A wonderfully moist old-fashioned (?) marble cake

I couldn't resist.. making butter cake.. AGAIN!!! (^^||)

Well, a variation of butter cake, anyway.. a marble (butter) cake. This is my first time marbling.. I think I did ok (^^).

This recipe is from thelittleteochew who found the recipe on pickyin's blog. Their cakes look absolutely divine! Tall and spongy, so my kind of cake.. gorgeous! And I love that the recipe calls for egg separation.. my kind of "FAIL-PROOF" recipe! (^^) However, I didn't quite follow the instructions as per their recipe.. as it was kinda complicated (ok, I'm lazy.. ). So I did it my way, just like I would for my butter cakes. Do check out their wonderful blogs for the actual recipe and beautiful pictures.

Moist old-fashioned marble cake (adapted from thelittleteochew)

8 eggs, separate yolk and whites

9oz / 255g caster sugar (separate about 100g sugar to beat with egg whites) 

12 oz / 340g unsalted butter (I used salted butter, Golden Churn)

9 oz / 255g plain flour (I used 255g self raising flour, so I omitted the baking powder)

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

2 tbsp cocoa powder, sifted

1/4 tsp salt (since I used salted butter, I omitted this)

8 tbsp fresh milk (optional, but I added to be sure the cake turns out moist)

1. Preheat oven to 180C.

2. Beat butter and 155g sugar till light and fluffy. Add egg yolks one at a time and beat till well combined. Mix in vanilla extract.

3. Sift flour, and fold into butter mixture in 3 batches. Mix in milk. Batter should be nice and smooth now.

4. Beat egg whites till frothy, and slowly add in 100g sugar. Beat till thick and glossy.

5. Fold in egg whites gently into cake mixture in 2 batches.

6. Scoop out 1/4 of the batter into another bowl. Add sifted cocoa powder and mix well.

7. Pour batters into baking tins, alternating between the two mixtures. Start with the yellow batter and end with the cocoa batter. To create a marble effect, swirl a long skewer into the mixtures.

8. Bake for 40-55 minutes, or till the skewer comes out clean.

Well, the cakes (I baked them in 2 6-inch round tins and 2 small loaf tins) turned out beautifully.. nicely tall with a light, moist spongy texture. Next time I'll bake them in 2 6-inch tins only, for a REALLY TALL cake! And a teeny weeny bit more sugar and milk should do no harm too, I think.

I'm happy with the results still, though I can't be sure if I produced the same kind of cake as the little teochew or pickyin. Guess I'll never know, cos I'm too lazy to find out (^^).

Anyways, I'm happy I got to bake, and fatty hubby is happiest.. he gets his butter cake! A win-win situation for all, don't you think?! (^^)

p.s. cake tasted DIVINE today! it was GOOD, freshly baked yesterday.. but it's perfect now, the next day! perfect sweetness! perfect moistness! perfect texture! perfect taste! there's absolutely no need to add the extra sugar or milk! yay!