All Marbled Up and Nowhere to Go

Yesterday, a coworker of mine told me about a marble cake that she had recently purchased. When she got home, she found the cake to be stale. Don't you just hate that? You spend all day thinking about something particular and nothing will satisfy that need! Well, later that night, the marble cake was on my mind. I decided to make a marble cake to bring to work.

I made batches of chocolate cake and yellow cake.



I first made a regular 9" round yellow cake with chocolate swirls.



Then, I made a chocolate bundt cake with yellow swirls.



I still had left over batter! So, I decided to make mini yellow cupcakes with chocolate swirls in my new mini muffin pan (thanks RP!).





I made 24 mini cupcakes, although I had a bit of leftover batter, so I could have probably made it to 30. But, it was getting close to midnight, and I was pretty tired. I brought the mini's and half of each cake to work for my co-workers to taste test. Consensus: Light, fluffy, and very tasty.



Chocolate Cake:

3/4 cup unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa
powder, plus more for dusting pan
1 1/2 cups water
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp. baking powder
3/4 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
16 Tbs. (2 sticks) unsalted butter
2 1/4 cups sugar
3 eggs
2 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

Position a rack in the lower third of an oven and preheat to 325°F. Grease the bottom and sides of a cake pan and dust with cocoa powder.

In a small saucepan over high heat, bring the water to a boil. Pour into a small heatproof bowl and whisk in the 3/4 cup cocoa powder. Let cool to lukewarm.

In a bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt; set aside.

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the flat beater, beat the butter on medium speed until smooth, about 1 minute. Increase the speed to medium-high, slowly add the sugar and beat until light and fluffy, 2 to 3 minutes. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add the vanilla and beat for 30 seconds.

Reduce the speed to low and add the flour mixture in three additions, alternating with the cocoa mixture and beginning and ending with the flour. Beat each addition until just incorporated, stopping the mixture occasionally to scrape down the sides of the bowl.

Pour the batter into the prepared pan and spread evenly. Tap the pan gently on a work surface to break up any air pockets. Bake until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean, 60 to 65 minutes.

Vanilla Cake:

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 3/4 cups sugar
2 tsp. baking powder
3/4 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. kosher salt
16 Tbs. (2 sticks) unsalted butter, melted
1 cup sour cream
4 eggs
1 Tbs. vanilla extract


Position a rack in the lower third of an oven and preheat to 350°F. Grease and flour the cake pan.

Sift the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt into the bowl of an electric mixer. In a separate bowl, whisk together the melted butter, sour cream, eggs and vanilla until combined. Fit the mixer with the flat beater. Add the butter mixture to the flour mixture and beat on the lowest speed until the dry ingredients are moistened, 15 to 20 seconds. Stop the mixer and scrape down the sides of the bowl. Increase the speed to medium and beat for 30 seconds.

Bake until a toothpick inserted into the center of a cake comes out clean, 18 to 22 minutes. Transfer the pan to a wire rack and let cool for 10 minutes, then invert the cake onto the rack and let cool.

Williams Sonoma