Marbled Butter Cake

Butter Cake is my Pa's favorite cake. Over the weekend, I had the case of itchy fingers and decided to try marbling my Butter Cake. I am hoping to bake Pa a Marbled Butter Cake when he and my Mum next visit. The recipe I used is Mrs Ng's Butter Cake which is the best recipe I have tried so far (not that I tried that many) and I will not bother trying any other Butter Cake recipes. The recipe yields a very fluffy and moist cake, unlike others I tried which tend to be on the dense side.

I have checked a few blogs for the method to make a marbled cake. It is quite easy, just fold in cocoa paste to one portion of the batter and then alternate the batter in the tin. Then take a butter knife and swirl the batter to create a marbling pattern. It is quite fun but me being clumsy, it was a bit of a messy affair.

What a mess! Washing up was a pain.

I tend to get very "kan cheong" (panicky) when I am trying out something for the first time. I keep telling myself "Madam, you are not in a competition. This is not Masterchef. You are at home. Nobody cares what you are doing. Nobody is judging you. As long as the cake turns out, they just wallop, no questions asked. So, relax lah!". 

I got a bit carried away with the marbling. Reminds me of art class in school.

I alternated dollops of the batter and in the process, my dining table was also dotted with batter. After swirling, I tapped the cake tin on the table to release trapped air bubbles and to level the batter. Tap! Tap! Tap! That reminded me of my dentist asking me to bite down on the paper to take an impression of my molar. At first he asked me to grind my teeth and then he said "Now, let's go tap, tap, tap". That was during my root canal procedure. Ouch!

The volcano erupted.

Anyway, back to my cake. In the oven, the middle part puffed up like a volcano and then it cracked. Usually when I bake Butter Cake, I will create a well in the middle of the cake so that it rises evenly. This time I didn't because I didn't want to mess up the marbling.

But once the cake cooled, the crack was not apparent. I was quiet happy with the result. The cake was fluffy and moist and the marbling turned out alright. Hopefully when I bake this cake again, I will be more relaxed. The best thing about a tried and tested cake is that I know for sure it will be done in 50 minutes at 160C. 

For a fragrant butter aroma, always use good quality butter like Golden Churn. For this bake, I used SCS because I ran out of Golden Churn. In my personal opinion, between the two, Golden Churn is better.

Marbled Butter Cake
Recipe Source : Adapted from Table for Two .....or More

Mixture A :

250g butter at room temperature

75g fine sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract 

5 egg yolks

2 tablespoons milk

200g self raising flour (sifted)

Mixture B :

5 egg whites

75g fine sugar

Cocoa Paste :
2 tablespoons cocoa powder
1 tablespoon or more hot water (put in bit by bit and add as required)

Method :

1. To make cocoa paste, mix cocoa powder with hot water to form a smooth paste and set aside.
2. Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add vanilla essence.

3. Add egg yolks one at a time and mix well.

4. Add flour in three additions. In the first addition, add 1 tablespoon of milk. Mix on low speed until just incorporated. In the next addition, add in second tablespoon of milk and mix. Then add in last addition of flour. Do not over mix.

5. In another bowl, whisk egg whites and gradually add sugar. Whisk until stiff peaks.

6. Fold in 1/3 of egg whites into the butter mixture. Mix well and fold in the remaining egg whites.
7. Divide the batter into two portions.
8. To one portion, add the cocoa paste and mix until well incorporated.
9. Alternate dollops of the batter into cake tin until all batter has been used up.
10. Use a butter knife to swirl the batter to create marbling pattern.
11. Tap baking pan on work surface a few time to release air bubbles and to level the batter.

12. Bake in 8" lined round pan at 160C for 50 minutes.

Note : I buttered the cake pan and dusted flour all around. And I lined only the bottom part of the pan. I kept the pan in the fridge while preparing the batter.