Best Way To Make A Marble Cake

Baking By MJbakes Updated 26 Jun 2013 , 3:33pm by KateCoughlin

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MJbakes Posted 18 Jul 2012 , 1:32pm
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So I'm making a marble cake for a friend this week. I've done a couple test cakes to get it right. But each time the cake comes out dry. I know I could use simple syrup but I'm trying to avoid it if I can. I've read different marble scratch cake recipes and they all seem pretty much the same.
"reserve 3/4 cup of batter and add 2tbsp of cocoa powder" is this the only way, I was talking to my mom and she suggested using melted chocolate instead of the cocoa powder. I don't have much more time to figure this one out, anyone have any suggestions?

7 replies
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VanillaSky Posted 18 Jul 2012 , 1:58pm
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I had the same problem, which was even more pronounced because I usually reserve up to1/3 of the batter. I heat one part water and one part butter in the microwave together until the butter has melted into the water and then to that I add one part cocoa powder to make a slurry. Last, i add the slurry to my reserved batter. This has worked for me.

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Jennah0905 Posted 18 Jul 2012 , 2:08pm
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I just use my favorite vanilla recipe, and my favorite chocolate recipe-- and I spoon the chocolate into the vanilla and swirl around... perfect marble icon_smile.gif

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MimiFix Posted 18 Jul 2012 , 2:16pm
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I combine oil and cocoa, stir well, then use it with part of the batter.

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Blueridgebuttercream Posted 20 Jul 2012 , 1:34pm
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I've made the marble cake from Rose's Heavenly Cakes, which just adds melted chocolate to part of the batter. It worked fine and wasn't dry.

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BakingIrene Posted 20 Jul 2012 , 4:07pm
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Quote:
Originally Posted by MJbakes


"reserve 3/4 cup of batter and add 2tbsp of cocoa powder" is this the only way, I was talking to my mom and she suggested using melted chocolate instead of the cocoa powder. I don't have much more time to figure this one out, anyone have any suggestions?




It's not the only way.

Make a paste with the cocoa and boiling water--1 cup of each if you are doing more cakes. Let this cool to room temp before you start mixing the white batter.

Use the paste in the reserved 1/3 batter.

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KateCoughlin Posted 25 Jun 2013 , 8:07pm
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Who knew marble cake could be such a headache, lol.  After reading so many threads on it I think I've just created more confusion in my head.  Lots of bakers with different methods.  To keep things simple I wanted to go the "make your favorite vanilla recipe and reserve 1/4-1/3 to make chocolate" route.  I was just going to add cocoa powder to taste (2-3T) but now I see more users who go the melted chocolate route.  Wouldn't that lighten the batter and increase its volume?  I thought the point (or one of the points) of starting with one batter was to keep things uniform for even baking.  If you bloom cocoa in water or oil doesn't that defeat a purpose in a way?  My guess is that this step is for strengthening the chocolate/flavor component.  I plan to use a chocolate ganache to fill my layer cake so I'm not worried about lack of chocolate flavor.  I agree with others that marble cake itself is sorta pointless to the tastebud but pretty to look at.  I think I'll just stick with the plain ol' cocoa powder for my chocolate batter.  Just thought it was interesting how differently this recipe can be approached.  I wouldn't have thought of half these ideas.  Part of the reason I love it here.  - Happy Baking to you all!

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KateCoughlin Posted 26 Jun 2013 , 3:33pm
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Just an update that I got great results with making my first marble layer cake last night.  I took my favorite vanilla recipe (for a 4 layer 8" cake) and reserved 30% of the batter.  I then added 5 tablespoons of natural u/s cocoa to that smaller batch.  At first I only added 2T but I quickly realized it was going to take a lot more and ended up with 5T total.  It wasn't a rich chocolate but it had enough flavor and color especially against the pure white cake.  I think it this was a yellow cake I would have needed more a chocolate contrast.  Since this was for a 4 layer cake it was a bit tricky dividing both batters and distributing among four pans  Thank God for digital scales.  The only downside was that I had to layer all the white cake batter in dollops and then the all the chocolate dollops at once.  It would have been nice to go back and forth with the checkerboard method but I couldn't since I was weighing the white v. chocolate portions out.  The cakes baked up even and beautiful though so I'm happy.  They are in the freezer right now and will get pulled out in a few days to get leveled and filled with chocolate ganache.  There's my chocolate flavor!!  I'm excited to see what the birthday girl thinks.  I definitely would recommend this method to others and I don't think I'd try subbing melting chocolate.  The cocoa worked just fine and kept things uniform. 

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