Marble cake

About this recipe

Marble cake brings vanilla and chocolate flavours together in a familiar swirled sponge. This simple German-style butter cake starts with softened butter, sugar and eggs, which must be close to room temperature so the mixture stays smooth and traps air. Once the flour and baking powder are added, gentle mixing keeps the finished crumb tender. A third of the batter is enriched with plain cocoa and a little more milk so the two colours have comparable thickness. In the ring tin, layers of pale and dark batter need only a couple of passes with a fork to create visible patterns. Too much swirling makes the colours muddy. An oven thermometer can help because cakes of this depth take time to bake through; the final test is a clean skewer rather than a rigid number of minutes. Let the cake sit briefly in its tin and then finish cooling on a rack before cutting clean slices. The recipe needs no chocolate coating or branded baking mix.