Saturday, March 1, 2008

Easy Marble Loaf Cake

I have always wanted a silicone baking pan but was always too price conscious to actually buy one. Then the other day my husband surprised me with the cutest little silicone mini bundt pan and loaf tin. Hehe, he was probably just speculating on his favorite cake, marble loaf cake.

I count myself lucky that the cake he likes best is seemingly such an easy thing. But then, after going vegan it took me forever to find a recipe that always worked. After some fiddeling and tweaking, this is the one I'm always using now with only a handful of ingredients, and it's never failed me.


Easy Marble Loaf Cake

2 cups cake flour (300g)
1/2 cup sugar (150g)
1 heaping tblsp baking powder (20g)
pinch of salt

1/2 cup vegan margerine, melted and cooled (150g)
1 1/3 cup soymilk (300ml)

2 tblsp Dutch-proces cocoa
4 tblsp. soy milk

Combine the dry ingredients. Mix in the soy milk and melted, cooled margerine, and briefly mix till combined. Spoon half of the batter into a well greased loaf pan or ungreased silicone loaf pan.

Mix the cocoa into the remaining batter and add approx. 4 tblsp. soymilk to achieve the same consistency the white batter has. Add over the white batter. Now take a fork and lightly swirl it through the batters to create a marble pattern.

Bake in a loaf pan for 60 minutes at 350°F. For my silicone mini-pan, I halved the recipe, and baked it for 40 minutes. Let cool compeltely before slicing it, though. Tough, I know... Feel free to jazz it up with vanilla, cinnamon, or ginger, or throwing in dried fruits, chocolate chips, nuts, granola....

Marble cakes also turn out especially beautiful in bundt pans!

Baking in silicone pans was a novelty for me. For one thing you don't need to grease it. Also the sides of the loaf remained very soft which I really liked. However, I found the silicone increased the baking time considerably, probably due to lower heat conduction. So, in addition to baking time varying with stoves, it also varies according to how big your loaf is, and what form you use. Seriously, what's the point in indicating baking times... I've indicated my normal baking time for a normal metal loaf pan, but be sure to check your cake for doneness by inserting a toothpick in the center of the cake to avoid underbaking or overbaking it.

Standard note on sugar: I realize that there are cultural taste differences. I like my desserts not overly sweet, both for health and taste reasons. Therefore, the amount of sugar I use may not satisfy your palate. Feel free to use more sugar, I've found this does not affect the baking properties / baking time at all.

13 comments:

Unknown said...

That's a great marble loaf and I do like your idea of using less sugar.

LizNoVeggieGirl said...

oh my goodness that marble loaf cake is GORGEOUS!!

J said...

Whether it was just a sneaky ploy to get you to make cake or not, it was a sweet thing to do. That photo is gorgeous.

ChocolateCoveredVegan said...

It sounds good, and the picture is beautiful!

Jen said...

Goodness, what a lovely photograph! And the marble kuchen looks fabulous!

Liz Ranger (Bubble Tea for Dinner) said...

ooh, swirly food! thanks for the recipe, I'll probably try it with the less sugar. :)

Vaishali said...

What a beautiful cake- and it sounds really delicious! I have also been thinking of buying silicone pans, and it's good to know about the differences compared to traditional pans. Thanks, Anke.

jd said...

Wow! That Marble Loaf Cake looks so pretty (& delicious)!

It was so sweet of your husband to surprise you with a nice silicone pan! However, I'd definitely have to say that he got the best end of the deal - a yummy cake :)

Veggie said...

What a beautiful cake! I'll have to try this out maybe for the next family birthday dinner.

Anke said...

@ all: glad you like the pics and the cake

@ veggie: uh, before making it out for a family birthday dinner I'd definitely make it once before to see if you like the sweetness cause it is kind of not overly sweet, really.

BitterSweet said...

Marble cakes are a sure-fire impressive dessert, but yours is particularly lovely! And such a simple recipe, too!

priscilla joy said...

That looks like some of the best bread I have seen! That for breakfast sounds deelicious!*smile*

Lindsay (Happy Herbivore) said...

!!!
This loaf looks AMAZIIING!

It's beautiful - even dare I say better looking than the tulips - which are my fave flower!