Marble Cake
Ingredients
- White Part
- 4 egg whites (4 egg yolks needed for dark part)
- 1 c Sugar (Granulated) (8 fl oz)
- 1/2 c butter (unsalted) (113g)
- 1/2 c milk
- 2 t baking powder
- 1 t vanilla extract (or lemon extract)
- 2.5 c sifted Flour (Plain)
- Dark Part
- 4 egg yolks
- 1 c Sugar (Brown)
- 1/2 c molasses (150g treacle)
- 1/2 c butter (unsalted) (113g)
- 1/2 c buttermilk
- 1 t ground cloves
- 1 t ground cinnamon
- 1 t mace
- 1 grated nutmeg
- 1 t baking soda
- 1.5 c sifted Flour (Plain)
Method
Preheat your oven to 350F/175C. Butter a cake dish well, and set aside.
For the white part: Mix together the flour and baking powder; set aside. Mix together the milk, egg whites, and vanilla extract; set aside.
Cream together the butter and sugar. Add the flour mixture and the milk mixture alternately, starting and ending with the dry. Set aside.
For the dark part: Mix together the flour, cloves, cinnamon, mace, and nutmeg; set aside. Dissolve the baking soda in a little of the buttermilk; set aside. Mix together the egg yolks, the rest of the buttermilk, and molasses; set aside.
Cream together the butter and brown sugar. Add some of the flour mixture, then all of the baking soda mixture, then some of the egg yolk mixture; keep adding the flour mixture and egg yolk mixture alternately, starting and ending with the dry.
Put it together: Drop a spoonful of each kind of batter in the well-buttered cake dish, first the light part, then the dark, alternately. Try to drop it so that the cake shall be well-streaked through, so that it has the appearance of marble.
Bake at 325F until done, 1 to 2 hours.
Notes
This is a Victorian recipe. The original wording omits the method, so I have taken liberties and made it up. The original text is:
"White Part --Whites of four eggs, one cup of white sugar, half a cup of butter, half a cup of sweet milk, two teaspoonfuls of baking powder, one teaspoonful of vanilla or lemon and two and a half cups of sifted flour.
"Dark Part.--Yolks of four eggs, one cup of brown sugar, half a cup of cooking molasses, half a cup of butter, half a cup of sour milk, one teaspoonful of ground cloves, one teaspoonful of cinnamon, one teaspoonful of mace, one nutmeg grated, one teaspoonful of soda, the soda to be dissolved in a little milk and added after part of the flour is stirred in, one and a half cups of sifted flour.
"Drop a spoonful of each kind in a well-buttered cake-dish, first the light part, then the dark, alternately. Try to drop it so that the cake shall be well-streaked through, so that it has the appearance of marble."
SJ Note 15 Dec 2011: This actually came out well. I'm not fond of the dark part, but I think it's just too much treacle for my taste; Chris likes it and it got rave reviews from my bookclub. It's not too dry, and it actually seems to be getting moister as the days pass. The marbling didn't really happen like it was supposed to, I think; I think that technique will just take lots of practice. I tried it this time on 350F, but the outside was getting overdone before the inside, so I'll try 325F next time. It took over an hour (and I dropped the temperature part-way through) on 350F, not sure how long it'll take on 325F.