Marble cake: why this retro bake deserves a revival

• 5 November 2021, 5:56am
• From Spectator Life

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Alexander Larman

What happened to the Rishi Sunak I knew at school?

Makes: 1 large bundt cake (approximately 12 servings)

Takes: 15 minutes

Bakes: 45 minutes

200g butter

400g caster sugar

3 eggs

1.5 teaspoons vanilla paste

275g self-raising flour

1.5 teaspoons baking powder

½ teaspoon fine salt

100ml buttermilk

100ml whole milk

100g dark chocolate

2 tbsp cocoa powder

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C. Grease and flour a large bundt tin very thoroughly: use your fingers or a small piece of baking paper to make sure you’re buttering every crevice, and then shake flour around the pan until it is entirely coated. Bang any excess flour out over the bin.
2. Cream together the butter and caster sugar until pale and fluffy. Add the eggs one, by one, making sure each is thoroughly combined before adding the next. Now add the vanilla paste, then fold in the self raising flour, baking powder and salt, followed by the buttermilk and whole milk.
3. Melt the dark chocolate in the microwave (in 20 second bursts), or in a small pan over a low heat. Separate out a third of the cake batter, and stir the melted chocolate and cocoa powder through it.
4. Spoon heaped tablespoons of the vanilla cake batter into the prepared bundt tin. Dot tablespoons of the chocolate batter between them. Top with more blobs of vanilla batter, and then dot with the chocolate batter. Repeat until you’ve used up all of both cake batters. Gently run a skewer through the batter to create the marble effect – don’t overmix, or you’ll just end up with a beige cake.
5. Bake for 45 minutes, until the cake is risen, golden and, when pressed gently with a forefinger, springs back.
6. When the cake is out of the oven, pour very hot water over a tea towel and lay this taut over your bundt tin, without allowing the wet tea towel to touch the cake. Leave for fifteen minutes, and then turn the bundt out of its tin by placing a plate over it, and flipping the tin and plate in one bold, swooping motion. If the bundt is still reluctant, you can repeat the tea towel trick, and try again after another fifteen minutes. Leave to cool completely.