Mum must have made this for our birthdays regularly (and only on our birthdays) because to me, 'marble cake' is synonymous with 'birthday cake'. So much so that even now I'm a big girl, I like to have marble cake to celebrate another passing year (perhaps 'celebrate' is too optomistic a word now. I acknowledge my birthday).
A couple of years ago, mum found this poshed-up version of marble cake. Same pucci-esque pattterns that still delight me, but studded with grown-up extras: moist raspberries in the pink batter, gooey chocolate chunks in the brown, and almond slivers for a contrasting chew in the plain.
So happy birthday to me and to Dig In. My blog is now one year old! Me? Many more than that. Enjoy!
Marble cake
A Women's Weekly recipe, March 2006. Mum made this, and she pretty much followed the recipe (instead of tweaking wildly).
- Preheat oven to 160 and prep a deep 20cm round tin.
- Combine 125 gms soft butter, 1 tspn vanilla, 1 and 1/4 cups sugar, 3 eggs, 3/4 cups plain flour, 3/4 cups SR flour and 1/2 cup milk in a medium bowl. Using your electric whisk, beat slowly at first to combine ingredients, then increase speed to medium and beat for a couple of minutes until smooth and a paler colour.
- Divide the mix between three bowls.
- In the first bowl, add some pink food colouring then gently stir thru 50 gms frozen raspberries.
- In the second bowl, sift in 1 tbspn cocoa and 50 gms dark chocolate that you've chopped into chunks.
- In the third bowl, fold thru 25 gms slivered almonds.
- Now drop heaped spoonfuls of each mixture into the pan. Once all in, tap cake tin gently on the bench to release any large air bubbles that might be trapped between your dollops.
- Bake 1 hour and 10 minutes or until done. Happy birthday!
Happy birthday to Digin and you of course e! It’s a wonderful blog from a very dedicated individual who has a talent for expressive writing, “generally” great food :-P, gardening and who is obviously very close to her parents.
ReplyDeleteThank you, you! I'm thrilled that dig in has lasted this long, and gathered supportive and wonderful readers along the way. I love the sense of community and conversation I have thru my blog.
Deleteand i never said the food would always be perfect!
Hi e, happy blog birthday to you. Marble cake was always a 'special' cake in our house too. This cake looks delicious and is making me hungry!
ReplyDeleteI'm glad i found another marble cake devotee! thank you jane - and thank you for your support of my efforts here :-)
DeleteHAPPY BIRTHDAY DIG IN! Amazing. What a milestone! Me and Mr Roberts are very proud of you for producing such an amazing blog and pursuing you passion! xxxxxxx
ReplyDeletethank you, mrs roberts! you are both so supportive, and your belief that i could do this kicked me into action. thank you always XX
DeleteOh boy.. this looks amazing! Anything to taste test? CC
ReplyDeletecome around to my office ... quick!
DeleteHappy birthday! To both you and your blog! Your cake looks stunning, the additions to the different sponges sounds amazing - especially the raspberry. Here's to many more years of blogging *clinks tea cups*
ReplyDelete*clink* thank you, hannah!
DeleteHappy birthday. I have not seen a marble cake in ages. I use to make them for my dad when I was at school, though we would get a little experimental with the colours and add weird flavours to them.
ReplyDeleteThanks lizzie! well this poshed up version is the one try again perhaps! and i can only imagine your shcool-years version... purple and green and blue?!
DeleteA trip down marble cake memory lane!
ReplyDeleteHappy Birthday my dear, and thankyou for many splendid reads over the year!
many thanks, Jo! and it's lovely to hear how my cake is bringing back memories for us all. maybe i've kick-started a revival - in our kitchens, anyway :-)
DeleteFirst of all happy belated birthday both of you! It´s exciting when the blog turns one, isn´t it? This is the most grown up version of marble cake e, and such a great one with raspberries and almonds. Worth making on birthdays only!
ReplyDeleteThank you paula! i'm proud of dig in's first birthday. and yes, some cakes/recipes are worth saving for special occasions - so they stay 'special'.
DeleteHappy...Happy Birthday E! Sorry it's a little late, I am slowly getting around to recipes. It is my little treat. This one is a real cutie...I like the addition of almonds and choc bits. Clever Mum! Hope you had a great day. :)
ReplyDeletehello SB, and thank you! yes the melty chunks of choc were fabulous, as were the raspberries. it made each mouthful a surprise - 'ooh, a raspberry!'. i'm obviously just a big kid at heart :-)
DeleteHappy birthday to you and your blog! LOVE the idea of this cake, I've never seen one with such great additions. We had marble cake at boarding school occasionally (recycled later in the week as steamed pudding, urgh), but this looks a class above.
ReplyDeleteThanks for your continued support of my blog too, much appreciated. Now, where's my cake tin...
Thank you KM for your kind words! i have to agree - of course! - that these additions really elevate a marble cake, it's so not something you would recycle into a steamed pudding (i cannot even imagine THAT horror!).
Delete