Marble Cakes

This morning, I had a job interview. I think it went pretty well, but as this is my first real job experience, I have nothing to compare it to in order to know if it really did go well. Next week, we get what are essentially "callbacks" and I'll find out if I made it to the second round of interviews. Fingers crossed!

The school I interviewed at is in Virginia, an hour away from my college town, so guess where I'm spending a couple days! I'm visiting my two housemates who are still in town and spending a couple nights in the old house again. It feels weird to be back just less than two months later. It's such a familiar place and I feel like I'm back home, but then I realize that I don't have my old room anymore and that somebody else is using it. It's nice to see my friends again though.

Before I left my parents, I made them marble cake. Actually, my sister was whining about it, so I had to. I decided to make two different recipes to do another comparison test as I did with the blueberry muffins.



No matter how much I try to be exact and perfect, sometimes something just always has to go wrong. Not that it made the cake taste bad, but I put in double the necessary amount of baking powder. I wanted to halve the recipe from Allrecipes but forgot to do so with the baking powder. Or I thought I was cutting it in half until I realized the measuring spoon I was using was not, in fact, 1/2 tsp but 1 tsp. The cake still ended up tasting wonderful. It had that perfect soft pound cake texture. Not the buttery kind. This marble cake was gone within an hour and there were only 2 slices left by the end of the night, and my sister took those for her bus ride back to New York the next morning.



I don't know what it is, but I don't think I made the second marble cake the correct way. It definitely doesn't look like the picture in the original post. I mean, besides my ugly attempt at pouring in the batter. I misinterpreted the directions and instead of alternating between the two layers, I spooned them in. Either way, the taste is not bad, but I think it's all about the texture. This one has a spongy texture that I don't expect from a marble cake.



Or maybe it's because we didn't wait until it cooled to cut into it. My sister has no patience. I guess it runs in the family, eh?



Marble Swirl Pound Cake
From Allrecipes

- 2 cups white sugar
- 1 cup butter, softened
- 3 1/2 cups cake flour
- 1 cup milk
- 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 4 eggs
- 1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1. In a large bowl, with electric mixer at low speed, beat sugar and butter or margarine until blended. Increase speed to high, and beat until light and fluffy. Add flour, milk, baking powder, vanilla, salt, and eggs; beat at medium speed until well mixed. Increase speed to high, and beat batter 4 minutes longer.
2. Remove about 2 1/2 cups batter to a medium bowl. With a wire whisk or fork, beat cocoa into batter in medium bowl until well blended.
3. Grease a 10 inch tube pan. Alternately spoon vanilla and chocolate layers into prepared pan. With a large spoon, cut and twist through batters to obtain marbled effect.
4. Bake at 350F for 1 hour, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean. Cool cake in pan, and on a wire rack, for 10 minutes. Remove cake from pan, and cool completely.

Chocolate Vanilla Marble Cake
From Collaborative Curry

- 1/2 cup butter
- 1 3/4 cups cake flour
- 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1 cup sugar
- 3 eggs
- 2 tsp pure vanilla extract
- 3/4 cup buttermilk or milk
- 4 tbsp boiling water
- 1/4 cup + 1 tbsp dark cocoa powder

1. Grease a 9x5 loaf pan.
2. Whisk together flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside.
3. In another bowl, beat butter and sugar well, until it turns light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add vanilla extract and mix again. Scrape down the sides as needed.
4. Add flour mixture in 3 batches, alternating with milk, starting and ending with flour, and mix well after each addition.
5. Mix boiling water and cocoa powder to blend without lumps. Set aside.
6. Take out 1/4 of the batter mixture into another bowl. Mix cocoa mixture into it. Spoon both the batters alternatively making a checkerboard. Pour them in 2 layers. When you are done tap the pan a couple of times on the counter to get rid of the air bubbles trapped inside and to remove the space between the batters. For making the marbling effect make a couple of swirls from the top of the pan to the other end.
7. Bake at 350F for 40 to 45 minutes or until a tester inserted comes out clean. Take out the cake and cool it while still in the pan for 10 minutes before transferring it to cool on a wire rack. This cake can be stored in an air tight container for up to 3 days at room temperature.