Marble Cake

There’s a beautiful marble cake on the kitchen bench. Three fourth of the 20cm cake has been divided and given away – Dad’s office and Mum’s. The rest are saved just in case you fancy something marbly. It does have half chocolate mixture with it. So it should satisfy your sweet palate.

Yes, I guess I’m still a bit stressed thinking of all the possibilities and impossibilities with the aftermath of the dreadful Tuesday. As I was creaming the butter and sugar last night, it was like staring into a yellow cyclone going down down down in circling motion. I pushed the handheld mixer down and it somehow gave me a sense of power that I can control the creaming process. how this cake turns out is in my hands. The fate lies with me. I draw the path of this cake’s destiny. Ok, a little bit overboard, but hey, it did give Mum that extra lift emotionally, even in microscopic proportions. It does help a bit to know that in this vast universe, there are some things we have power and authority over, no matter how small. It is also consoling that we have a choice – the free will to choose our actions. And with our impending move from 24 Wicks Road, I choose to do it one cake at a time. In the book Bird by Bird by Annie Lamott, she describes how his 10year old brother at the time, closed to tears and faced with the monstrous task of submitting a project about birds which he has put off for five weeks during the holidays and due the next day. Her writer father came , put his hands over her brother’s shoulder and said “one bird at a time, buddy. Bird by bird.” For this situation mum’s choosing the cake path. Cake by cake. One cake at a time.

This marble cake is the second cake in 2 days. Like “Carol’s Very Moist Carrot Cake”, this recipe came from the same book. I can tell because the photocopy is the same size and the page fonts are the same. So acknowledgement will be pending once more. Kudos to you whoever you are. I owe you 2 cakes now. This cake recipe is one of those that I would love to master and keep and make some more, varying the marble effect next time. I’m thinking to use that bottle of ube jam in the pantry for the next marble episode. I can imagine purple and yellow would look great together marble-lised, if there is such a word.

To make this marble cake, you will need:

50g dark cooking chocolate, chopped

175g softened butter

175g caster sugar (this is about 1 cup)

3 eggs, lightly beaten

1/3 cup milk

175g self-raising flour (we have been using cake flour for most cake and cupcake recipes, and the bread flour for others. Anchor Foods' Lighthouse brand has both plain and self-raising variety)

1/2 tsp baking powder

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees C. Lightly grease a 20cm round cake tin and line the base with non stick baking paper. (what we usually do at home is spray the tin with cooking spray and then line the bottom with a cut out baking paper.)

2. Melt chocolate in a bowl over hot water, and keep warm.

3. Sift the flour and baking powder in a separate bowl and set aside.

4. In another bowl, cream the butter and sugar until soft and fluffy (I usually am wary on what actually is soft and fluffy, or when is it actually stiff or creamy. So in future posts, I'll try include photos of the actual step.)

5. Add milk and stir until combined.

6. Stir in the sifted flour and baking powder (until the batter is all mixed and thick).

7. Remove half of the mixture (into another bowl and set aside). Stir in the melted chocolate into the other half mixture until well combined.

7. Drop spoonfuls of the cake mixtures into the prepared tin, alternating between mixtures and starting with the light. (I swirled a butter knife around the mixture to have that beautiful marbling effect).

8. Bake for 6-75 minutes or until cooked through.

9. Cool in the tin for 10 minutes before turning out onto a rack to cool completely.

Moving houses. Its not too bad really. I had long ago wanted to move and had this specific criteria in mind - reverse cycle air conditioning. Just never really acted on it and the fact that we were given an extension of the lease with no rate increase. So the decision to stay in Wicks was practical and realistic. And now, I guess it is really fate that the inevitable is coming. I’m praying we find a place within the same postcode as we don’t want to completely alter everyone’s schedules – school, work, sports, piano, etc. Lolo sent me an SMS yesterday. “God has something in store for you, better or best for all of you. Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart - Psalm 37:4 “

And while we're here, let's enjoy our cake! I promise, one cake at a time.