Marble Loaf Cake

Last week I promised my little girl that I’ll bake something for her and I did but the Banana Chocolate cake failed miserably that I gave it to the dog, and he didn’t even take a bite! So today, after I sent her to school I went home and looked for an easy recipe from one of my favourite book 'Everything You Need to Know to Cook Today' by Betty Crocker. I usually stock up my pantry with the must-haves or basic ingredients (in this case – flour, butter, caster sugar, vanilla essence, baking powder, cocoa powder) just if I feel like baking or cooking something, I don’t have to drive out just to get the things for a particular dish. Although the baking time is longer than I’ve expected it wasn’t much of a problem as I was also preparing lunch hence I could keep an eye on the cake while cooking.

The cake turned out be really nice and this time, following tips and advices from friends, I placed aluminium foil on top of the cake to prevent it from burning and my cake didn’t crack much so YAY!!   

Adapted from Pound Cake recipe 
(Everything You Need to Know to Cook Today)  

You Need
3 cups all purpose flour *
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt 2 cups caster sugar**
1 cup butter or margarine, softened
1 tablespoon cocoa powder
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
5 large eggs
1 cup milk or evaporated milk
 
How To
1. Heat oven to 170 °C. Grease 9 x 5 inch loaf pans with butter, lightly flour.
2. In medium bowl, mix flour, baking powder and salt; set aside. In a large bowl, beat sugar, butter, vanilla and eggs with electric mixer on low speed 30 seconds, scraping bowl occasionally. Beat flour mixture into sugar mixture alternately with milk on low speed, beating just until smooth after each addition. Add cocoa powder to into one bowl of plain mixture, mix well and pour the remaining batter into pan.
3. Spoon alternate spoonfuls of the plain and chocolate mixtures into the lined loaf tin. Use a skewer to swirl through the mixture in the tin to marble it lightly, but don't over-mix it or the marbled effect will be lost. (I was busy making sure my porridge doesn’t boil over the stove that I forgot to swirl the mixture before putting the pan into the oven).
4. Bake for 1 hour, or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool for 20 minutes; remove from pan to wire rack. Cool completely for 2 hours.

Note
* Don’t use self-rising flour 

** I cut down on the sugar, instead of 21/2 cups of granulated sugar.