Marble Cake

I am not much of a dessert person, I do not really have a sweet tooth but Dear Husband loves anything sweet and he also loves anything which has been baked i.e cakes, breads and cookies. So today while I was checking out the blogs I read regularly, I came across this Eggless Marble Cake Recipe on Prathibha's Blog. Well! I had all the ingredients readily available at home and enough free time on my hand to bake a surprise for Dear Husband who comes home at lunch. So I got going and this is what I achieved:

• A perfectly beautiful looking Cake :)
• A perfectly delighted Husband :) :)
• A perfect sense of accomplishment for Me :) :) :)

So here goes the recipe and the pictures. I am sure you will drool over the pictures and believe me the cake was soft and moist and very easy to make. So go ahead and give it a shot.

Ingredients:

All Purpose Flour: 1 1/4  Cups

Unsalted Butter: 1/2 Cup

Powdered Sugar: 3/4 Cup

Milk: 3/4 Cup

Cocoa Powder : 2 tbsp

Condensed Milk: 3 tbsp

Baking Powder: 2 tsp

Baking Soda: 1/2 tsp

Vanilla Essence: 1 tsp

Hot Water: 2 tbsp

Procedure:

1. Preheat oven at 180 degree centigrade.
2. Pour hot water onto cocoa powder, mix it well and let it come to room temperature. I suggest sifting the cocoa powder to get rid of all the lumps.
3. Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and keep aside.
4. Cream butter ( at room temperature) and sugar till light and frothy.
5. Add half of the flour mixture and half of milk to the creamed butter and sugar and mix well.
6. Now add another half of the milk and condensed milk to this mixture, mix well and then incorporate the other half of flour mixture.
7. Remove 1/3rd of the cake batter in another bowl and mix in the cocoa powder paste.
8. Mix in vanilla essence in the remaining 2/3rd of the cake mixture.
9. Grease a cake tin or a bunt pan or a loaf tin. I used a bread loaf tin.
10. Pour in the white batter in the tin.
11. Now add the cocoa mixture in small patches and run a knife or spoon through the batter in swirly pattern.
12. Put the tin in the oven and bake it for 40 minutes. 
13. Do the toothpick test to ensure the cake is done.
14. Remove the cake on a wire cooling rack.
15. Let it cool down completely before slicing it.

My Notes:

1. It took me 1 hour to bake the cake in my oven so you will have to figure out the behavior of your oven and then progress.
2. Use a very sharp knife to slice the cake as it is very moist and soft, hence prone to crumbling down when sliced.
3. I somehow ended up having more of cocoa paste batter hence my cake as less evident marble swirls, so be carefully while dividing the cake batter.

Bon Appétit