Marble Pound Cake
Yay! I finally finally finally got a hand-mixer. Now I won't have to whisk until I sweat. Now that I have the mixer, I see a lot more possibilites for my baking...Beating up meringue won't be so hard anymore...Baking sponge cakes will be a wink...Whipping up frosting will be so much easier and funner...etc. However, I'm glad that I didn't have a hand-mixer the first time I started baking. I think it's important to know how it feels like to make things by hand before using a machine.
Anyways, so this is the first time I used a hand-mixer to make a baked-good. As I've said I'm really happy with my mixer and I'm also glad that the first thing I made with it turned out great. I actually made this marble pound cake two times before, and they always turned out delicious. But this time, because I used cake flour instead of all-purpose flour and substitued a hand-mixer over a plain whisk, the marble pound cake tasted even better and more special.
Marble Pound Cake (Yields one 25cm-length pound cake)
Ingredients
PLAIN BATTER
-200g room temp. butter -150g sugar -pinch of salt -3 room-temp. eggs -180g cake flour (self-rising) -2 tbsp. milk
CHOCOLATE BATTER
-15g cocoa powder -30g almond meal -1 tbsp. milk
Steps
First, line your loaf pan with parchment paper.
PLAIN BATTER
1. Cream the butter until creamy.
2. Add the sugar and salt in three additions, beating with a hand mixer for 1 minute after each addition. The finished mixture should be light and fluffy.
3. Add the eggs one at a time and beat for one minute after each addition. The finished mixture should be softly creamy.
4. Sift in the cake flour and fold with a spatula until almost incorporated.
5. Add the milk and fold just until fully incorporated.
Preheat your oven to 180 degrees C.
CHOCOLATE BATTER
1. Obtain half of the plain batter and pour that into another bowl.
2. Sift together the cocoa powder and almond meal so that there are no lumps.
3. Add the cocoa, almond meal and milk to the bowl holding half of the plain batter. Fold with a spatula just until incorporated.
4. Add the chocolate batter to the plain and give it three folds of the spatula.
5. Pour the batter into your prepared pan. Smooth out the surface with a spatula so that the middle dips down.
6. Bake for 15 minutes. Then with a knife, run a 1cm deep cut through the middle of the pound cake so that it cracks properly.
7. Bake for about 35 more minutes or until the top is cooked and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
8. Take the loaf out of the pan and cool.
Enjoy!