Chocolate Marble Cake Squares

Wednesday seems to have become 'make cakes for boyfriend's friends' day.  Completely voluntarily of course.  I don't need much of an excuse to bake and this way I can experiment with a whole bunch of things I probably wouldn't try otherwise.  Having willing guinea pigs is fun.

I have never made marble cake before and thought it was about time that I tried.  It just looks so cool.  So I decided to make a big square cake, then cut it up into smaller ones.  I intended to dip them in chocolate but I ended up with much less time on Wednesday than originally planned so I just made a quick chocolate icing instead.  Hence the slightly unimaginative photos too.

Again they went down well and all the leftovers were taken home by people so the boyfriend returned with empty boxes.  So yay!  They're all coming over this weekend to see our flat so I shall be attempting something else that has caught my eye in one of my books.  As well as making cake pops because they were specially requested.

The recipe for the cake comes from Cake Decorating magazine.  I flicked through a few recipes before settling on this one, though I created the marbled effect a bit differently, because I wanted it to look very marbled.

Recipe - adapted from Cake Decorating issue 4

Makes 16 squares

• 225g/8oz butter
• 225g/8oz caster sugar
• 4 eggs
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 275g/10oz self-raising flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 2 tbsp milk
• 1.5 tsp cocoa powder
• 2 tbsp hot water
• 150g/5oz milk chocolate
• 100g/4oz butter
• 2 tbsp water 

1. Preheat the oven to 170°C/325°F/Gas Mark 3 then grease and line a 23cm/9inch square cake tin.
2. Beat the butter and sugar together in a bowl until pale and creamy.
3. Add the eggs one at a time and mix in.
4. Add the vanilla extract and mix.
5. Fold the flour and the baking powder into the mixture until smooth.
6. Add the milk and stir thoroughly.
7. Put half the mixture into a different bowl.
8. In a small bowl mix together the cocoa powder and the hot water until completely smooth.  Allow to cool slightly.
9. Add the cocoa mix to one of the bowls of cake batter and mix well until evenly combined.
10. Put alternating spoonfuls of each mixture into the cake tin until you use it all up.
11. Take a fork and swirl it through the mixture to create the marble effect.  Don't stir or overdo it or you'll just get a watered down chocolate cake.
12. Bake in the oven for 50 minutes to 1 hour.  The cake is ready when a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean.
13. Allow to cool in the tin for a few minutes before transferring to a cooling rack.  Cake must be completely cooled before adding the icing.
14. Using a serrated knife, cut the cake into 16 squares.
15. To make the icing, break the chocolate into pieces and put in a glass bowl along with the water and the butter.
16. Put the bowl over a saucepan of hot water to melt the contents, stirring occasionally until you get a smooth icing.
17. Put a baking tray covered in greaseproof paper under the cooling rack and then pour the icing over the top of each cake, easing it over the edges so it runs down the sides.
18. Leave to set.