Mini Marble Cakes

A sugar craving came upon me quite suddenly and because I'm cheap and am trying my best to make as much from scratch as possible, I decided to feed my craving by making some cake. But, I didn't want a whole bunch of cake kicking around because I am trying to watch what I eat. Really. Stop laughing! So, I decided to make half a cake recipe and utilize my nifty new mini loaf pan. The recipe I used was my own adaptation of the Marble Bundt Cake recipe from my new favourite cookbook, Baked: New Frontiers in Baking. The recipe halved well and made exactly 6 mini cakes, though the forms were slightly over-filled.

Mini Marble Cakes

For the chocolate swirl:
3 oz semi sweet chocolate chips
1 tsp cocoa powder
1/2 tsp instant espresso powder

For the cake:
1 3/4 cups flour
3/4 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 /2 cup butter, softened
1 cup + 2 tbsp sugar
2 large eggs
1 cup sour cream
1 tsp vanilla

1. To make the chocolate swirl, melt the chocolate, cocoa, and espresso powder in the top of a double boiler and mix until smooth. Set aside to cool.

2. Preheat oven to 350F. Grease & flour mini loaf pan. (I did not do this - big mistake. I sprayed my pans very generously but the cakes didn't come out of the pan very well at all)

3. Sift together flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt.

4. Cream butter until very smooth. Add sugar and beat until smooth and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Make sure to scrape down the sides of the bowl as you add all this stuff. Beat everything for 30 seconds.

5. Add sour cream & vanilla and beat until just incorporated. Add dry ingredients in three additions, scraping bowl after each addition, and beat until just incorporated. Don't overmix.

6. Put 1/3 of the batter in a bowl and add the chocolate mixture until smooth.

7. Spread half of the vanilla batter in the bottom of the mini loaf pans. Dollop the chocolate batter on top, then dollop the rest of the vanilla batter on top of that. Using a knife of mini offset spatula, swirl the batters together slightly and then even out the tops.

8. Bake for about 35 minutes, or until done. Let cool slightly before de-panning.

Apart from the de-panning fiasco, this recipe turned out beautifully. The cake wasn't too sweet and was wonderfully moist. They don't look like much, I know, but this was not for anyone other than me and my craving, so I don't care how they looked in the end. I'll freeze the leftovers for when the need strikes again.

Remember that you can double this recipe to make a full-on marble bundt cake. Or how about cupcakes? There are all kinds of possibilities.

Enjoy!