CHOCOLATE VANILLA MARBLE CAKE

Just by writing this blog post and looking at the picture here above I am already craving another marble cake loaf. I bet that just by looking at this picture, loads of memories are brought back to your mind. Am I right? We all remember marble cake from our childhood; it's a classic. I mostly had them at kids' birthday parties or at school, when someone brought cake. In my teenage years, we sold loads of cake to collect money for school excursions or just a good cause; or as my German teacher used to call it 'Getting fat for a good cause'. 

But besides making me dive into memories, the classic marble cake is to me a synonym to comfort food. We often refer to comfort food when talking about hearty and mostly greasy dishes, but for me, and yes this is definitely linked to my giant sweet tooth, comfort food is mostly composed of cookies and cake. This is probably mostly due to the fact that I feel like it takes only a small piece of cake or one or two cookies to comfort you. But who will ever have only a tiny portion of mac n cheese? Right.. nobody. 

For one loaf you need:

280g flour

180g butter

380g sugar

250ml milk

2 eggs

1tbsp baking powder

30g cocoa powder

1tbsp vanilla extract

1 pinch of salt

Preheat the oven to 180°

Whisk together the butter and sugar on full speed until light and fluffy. Add the eggs, then the milk and the vanilla extract. Pour in the flour, then add the baking powder and the salt. Mix until you get homogenous batter. 

Separate the batter into two smaller bowls. Add the cocoa powder to one and mix again. 

Fill the cake mold with the help of two ladles (or normal tablespoons, depending on the pattern you want to obtain) altering the vanilla and chocolate batter. When both batters are gone, take a fork, put it into the dough at one end of the mold and push it to the other end. Now you got the final swirl.

Bake for 50 minutes. 

Enjoy!!!!

CHOCOLATE - PISTACHIO MARBLE CAKE

This cake is the more sophisticated version of a childhood classic. I am sure you do all remember the marble cake from the kids' birthday parties you were invited to in your childhood. When I think of kids' birthday parties, I think of the four classics you would always get for these occasions namely the hazelnut cake, the orange & lemon cakes as well as my favorite; the marble cake. Even though I don't remember the games of these parties anymore, I still remember the cakes.  I always like to share this kind of memories. What were your favorite cakes as a kid??? Maybe you can just comment this post and share what was your all-time favorite?

Every once in a while I still bake a marble cake as it's perfect for a Sunday brunch, a coffee break in the afternoon or just a sweet moment in between. However, I felt like it was time to go for something more sophisticated. As for pasta I always go for a trio, for desserts I prefer more tastes in one plate as well. I was not sure whether to put a cinnamon twist in the chocolate part or to add rum to the vanilla batter. As you notice, nothing of this ever happened. 

There exist as many variations of marble cake as there exist family recipe books. I am sure that every mother, grandmother, godmother, aunt or sister has one classic and a personalized version of this cake in their homes. The simple fact that you pass on a recipe let's it wander and develop. This is why I love to share my recipes so much. Some get back to you with their results and may inspire you back. This is also what I like so much about baking enthusiasts. They always go for more. While serving you a classic, they come with a 'you have to taste this, I added….'. 

For one loaf you need:

130g butter

6 eggs

420g sugar

200ml liquid cream

320g flour

40 cocoa powder

1 tsp baking powder

50g pistachios

2 tsp honey

2tbs water

salt

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Preheat the oven to 150°

First prepare the chocolate batter.

Whisk together 65g butter, 220g sugar and three eggs until you get a fluffy dough. Pour 100ml liquid cream to it and mix again. Now add a pinch of salt, the baking powder and the cocoa powder. Mix again until you get even dough.

For the pistachio batter, first start preparing the pistachio cream. 

In a saucepan, boil the water with 20g of sugar and the honey. Meanwhile, mix the pistachios in a blender until you obtain a fine powder. Pour the honey syrup on the nuts and mix again until it gets creamy. 

In another bowl, whisk together the remaining butter, eggs and sugar. Add the pistachio cream and mix again. Pour the remaining cream to it, mix, then add the flour, another pinch of salt and the baking powder. Mix again until you get even dough

Fill the cake mold with the help of two ladles (or normal soup spoons, depending on the pattern you want to get) alternating the pistachio and chocolate batter. When both batters are gone, take a fork, put into the dough at one end of the mold and push it to the other end. Now you got the final swirl.

Bake for one hour. Check with the point of the knife if the cake is ready. If it comes out with some wet batter, crumbs or stickiness on it, the cake needs to bake a little bit more time. Depending on the material of the cake mold it might take some 10 minutes more.

If it comes out dry, take it out of the oven and remove it from the mold. Let it cool down until you serve it. 

Enjoy!!! RESIST

CHOCOLATE BAILEYS CAKE

Do you know that feeling when you work on a chocolate cake recipe, taste the outcome and think: wow this is the best chocolate cake I have ever made. When it comes to chocolate cake I am really hard to please. Chocolate cake is my favorite cake, but it really has to have the right texture, the right amount of chocolate and also most importantly the right balance between chocolate and sugar. It should neither be too sweet nor to bitter. Only recently I've tasted one of the best chocolate cakes in my life, and if I am lucky enough, my colleague will hand the recipe over to me so I can try it for very special occasions. When I tasted his birthday cake, I was just amazed. With half of the cake in my belly, I was wondering what made this chocolate cake so special. It took quite a while until I found out. But I would say, as mentioned above it is the balance between chocolate and sugar; neither too sweet, nor too bitter.

I am not too much of a fan of boozy cakes, except for Rum and Baileys. I love rum truffles and all kind of baileys treats. When I was in high school, a friend of mine gave me this delicious chocolate cake recipe, which my grandpa then took as a base for his chocolate ganache cake. I inherited the recipe and added an extra note, notably the Baileys note. I was experimenting several times with the amount of Baileys until I finally came to the end result of this cake.

I took it too work, and within seconds it was fully approved. Three quarter of the cake were gone in only one afternoon. Fair enough, I saved the last quarter for my parents, to let them see what I transformed grandpa's cake into. I found it would be a perfect Christmas recipe, because of the booziness on one hand and the lovely Baileys taste on the other, which makes a great treat for the festive season.

For the cake you need:

160g butter

100g good quality dark chocolate

200g brown sugar

45g cocoa powder

180ml Baileys

180g flour

1 heaped tsp baking powder

3 eggs

****

For the ganache you need: 

200g dark chocolate

120ml liquid cream

80ml Baileys

Preheat the oven to 175°

Chop the chocolate first, then take 100g for the cake. In a saucepan, heat the butter and chocolate over medium heat until completely melted. Add the sugar, cocoa powder as well as the Baileys and whisk together until you get a silky and lump-free mixture. Remove from heat and cool for a few minutes.

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour and baking powder. Add the chocolate mixture and mix until you get an even dough. Add the eggs and mix again. Now you can pour the dough into a buttered cake tin and bake for 40-45 minutes. 

****

In a saucepan, bring the liquid cream and Baileys to a simmer. Add the remaining chocolate and stir regularly until it has completely molten. 

Set the liquid ganache aside at room temperature. Stir every now and then, to avoid clumps, until thick enough to spread over the cake. 

Enjoy!!!
RESIST