Marble Cake

This is one pretty cake which does not require any frosting and it looks beautiful and tastes great by itself. It is very similar to the zebra cake except that the cake has a marbled effect and not the perfect black and white lines. It is fun to have a random mix of chocolate and plain vanilla cake in each bite.

Ingredients
Recipe Source: Joy of Baking
Maida/All purpose Flour - 2 1/4 cups
Unsalted butter - 1/2 cup at room temperature
Granulated sugar - 1 1/4 cups
Eggs - 2
Semisweet Chocolate, chopped roughly - 2 oz or about 55 gms
Brewed coffee - 1 tablespon
Vanilla Extract - 2 teaspoons
Sour cream/Yogurt - 3/4 cup
Milk - 1/3 cup
Cinnamon powder - 1/2 teaspoon
Baking powder - 1 tablespoon
Baking soda - 1/2 teaspoon
Salt - 1/4 teaspoon

Directions
Preheat oven to 350F.

Melt the semisweet chocolate and brewed coffee in a double boiler (Bring water to a simmering boil in a saucepan. Place a the semisweet chocolate and brewed coffee in a stainless steel bowl and place the bowl in the saucepan with water). Once the chocolate melts, remove from the heat and set aside. Alternatively, you could microwave the chocolate and coffee together for about 30 seconds.

In a bowl, sift together the flour, salt, baking soda, baking powder and cinnamon.

In another bowl, cream together the butter and sugar using a hand mixer/electric mixer until soft and fluffy or about 2 to 3 minutes. Add eggs, one by one and continue beating. Slowly add in the vanilla extract and sour cream and beat until well incorporated.

Slowly add in the flour mixture and milk by alternating them and continue beating, until you have added all the flour and milk.

Once the batter is ready, pour half of the batter into another bowl and add the melted chocolate into one half and mix thoroughly.

Grease a bundt/loaf pan and pour the batter into the pan alternating with a spoon of chocolate and vanilla batter. Using a spatula or a spoon, draw some swirls in the batter to give a swirling effect.

Bake in the preheated oven for 50 to 60 minutes until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack for about 10 minutes and slice the cake.

Serve warm or at room temperature.

This cake makes a great snack at picnics and this is my post for the Blogging Marathon with the theme Picnic Food. Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing BM#6