Sometimes I just want to let my memories guide my baking inspiration. For that reason I felt a compelling urge to bake a marble cake. Marble cake is a children classic, at least, judging from my experience, in many European countries. It comes in many different forms and variations but the main division is between home -made, or better mom-made, and commercial version (this version is strangely loved by students :-)). I can't really remember marble cake being baked in our home, except maybe a few times as me and my brother Marcello begun experimenting with baking. Our mom and dad usually went for something a bit more structured when it came to baking sweets, probably marble cake was just too simple. Still I couldn't remove this cake from my memories even if I wanted: loads and loads of birthday party marble cakes are responsible for that. I found a nice "grown up" version of the cake in the Italian version (published by Bibliotheca culinaria) of this French book from Marabout. I just had to try it.
The recipe:
180 g (6.3 oz) flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
3 eggs
170 g (6 oz) confectioner's sugar
2 Tbs milk
150 g (5.3 oz) butter, melted
2 Tbs cocoa powder, Dutch process
75 g (2.6 oz) grated bitter chocolate
50 g (1.8 oz) sliced almonds
I beat eggs and sugar till foamy and doubled in volume. I then added the flour, slowly, butter and baking powder last, mixing shortly. I then divided the batter in two. In on half went the almonds. In the other the grated chocolate and cocoa (made into a paste with the milk). I poured alternated layers of the two batters in a buttered and floured tin loaf. To give the marbled effect I used a thin long knife, twirling it in the batter. The cake went into a 180C/350F pre-heated oven for 50 min, till the classical toothpick test told me it was done.
The cake came out great. It rose evenly, not "mushrooming" as often happens to my cakes. Really moist, I guess from all the healthy ;-) butter. The bitter chocolate gave it that "grown up" touch that allowed me to enjoy this childish pleasure without actually feeling childish :-). The only minor disappointment were the almonds. They gave some crunch but the flavour was hardly noticeable. Next time I'll probably either toast them before or substitute a part with marzipan. BTW the "little one" liked it too, although he seemed to go more for the chocolate bits :-).
hi alberto,
this is very interesting... it's never occurred to me that marble cake is a "children cake". to me, it was always represented as a "grown up cake"... rich and buttery, and served as a "coffee cake" at afternoon tea.
: )
oh, btw, I especially love the chocolate bits too! ; )
Posted by: Renee | February 18, 2004 at 07:36 PM
Funny how our own perspective can be so different from that of other people. I never would have thought of marble cake as coffe- or tea- cake. It must be cause I'm Italian: we're not big tea drinkers and coffee is usually eaten with cornetto, our version of croissant.
Posted by: Alberto | February 19, 2004 at 09:45 AM
This cake looks delicious! I've never made marble cake, and I think I have only ever had Savane, the industrially made but delicious one that's very popular in France... I'll have to give this a try!
Posted by: clotilde | February 20, 2004 at 02:22 PM
Clotilde, do. It's really easy, quick (it took me 15 minutes to mix it up) and IMO tastes better than any commercial one, which I must agree sometimes taste quite good. Let me know how it turns out!
Posted by: Alberto | February 20, 2004 at 05:57 PM
hi 2 every 1 i know it's jessica mills ere and its me mums birthday on monday and i would like 2 make her a really nice birthday cake tha she would remember
siz ya all for now luv jessica
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Posted by: jessica mills | March 26, 2004 at 10:22 PM
i tried this, and it came out excellent! the cooking time was much shorter for me, actually. must be my wacky french oven.
and you're right, the grated chocolate does make it more 'grown up'!
merci!
Posted by: isabelle | May 23, 2004 at 11:55 PM
happy it came out nice Isabelle, cooking times are always relative. After 4 years I still don't get my oven: it is just weird!
Posted by: Alberto | May 24, 2004 at 09:54 AM
hi alberto
i really enjoyed reading all about your sweets from italy, but after living in italy for 3 years, what i miss the most now that I am back in the US is cornetto's! americans are missing out here, you must write about them! thinking of a cornetto now!
Posted by: lauren | January 04, 2006 at 01:37 AM
Lauren,
great suggestion. I think cornetto will definitely be me next baking project. If I'm succesfull I'll definitely post about it.
Posted by: Alberto | January 26, 2006 at 08:56 AM