Old Fashioned Marble Cake

A very good stand by, basic recipe, loved by many over the last century. I generally like to bake it in a ring tin. This recipe is foolproof and never fails, the texture is fairly dense, making it moist and utterly delicious. It keeps well for several days. Trust me! Just lovely. 

Pre heat your fan oven to 160C. Melt some butter and brush the insides of your tin generously, then sift over a little flour. Shake off any excess over a sink.

7 oz softened butter

7 oz caster sugar

a dessertspoonful extra caster for the chocolate part

1 small teaspoonful vanilla extract or bean paste

a couple of drops of rum extract if you have it

3 medium eggs

9 oz plain flour 

¾ teaspoonful baking powder

3-4 fl oz whole milk, approx

2 tablespoonfuls good quality cocoa

2-3 tablespoonfuls rum

icing sugar to dust or make some topping as I did.

In a large bowl, beat the butter and vanilla until light and fluffy, then gradually beat in the sugar. When this is well mixed, add the eggs, one at a time. Sift the flour [I often don’t bother] and BP and fold these into the buttery mix alternately with the milk and rum extract. You need to add enough milk for the batter to fall heavily from your wooden spoon.  This will not be all of your milk, as you will need the rest for the chocolate mixture. All this will depend on the size of your eggs.

Take your prepared tin and gently spoon in roughly about two thirds of the batter. Do not level off.

With the remaining batter, fold in the remaining spoonful of sugar and the cocoa, along with a little more of the milk and the rum to make a heavy dropping consistency. Spoon alternate colours into your baking tin and draw a spoon carefully through to give the marbled effect and level off.

Bake for approx 45 mins. Keep an eye on the top and turn down if browning too much.

Leave in the tin for a few minutes then turn out. Dust with icing sugar when cold, or make a thick drizzle topping, as I did, using Icing sugar, a little cocoa and a little rum, then I grated over some plain chocolate. But is is equally good just plain.  Enjoy.

Note: If you use a regular tin, you may need to adjust the timings. Bake until just form to the touch.

Note: Good, heavy, quality ring [or bundt] tins can be very expensive. Keep an eye open on the Thursday/weekend bargains at Lidl OR look in the baking section of TK Max. This is where I bought the one I used for this cake and I bought it for a fraction of the usual price. I have two or three now, of different sizes and love baking with them!