Mother's Day Marble Cake

A few weeks ago, D and I were at a Borders Book Store at our local mall. He was buying one of his many "favorite" books. He is definitely like me in that he is a big reader and has to own all his books. The library just doesn't "do it" for him. He used to get really annoyed with me when he was younger and I took him to the library because he hated to have to return the books. As we were heading towards the checkout, I spied a book called The Seven Sins of Chocolate by Laurent Schott. It caught my eye right away because D is also a chocolate lover like me. I showed it to him and he said, "let's get it mom." Well, I have yet to make any recipes from that cookbook. It turns out that more than half of the recipes contain some type of liquor or other. The recipe for this Marble Cake contained Grand Marnier. D is definitely NOT a fan of alcohol in baked goods. I decided to try this recipe anyway and leave out the inappropriate ingredients. The results were amazing. It is such a simple cake. The only thing that could possibly have made the difference is that I heeded Laurent Schott's advice and took the eggs and butter out of the refrigerator a few hours before I baked the cake. The other thing that may have made a difference is that I used the recommended Dutch Processed cocoa. I nearly always ignore that type of recommendation and just use what I have in my pantry. Fortunately, I didn't ignore it this time. This cake is absolutely luscious. I made a first cake from the original recipe sans the Grand Marnier and orange peel. It was meant for a 6 cup bundt pan but I have a regular size 12 cup fluted bundt pan. Needless to say, the cake was tiny. But it was so good that I decided to double it and make the full sized cake to serve on Mother's Day, too.

Here is the recipe. Do try it. I didn't see the need for any type of frosting or glaze. It is good enough without any. I guess you could sift some confectioner's sugar over it, if you wanted.



MARBLE CAKE
Adapted from The Seven Sins of Chocolate by Laurent Schott

Remember to take all the ingredients out of the refrigerator a few hours before making this cake – that way the batter will be perfectly smooth

Serves 12-14

3 cups all-purpose flour

3 sticks unsalted butter, at room temperature
1-1/2 cups granulated sugar
6 eggs, at room temperature
2 teaspoons baking powder
6 tablespoons Dutch-processed cocoa powder

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
Butter and flour a fluted-tube pan

Mix the flour, butter, sugar, eggs, and baking powder into a heavy-duty electric mixer on medium speed until very smooth, about 3 minutes.

Divide the batter in half, add the cocoa to one half, and mix well.

Drop alternate, irregular portions of the two cake mixtures into the pan to create a marbled effect. (I also used a butter knife to run through the batter to marble it.)

Bake for 45-50 minutes. Check that the cake is done by inserting a wooden toothpick into the center. When it comes out dry, remove the cake from the oven. Turn out onto wire rack to cool.

UPDATE: Comments from some of my guests were that this cake was "dry." That is a typical comment on cakes that have been made from scratch. People are used to eating box cake mixes. This definitely is NOT a box mix. I would suggest that you serve this cake warm from the oven or pop the pieces into the microwave for a few seconds. This will bring out the flavors and hopefully you won't get the "dry" comments.

The Creative Cook

Happy Mother's Day!

SPONGE CAKE WITH MOCHA BUTTER CREAM FROSTING & ALMONDS

I am having the family over for Mother's Day. My sister and I decided weeks ago that everyone would come over to my house for pizza and cake. It may sound strange but it was an idea to keep me from having to cook on Mother's Day. I thought it would work out fine. We'll see.

Since I love to bake, I decided to make a replica of one of my family's favorite cakes from way back when we lived in Brooklyn. It was a Mocha Cake with Almonds. It came from a famous bakery called Ebinger's. The Ebinger's Bakery is long gone but our memories linger on. With my sister's help, I created this cake that I hope is somewhat close to the one we used to get from Ebinger's. My sister C told me that the layer cake part was a sponge cake. My brother A disagrees and says it is was a regular yellow cake. I guess we'll find out tomorrow when we cut into it. I know the frosting and the almonds are right. It can't be too bad, can it? The sponge cake itself was pretty easy. Most of the sponge cake recipes I read would make a very large sponge cake for a jelly roll pan. I finally found one that made two 9-inch layer cakes. This recipe differs from a traditional sponge cake because it does contain a small amount of butter. Most sponge cakes simply consist of eggs, milk, flour, baking powder, sugar and vanilla. The most important thing to remember when making this cake is to add the flour and baking powder into the egg mixture very quickly so you don't lose the texture. Apparently, if you don't add the flour quickly your cake will taste more like a kitchen sponge than a sponge cake! I tried my best to do it right. It sure looks pretty to me. I can't wait to taste it tomorrow!

Sponge Cake
from Cooks.com

4 eggs
2 cups sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons vanilla
1/4 cup butter
1 cup boiling milk
2 cups all purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder

Beat eggs until very light. Beat in sugar, salt, and vanilla. Beat in butter and boiling milk. Sift together flour and baking powder and beat in very quickly. Immediately pour into a prepared pans. I used parchment paper at the bottom of my pans because I read that no butter should be used on sponge cake pans. Makes two 9-inch layers or one 13 x 9 inch oblong. Bake at 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes or until cake tests done.

Mocha Butter Cream Frosting
from recipezaar.com

1 cup of unsalted butter at room temperature
1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon milk
6 ounces semisweet chocolate (I used chocolate chips)
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1-1/4 cup confectioner's sugar, sifted
3 teaspoons instant espresso powder

Melt semisweet chocolate in a double boiler over simmering water or in a microwave in 30 second increments and set aside. The temperature of the melted chocolate should be lukewarm before adding it to the butter (around 10 minutes).

Cream butter on medium speed until smooth. Dissolve the espresso powder to the instant coffee in the 1 tablespoon and 1 teaspoon of milk. Add the melted chocolate and coffee-milk to the butter and mix well. Add sugar gradually and beat until creamy and smooth. Apply to cooled layer cake. After frosting the cake, add the sliced almonds to the sides of the cake.

UPDATE: My sister's comments were that the Ebinger's cake had 3 or 4 layers, not 2. She also said that the frosting was a little thicker than it should have been. I will try this again and cut the two 9 inch layer cakes in half and then figure out a way to make the frosting lighter - maybe add a bit less chocolate and a teaspoon less of the espresso coffee. It was tasty, though. Just not the same as Ebinger's. I appreciate her honest evaluation. Thanks!

The Creative Cook