy a sweet tooth. Eaten with some custard, cream, or ice cream on the side, and it would be a lovely dessert.
The Verdict
I really like this cake. It is pretty and tastes superb. My husband felt that it tasted more like a sweet bread than a cake; the bready texture might be due to the fact that I baked them as muffins rather than one big cake. The muffins might be tougher because they are smaller. In any case, they turned out great.
The Rating
5/5
I will definitely be making more of these in the future. I will probably continue making them as muffins, because I like the different look of each cake.
