Chocolate and Vanilla Marbled Loaf

Seeing so many posts of Marble Cake recipes in the blogosphere,I was tempted to bake one too.For someone who likes to bake at the drop of a hat,it was quite difficult to stay away from baking for some time now.The reason being,many of our friends[with whom the cake would be shared with] are out of station and I fear we'd end up eating the whole cake on our own,not a good thought.

I got the perfect opportunity to bake last weekend as we had guests at home and that too kiddie guests--a friends' nieces and what better way to treat them than with a cake,so Marble cake it was!





Chocolate and Vanilla Marbled Loaf
Recipe from The Big Book of Baking


Ingredients


Semi sweet Chocolate - 55g / 2oz
Milk - 3 tbsp
Butter,unsalted - 70g / 2½ oz,plus extra for greasing
Caster Sugar - 85g / 3 oz
Egg - 1,beaten
Soured cream* - 3 tbsp
Self raising flour - 115g / 4 oz
Baking powder - ½ tsp
Vanilla extract - ½ tsp





Method


Preheat the oven to 160C / 325 F.
Grease/line a 450g / 1lb loaf tin.


Break up the chocolate,place in a small heatproof bowl with the milk and set over a saucepan of simmering water.Heat gently until just melted.Remove from the heat.
Cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
Beat in the egg and the soured cream.Sift the flour and baking powder over the mixture,then fold in lightly and evenly using a spatula.
Spoon half the mixture into a separate bowl and stir in the chocolate mixture.Add the vanilla to the plain mixture.
Spoon the vanilla and chocolate mixtures alternately into the prepared loaf tin,swirling lightly with a knife or skewer for a marbled effect.
Bake for 40-45 minutes or until well risen and firm to the touch.


Cool in the tin for 10 minutes,then turn out and finish cooling on a wire rack.





Notes

• For making self raising flour at home - sift together the said amount of plain flour with 1¼ tsp baking powder and use.
• *I substituted the soured cream with plain yogurt and it works out just fine.
• The cake is not overtly sweet and I think the sugar can be increased to 100g.
• My cake was cracked on top unevenly,probably because I used a smaller pan than required. 

How did we like it - The cake was gone as soon as it was cut since kids were around!Except for the cracked top,everything about the cake was great,nobody else seemed to notice the crack though!.I served it with tea and it was a great combo.If planning to serve the cake on its own,I would suggest increasing the sugar.