Marble Cake
The German Marmorkuchen: one batter split in two, one half darkened with cocoa, and the two dragged through each other with a single pass of a skewer. Baked in a ring tin so every slice shows the pattern.
Photograph credit: Slice of marble cake by ProjectManhattan · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons · this resized copy is shared under the same licence
Build the Meal Around Marble Cake
- Filter coffee
- A glass of milk
- Whipped cream and cherries
How to Make Marble Cake
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Heat the oven to 170°C / 340°F. Butter a 24 cm ring or bundt tin thoroughly and dust with flour, getting into every crease.
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Beat the butter, sugar and vanilla for 5 minutes until pale and fluffy.
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Add the eggs one at a time, beating a full minute after each. If it curdles, add a spoonful of the flour.
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Whisk the flour, baking powder and salt, then fold into the batter in three additions alternating with the milk, beginning and ending with flour.
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Weigh the batter and divide it exactly in half between two bowls.
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Sift the cocoa into one half, add the extra milk and the rum, and fold until evenly dark and the same thickness as the plain batter.
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Spoon the two batters into the tin in alternating dollops, roughly chequerboard, then level the surface.
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Drag a skewer through in a single slow figure-of-eight, once around the ring. Stop there.
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Bake 50 to 60 minutes, until a skewer comes out clean and the cake has pulled slightly from the sides.
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Cool in the tin 15 minutes, turn out onto a rack, cool completely and dust with icing sugar.
Related guides: Prep, cook and total time · Pan and tin size.
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Notes From the Method
Butter and flour the tin properly, into every groove. A marble cake that sticks tears along the pattern, which is the part you made it for.
One pass with the skewer. Two and you have a brown cake.
Test at 50 minutes. Ring tins bake faster than the same volume in a loaf.
Keeping What's Left
Wrapped at room temperature for 4 days — it is better on day two. Freezes whole or in slices for 3 months.
Questions and Answers
How long does Marble Cake take to make?
30 minutes of preparation and 55 minutes of cooking, plus 15 minutes of cooling, so allow 1 hour 40 minutes from start to finish. The method also needs time for cooling completely, which it does not time, so treat that as a minimum. The recipe serves 12.
The Numbers per Serving
Per serving, calculated from the ingredient list with USDA FoodData Central figures (SR Legacy). A calculation, not a laboratory analysis: brands, cuts and how you measure change the real numbers. Garnishes, greasing and other items with no amount are not counted. The calories include 1 g of alcohol a serving, which is not part of the protein, carbohydrate or fat. How the figures are worked out.
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Compiled by Turab
Checked by script for timings, diet labels and nutrition arithmetic. How the recipes are checked. Found a mistake? Tell us.
First published ; last changed .