Make: Bakeday Sunday – Nutella Marble Cake

Marble cake made its appearance in the last quarter of the 19^th Century when Victorian American women were looking for new ways to impress.  Up until that point rather plain square cakes were the order of the day.

Essentially marble cake is a light and a dark cake batter lightly swirled together.  In the early incarnations of the cake the dark colour was achieved by the addition of molasses, spices (such as cloves, cinnamon, allspice, mace and nutmeg) or even currants and raisins.

In the early 20^th century the chocolate made its appearance as the colour of the dark part, but the spice endured for some time after.  These days the most common mixture is chocolate and vanilla, but of course you can put together almost any combination provided the colours are distinct.  This recipe is a version that takes inspiration from Nutella, a delicious blend of chocolate and hazelnuts.  I have used almond flavouring instead of hazelnut as it far easier to get.

Cake
4 medium eggs
Weigh the eggs and then weigh out the same weight of
Sugar
Butter
Self Raising Flour (remove 1 tbsp of flour after weighing)
1 tsp almond extract
50g cocoa powder.
Milk
A little extra butter and plain flour

Icing
50g butter
100g Nutella
100g icing sugar

Equipment
1 large bowl
1 medium bowl
1 wooden spoon
1 x 8in / 20cm deep round cake tins
Cake rack
Plate larger than 8in / 20cm across
Kitchen scales
Tablespoon
Skewer
Cocktail stick

Preheat your oven to 180°C/ 350°F.

Using the little extra butter grease your baking tin well.  Using the extra flour lightly cover the butter.  I do this even with non stick pans to guarantee the cakes turn out easily.  Some people like to line the cake tin with greaseproof paper, I have never bothered. When I cook this, I use a fluted tin brioche tin (7in /17.5cm diameter), so that when turned out it has a pleasing domed shaped.  Note that if you do this you will need to only use a 3 egg mixture and reduce the amount of cocoa slightly.

Make sure your butter for the cake is at room temperature and add to a bowl along with the sugar and beat with a wooden spoon until well mixed and sort of moussey.  I confess I use a food processor (beater, not with blades) or hand held electric beater, it is much quicker and easier.  I find this step to be essential as the air you beat into here is a major contributor to how light your cake with turn out.

Beat in the eggs one at a time, alternating with a tablespoon of the flour after each one.  If using a food processor, leave the motor running and add the eggs as above.

Split the batter in two and mix the almond extract into one bowl of batter and the cocoa powder into the other.

The mixture should have a soft consistency which drops off the spoon.  If not, add in a little milk to achieve the right consistency.

Drop alternate tablespoons of the white and the chocolate mixture into the prepared cake tin.  When you have finished, gently swirl the batter with a skewer, but note to much or you will not get a marble effects as the cake will be too mixed together.

Bake for 45 minutes on the middle shelf of the oven.

Avoid opening the oven before the last minutes of the cooking time or your cake will collapse.  At the end of the cooking time check the cake is done by giving it a gentle press, if it bounces back it is done.  Some people prefer to use a thin skewer or cocktail stick which should come out clean when inserted into the cake.

Take the cake out of the oven and leave to cool for a few minutes which will help it firm up slightly.  Turn it out onto a cake rack and leave until completely cool.

This sort of cake does not really need icing.  It is delicious, just cut and enjoyed with a cup of tea.  For this version as it was a treat for the children, I whipped some Nutella icing.  Beat together the butter and the Nutella, then beat in the icing sugar until smooth.  Spread over the top of the cake.  It is quite a soft icing, but deliciously sticky, so expect to need serviettes when you tuck in.

Enjoy!

Cake Variations

• Substitute vanilla extract for the almond to have a traditional chocolate vanilla.
• Substitute orange extract for the almond to have chocolate orange.
• Substitute peppermint extract for the almond to have chocolate mint.
• Add a teaspoon of cloves, a teaspoon of cinnamon and a teaspoon of allspice to create the dark part of the cake.  You can flavour the pale part of the cake with vanilla, but I like to use a teaspoon of lemon extract and the finely chopped zest of a lemon.
• Use 2 tsp of lavender flowers crushed with a little sugar before adding to the pale part of the cake for chocolate lavender cake.
• For something deliciously different and a little gastronomically challenging add 1 finely chopped red chilli or 1 tbsp chilli oil to the pale part for chocolate chilli cake (add more chilli if you are more spicey)
• Try using coffee instead of chocolate by dissolving 1tbsp instant coffee dissolved in 1 tbsp boiling water.
• Add 100g melted white chocolate to the pale part and the coffee as the dark part for a “cappuccino” marble cake.
• Equally use the white chocolate part with a raspberry part made by stirring in 100g raspberries and a little red food colouring into the other half.
• White chocolate also team wonderfully with lime.  Use the finely shredded zest of 3 limes and 1 tbsp lime juice in the other half with a little green food colouring.
• Of course you can just stick to a flavour you like and colour each of the two half any colours you like and swirl them together.

Make: Bakeday Sunday – Chocolate Cake

Chocolate cake is one of those things that is evocative to almost everyone.  There is something wonderfully decadent about that first bite into a rich, unctuous, deeply flavoured chocolate cake.  It is a taste like no other, save that of chocolate itself.  There are times though when I feel that chocolate cake surpasses even chocolate.

Chocolate, or more correctly products from cacao (Theobroma cacao), have been around 1100BC.  For the early part of the history of its usage it was not used to make the sweet confections we know today.  In its earliest history shows its use in alcoholic drinks and then in Mayan culture it was used to create a bitter, frothy drink often flavoured with vanilla or chilli.  Cacao beans were considered an important luxury and the beans were at times used as currency.

The Spanish conquest of the Aztec resulted in chocolate arriving into Europe, initially still as a bitter drink.  Initially expensive it was confined to those with money, notably royals and the well connected.  In 1847 Joseph Fry and Sons created the first chocolate bar in a form we would recognise today, but it was not until the Industrial Revolution when chocolate became widely available and affordable.

Once the conching process had been developed in 1879 by Rodolphe Lindt it became much easier to bake with chocolate.  The concept of chocolate cake became more widespread after 1900 and the first chocolate cake mixes became available in the 1930s.

Since then a wide variety of chocolate cakes have appeared on the scene, from the simple to the complex, from the almost plain to the defiantly rich.  Types include traditional Chocolate Cake, Red Velvet Cake, Chocolate Fudge Cake, German Chocolate Cake, Devil’s Food Cake, Black Forest Cake, Sachertorte and many more.  It has become part of the everyday life of most people.  Everyone has their own favourites and there are many variations.

Personally I tend to think of chocolate cake in two groups.  The first is simple, everyday cake, the type I knock up with relatively few ingredients and simple technique.  These include loaf cakes, tray bakes and traditional chocolate cake.  The other is the more complex, richer cakes which are rather more of a treat like Sachertorte, Fudge Cake, Black Forest and the like.

This recipe is my most basic chocolate cake recipe.  I can produce it pretty quickly and it is a nice little treat when we have guests drop in, or when the kids come to visit.  It is just the ticket on an autumn day with a pot of tea and a book.

Cake
5 medium eggs
Weigh the eggs and then weigh out the same weight of
Sugar
Butter
Self Raising Flour (remove 1 tbsp of flour after weighing)
1 tsp vanilla
2 tbsp cacao powder
Milk
A little extra butter and plain flour

Filling/Topping
240g butter
480g icing sugar
100g dark chocolate
1 tbsp cacao powder

Equipment
1 large bowl
1 medium bowl
1 small bowl
1 wooden spoon
2 x 8in / 20cm round cake tins
Cake rack
Plate larger than 8in / 20cm across
Knife
Kitchen scales
Tablespoon
Teaspoon

Preheat your oven to 180°C/ 350°F.

Using the little extra butter grease your baking tins well.  Using the extra flour lightly cover the butter.  I do this even with non stick pans to guarantee the cakes turn out easily.  Some people like to line the cake tin with greaseproof paper, I have never bothered.

Make sure your butter for the cake is at room temperature and add to a bowl along with the sugar and beat with a wooden spoon until well mixed and sort of moussey.  I confess I use a food processor (beater, not with blades) or hand held electric beater, it is much quicker and easier.  I find this step to be essential as the air you beat into here is a major contributor to how light your cake with turn out.

Beat in the eggs one at a time, alternating with a tablespoon of the flour after each one, then add the vanilla.  If using a food processor, leave the motor running and add the eggs as above.

Fold in the remaining flour and the cacao powder.  If using a food processor turn the speed down as you add the flour to avoid over beating.

The mixture should have a soft consistency which drops off the spoon.  If not, add in a little milk to achieve the right consistency.Divide the mixture between the two baking tins, making sure you evenly spread the mixture out.  Make a small dip in the middle part of each to reduce any peaking in the middle.

Bake for 25 minutes on the middle shelf of the oven.

Avoid opening the oven before the last minutes of the cooking time or your cake will collapse.  At the end of the cooking time check the cake is done by giving it a gentle press, if it bounces back it is done.  Some people prefer to use a thin skewer or tooth pick which should come out clean when inserted into the cake.

Take the cake out of the oven and leave to cool for a few minutes which will help them firm up slightly.  Turn them out onto a cake rack and leave to cool completely.

Break the chocolate into pieces into the small bowl.  This needs to be melted.  The traditional way to do this is to set the bowl of a pot of simmering water, making sure that the bowl does not touch the water in the pan.  The rising steam then gently melts the chocolate.  Personally I find that rather time consuming for day to day baking.  Instead I place it in the microwave and heat it around 20 seconds at a time, stirring each time until melted.  This does need to be done with caution (this is also true of heating it over water, but less so) as chocolate does burn very easily and if it does it quickly turns granular and unworkable.  It is then totally unusable (and frankly inedible).  Leave the chocolate to cool slightly (but not so much that it resets.

Make sure that the butter for the filling is at room temperature, add to a medium size bowl and beat until fluffy.  Beat in the icing sugar to make a smooth icing.  Slowly pour in the melted chocolate beating all the time, then beat in the cacao powder.  Add a little milk if it is too thick to spread.

If the cake has slightly domed in the middle trim the peak with a bread knife.  Put a little icing on the plate you are putting the cake on, it helps to stop the cake sliding off the plate when you move it.  Place one cake upside down on the plate.

Spread just under half of the icing over the cake.  Place the other cake upside down on top of the icing.  The reason for this is to give the cake a flat top.  Then spread the rest of the icing over the top of the cake.  If you want to completely cover the cake with icing, use only a third of the icing in the middle, a third on the top and the remaining third around the sides.

Enjoy!

Cake Variations
Chocolate Orange: Add a teaspoon of orange essence to the cake batter.  Beat 200 ml of double cream into soft peaks and stir in 200g mandarin segments.  Use this as the filling in the middle of the cake.
Chocolate Peppermint: Cover the bottom of one of the hot cakes with After Eight mints.  Add a teaspoon of peppermint essence to the chocolate icing and ice as normal. after the melted After Eights have set again.
Chocolate Caramel: Use half a can of Nestle Carnation Caramel as filling
Chocolate Cherry: Optionally sprinkle each cake layer with Kirsch.  Use half a can of black cherry pie filling as the cake filling.
Chocolate Strawberry:  Instead of icing whip 450ml double cream to soft peaks and then stir in 200g cooled, melted chocolate.  Chop up 300g strawberries and mix with a third of the chocolate cream and use as the filling.  Use the rest of the cream to ice the rest of the cake.

Tip
For the fat in the cake I always use butter.  Although some bakers substitute margarine/spread I find the results to be variable and often not completely successful.