Marble Cake

Marble cake is indeed a classic cake during my teenage days and early adulthood. Marble cake is often given to relatives and friends together with Red Hard Boiled Eggs (simply hard boiled eggs dyed with red food coloring)  and Ang Ku Kueh 红龟糕 as a baby shower favors during the baby's full month celebration. This is our chinese custom. The origins of  come from ancient Chinese culture, when infant mortality was high. Celebration were held to celebrate that the baby had survived the first month of their life, which meant that they were more likely to survive into adulthood..

 You must be curious what is Ang Ku Kueh? It translates directly from Hokkien into “red tortoise cakes”. They are glutinous rice cakes with various sweet fillings served on a banana leaf.   The common fillings are green bean (Mung bean) or peanut fillings. Some people called this kueh-Mochi as they are quite similar using glutinous rice and filled with sweet fillings. Now you have a better idea of what Ang Ku Kueh. You can google to see how it looked like too if you are still curious. It is one of my favourite kueh too.

Let's start baking and cut all the talking...

Recipe was adapted from www.bbcgoodfood.com

Ingredients:
225g Butter , softened
225g Caster Sugar
4 Eggs
225g Self-Raising Flour
3 Tablespoon Milk (I have increased to 7 Tablespoon as I find the batter too dry) 
1 Teaspoon Vanilla Extract
2 Tablespoon Cocoa Powder

1.Heat oven to 180C. Grease a 20cm cake tin and line the bottom with a circle of greaseproof paper. If you want to make life easy, simply put all the ingredients (except the cocoa powder) into a food processor and whizz for 1-2 mins until smooth. If you prefer to mix by hand, beat the butter and sugar together, then add the eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Fold through the flour, milk and vanilla extract until the mixture is smooth.

2.Divide the mixture between 2 bowls. Stir the cocoa powder into the mixture in one of the bowls. Take 2 spoons and use them to dollop the chocolate and vanilla cake mixes into the tin alternately.

3.When all the mixture has been used up, tap the bottom on your work surface to ensure that there aren't any air bubbles. Take a skewer and swirl it around the mixture in the tin a few times to create a marbled effect.

4.Bake the cake for 45-55 mins until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.(My advice: Keep a watch on your cake, do not overbake them as it might turn out too dry) Turn out onto a cooling rack and leave to cool. Will keep for 3 days in an airtight container or freeze for up to 3 months.