Take Two: Chocolate Marble Cake

Last night was a big occasion in England as 'The Great British Bake Off' returned to our screens and we were graced with the blue eyed beauty's Paul Hollywood and Mary Berry and the comedic accomplices Mel and Sue once again. The night of jaffa cakes, genoise and lemon drizzle has inspired me to get back into the baking act and I thought that I would share this with you. Maybe this will become a bit of a weekly thing, who knows.

Chocolate Marble Cake

I wanted something a bit chocolatey and thought a marble cake would be a great place to start, from what I remember the last marble cake I made didn't go quite to plan. Fingers crossed for this time!

Ingredients

- 225g Butter

- 225g Caster Sugar

- 225g Self-raising Flour

- 4 eggs

- 3 tbsp Milk

- 2 tbsp Cocoa Powder

- 1 tsp Vanilla Extract

How to make...

Step One Begin by heating the oven to gas mark 4 and greasing your tin, I used two 20cm round tins as I plan on filling and layering them. Then add the butter and sugar into a large bowl and mix into a smooth consistency, gradually add in the four eggs, making sure they are mixed in well before folding through the flour, milk and vanilla extract. Once the mixture is smooth you can begin the fun part.

Step Two Once the initial cake mix has been made you then need to split it in half, I did this by pouring some of the mix into a separate bowl. Then add in your cocoa powder to one of the bowls, mix this thoroughly and then you can begin adding to the cake tins! Taking two spoons, dollop the mixture in different areas of the tins, creating a pattern of plain and chocolate mixture among the tins. Once all of the mixture has been used up I took a skewer and created a spiral effect in the tins to further combine the two mixtures without them all turning chocolatey.

Step Three Once you are happy with how the mixture looks in the tins you will need to tap them against the counter a couple of times to remove any air bubbles. Then you can put them in the oven to bake for 45-55 minutes, if you're anything like me then you will be sat by the oven basking in the chocolatey smell and waiting, maybe not very patiently.

Step Four You will know that the cakes are finished when you insert a skewer and it comes out clean. Remove the cakes from the tins and place on a cooling rack, restrain yourselves and wait for them to cool. If, like me, you separated the mix into two tins then you will want to create a butter cream or similar mix to attach the layers. I plan to finish my cake off with a sprinkling of icing sugar on top!