Streamlined Marble Cake
Marble cake needed a recipe revamp. I use only one batter and only one frosting. Intrigued? Here I’ve streamlined the recipe so it uses no stand mixer. Good right? Read on my dear readers. Not only is this streamlined marble cake easy to whip up, but it is also moist and has a distinctive vanilla-chocolate contrast of flavors.
I am all for chocolate and vanilla combinations. Black and white cookies, ice cream, you name it. However, I have yet to taste a good slice of marble cake. The problem lies with marble cake batter, here’s the low-down. Recipes either call for a simple yellow cake which is divided in half and cocoa powder or Dutch processed cocoa powder is added. This method yields a dry cake with lack luster chocolate flavor.
The other method calls for making two different batters: one for the yellow and one for the chocolate. Not only is this method arduous, it also leads to a wonky textured cake. This method’s weird texture comes from different fats in the batters. A yellow cake is generally butter-based, while chocolate batters are oiled-based. Swirl these two around and you’ll have an uneven texture and crumb.
To combat dryness in this Streamlined Marble Cake, I found a comprising base batter: an oil-based yellow cake batter. The moistness from the oil is partnered by rich and tangy sour cream. Since there is no creaming involved, this recipe requires no stand mixer. To get a strong chocolate flavor, I used a powerful trifecta: unsweetened, dutch processed, and semi-sweet chocolates. The chocolate is backed by a hint of espresso powder. Melting this mixture down into some water ‘blooms’ the chocolate. Make sure that your chocolate mixture is cooled down before adding it into the divided batter. You don’t want scrambled eggs.
I could have gone fancy, but I wanted to tie in the whole theme of streamlined marble-ness and wanted a marbled frosting as well. I started off with of vanilla fragrant cream cheese frosting and worked from there. The chocolate frosting was made with an addition of sifted unsweetened cocoa powder, powdered sugar, milk, and melted semi-sweet chocolate.
I feel as if photographing this streamlined marble cake on Russel Wright plates is very appropriate. Though a designer of ceramics in the 20th century, Russel and his wife Mary wrote a book called Guide to Easier Living, outlining the frameworks of streamlined domestic action. They streamlined, cleaned up, and minimized the orchestration of dining and entertaining with food. Having this marble cake would fit into their “Easy Living” aesthetic. Their famous cafeteria style, buffet service open kitchen entertainment concept promoted the use of carefully planned and seamlessly cohesive dishes. Nowadays this mode of entertaining is second nature to us. Less frills, less fuss, and more flavor than its predecessors—bask in this nugget of baking ease!
- For the Easy Living Marble Cake:
- 1/4 cup water
- 2 ounces semi-sweet chocolate, chopped
- 1 tablespoon unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1 tablespoon Dutch processed cocoa powder
- 1/4 teaspoon espresso powder
- 2 ½ cups all purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ½ tsp baking soda
- ½ tsp fine salt
- 2 cups granulated sugar
- 3 eggs, room temperature
- 1 cup vegetable oil
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- 1 cup sour cream, room temperature
- For the Two-in-One Marble Frosting:
- 1 cup (2 8-ounce packages) cream cheese, room temperature
- 1/2 cup (1 stick, 4 ounces) unsalted butter, room temperature
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla bean paste
- 2 lbs + 1 cup powdered sugar, sifted and divided
- pinch of salt
- 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
- 2 ounces semi-sweet chocolate, chopped
- 5 tablespoons milk, divided
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Coat two 8-inch round cake pans with non-stick cooking spray, set aside.
- In a glass measuring cup add the water, chocolate, cocoa powders, and espresso powder. Microwave the mixture for 15 to 25 second intervals to prevent the chocolate from seizing (timing depends on the wattage of your microwave), do this until the chocolate is melted and it’s a unified mixture, it should have the consistency of thick brownie batter. If it is too dry, add a teaspoon or so of water. Let the mixture cool.
- Whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda. and salt. Set aside.
- In a large bowl, whisk sugar and eggs until well combined. Add the vegetable oil, vanilla, and sour cream, whisking until smooth. Add the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients, mixing until just combined. Pour half of the batter into a separate bowl and add the cooled chocolate mixture until blended.
- To marble the cake, coat the bottom of each pan with yellow batter. Dollop four spoonfuls of chocolate batter, then cover with another layer of yellow batter. Repeat this process until you have used all of the batters. Using a butter knife, make swirls, whirling the two batters, don’t over swirl. Divide batter evenly into prepared pans. Bake to 30 to 35 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out mostly clean. Remove from oven, let them cool in the pans for 5 to 10 minutes before cooling them completely on a wire rack.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment beat cream cheese and butter on a medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 4 to 5 minutes. Scrape the bowl, add the vanilla extract and paste.
- Reserve 1 cup of the powdered sugar in a small bowl. Slowly add the remaining 2 lbs of powdered sugar on a low speed. Add in a pinch of salt. Pour out half of the frosting into a container.
- Sift together the 1 cup of powdered sugar with the cocoa powder.
- Melt the chocolate with 1 to 2 tablespoons of milk in a glass measuring cup in the microwave. It should be a pour-able consistency.
- Turn the mixer speed to low. Add the dry powdered sugar-cocoa mixture followed by the melted chocolate. If the frosting looks too thick add a few tablespoons to thin it out.
- Level off the cakes so each layer is flat.
- Fill two piping bags: one with the orange frosting and one with the blue frosting. Starting from the center of the cake layer, frost a large dot and then surround the dot with a thick size-able ring-like bulls-eye. For each ring, alternate between the vanilla and chocolate frostings.
- Do a light crumb coating with the vanilla frosting on the outside of the cake and let the cake chill in the refrigerator for 15 minutes.
- Frost the cake with a final coat of frosting of vanilla frosting. Let the cake chill for a final 15 minutes. Evenly apply bands of chocolate around the cake. Use an off set spatula to blend the two flavors together. Don’t over work the blending process.