German Marble Cake

I have two recipes that I use for marble cake. One is in German from this cookbook:

I've had this cookbook for decades - don't use it as much as I'd like to because it's in German and uses weight measurement rather than measuring cups. That's fine now because I have a beautiful scale! 

I have fond memories of eating this cake - yes, it's the one on the cover! - as a child. Mom's cake was always a little more dense and dry. I found another recipe in this cookbook:

This one is in English. As you can see it's not in very good condition anymore - it's now in two if not three pieces. I found another used copy of this very same cookbook at a used book store in Chilliwack. Enough reason to drive back there and probably find more than what I'm looking for! So, this English cookbook uses chocolate squares. The German cookbook uses cocoa powder. I think that's why my mom's recipe always turned out a little drier. I used the English recipe for years until my men started revolting saying that "Oma's is better". Sheesh - will I ever come out from under my mother's shadow?! Probably not! It's a big shadow but I don't mind being in it. 

So today I decided to make the GERMAN recipe! So here it is:

Start with 300 grams of unsalted butter:

My scale! Exactly 300 grams. I love this scale. Don't laugh - but yes, I kept adding bits of butter until it measured exactly 300 grams! For Western cooks it's about 1 1/2 cups of butter. 

Add 275 grams granulated sugar:

Again, my scale gives me perfect measurements!

Cream the butter and sugar together until well incorporated and smooth. Add:

3-4 eggs (I used 3 large eggs) 

One at a time and beat well after each addition. Stir in:

1 tsp rum flavouring

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp vanilla extract

Beat it really well until it looks like this:

Ah, sweet butter! 

Combine dry ingredients:

500 grams all-purpose flour

1 tsp baking powder

Add the dry ingredients to the egg/butter mixture alternately with:

125 ml milk (I used coffee cream - I know!)

Stir well after each addition. I usually split the dry ingredients into thirds and the wet ingredients (milk) in half. When adding wet and dry ingredients alternately, always start and end with the dry. That's why I split the dry ingredients into thirds. Make sense, no?

Place 2/3 of this white mixture into a prepared baking pan. Today I used this pan which I inherited from my mother-in-law. I don't remember her ever having a pan like this but I like it so thought I'd give it a try today:

As As you can see I gave it a good spray with Pam!

Okay, now you need to add the cocoa powder to the remaining white dough:

30 grams cocoa powder

25 grams granulated sugar

2-3 Tablespoons milk (again, I used cream today)

Mix together well and drop by spoonfuls onto the white dough already in the baking pan:

Then take a knife or spoon and drag and turn it through the dough to create the marble effect. It should look somewhat like this - again this turns out different for me every time! 

Bake at 375 F. (175-200 Celsius) for 50 to 65 minutes.

Mmmmm ... you don't need any icing on this cake. You could put a chocolate glaze on it or sprinkle some powdered sugar if you like. I like it dunked into hot chocolate or coffee - my dad taught me well. That's another story/post!

That's it for Friday bakings this week! Lasagna is next.