Marble Butter Cake

There are days when the going gets tough (with housework and kids!) that I simply must have a slice of cake! A good piece of cake is such comfort food. This marble cake which I found on The Little Teochew's website was one of those - one bite made everything better. 

This marble cake is quite unlike those crumbly and airy butter cake - the texture of this cake is extremely fine, moist and tender. Instead of the usual whole eggs method (where the whole egg is added to the creamed butter), this cake uses the egg separation method. Egg whites are beaten separately then gently folded into the butter mixture. 

There is no doubt that this method gives the cake an extraordinarily fine and moist texture. This is definitely the marble cake recipe for me from now. 

Marble Butter Cake (8 inch)
Recipe from The Little Teochew

Ingredients

• 8 large eggs, separated
• 9 ozs (255g) castor sugar (Reduced to 220g)
• 12 ozs (340g) unsalted butter, softened
• 9 ozs (255g) all purpose flour
• 1 1/2 tsps baking powder
• 1 1/2 tsps pure vanilla extract
• 2 tbsps good quality cocoa powder
• 1/4 tsp salt

Method

1. Preheat oven at 160°C (convection fan on) with a wire rack in the middle. Line an 8-inch round cake tin with parchment, butter and flour. Sift flour, baking powder and salt in a bowl. Set aside.

2. Cream butter in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment till light and fluffy. In a separate bowl, whisk the egg yolks with the sugar till light. Gradually add this into the butter and beat on medium speed till just incorporated. In a separate bowl, whisk the egg whites till stiff peaks form. With a spatula, fold in the meringue into the egg yolk mixture in 3-4 batches*. Add in the dry ingredients gradually until just incorporated.
* The first time I added the egg whites, it was impossible to fold. What I did was just mix it up with the thick yolk batter and "loosen up" the batter. The subsequent batches were much easier. I folded the whites in 3 batches.

3. Scoop out 1/4* of the batter in a separate bowl. Sieve cocoa powder over it and fold to mix well. Pour batters into tin, alternating between the two mixtures. Start with the yellow batter and end with the cocoa mixture. Rap pan on counter several times to eliminate air bubbles. With a long skewer, swirl (sparingly) around the batter to create the marble effect. Bake for 40-55 minutes or until a tester inserted into the middle of the cake comes out clean.
* This is somewhat arbitrary. A little more won't hurt, especially if you want a bit more chocolate in your cake! :)

4. Cool on wire rack completely before serving. Cake keeps at room temperature up to 3 days and can be frozen up to 3 months.

This is for Bake Along hosted by Zoe of Bake for Happy Kids, Lena of Frozen Wings and Joyce of Kitchen Flavours.