Wordless Wednesday

Chocolate Marble Cake

I'd been looking for a good marble cake recipe when I stumbled upon this one on Spicyana. The pretty design of the cake makes it look very fancy and professional; all it involves is a gentle swirling of the vanilla and chocolate batters together.

Here's what needs to be done-

Preheat oven to 350 F. Grease a 9 x 5-inch loaf pan.

Mix together the following dry ingredients:

• 1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
• ¼ cup corn starch
• 2 tsp baking powder
• A pinch of salt

Cream together 1 stick of softened butter and 1 cup sugar. Add 2 tsp vanilla extract and 2 eggs. Mix well.

Combine the flour mixture with the wet ingredients and mix well. Add ¼ cup milk (or just enough to loosen the batter a bit) and mix again. The batter will still be thick after the addition. Set aside 1/3^rd of it.

In another bowl mix ¼ cup cocoa powder, 1 tsp coffee powder and 2 tsp sugar with boiling water until smooth. Add the cocoa mixture to the reserved cake batter; stir until well combined.

Dollop the chocolate and vanilla batters into the greased pan alternately to make a checkerboard pattern. Take a knife and swirl it through the batter to create a marbled look.

Bake for 50-60 minutes or till the cake is done.

Notes: The cake had a nice texture and the marble effect is absolutely beautiful. Although the cake is wonderful enough on its own, I thought it needed an icing of some sort; it tasted a little too plain.

Wordless Wednesday

Katharine Hepburn's Brownies

I'm always looking for easy recipes for brownies. In my quest for the perfect recipe recently, I came across one for Katharine Hepburn’s brownies. These brownies are easy to make and are delicious as well. They’re moist, fudgy and crumbly with a rich chocolate flavor. I got the batter ready in less than 10 minutes and used just a bowl and a spatula in the process.

I found the recipe here on Noble Pig and followed it closely making a few minor changes. Here are my modifications-

1. I added a bit of instant coffee powder.

2. I increased the amount of chocolate slightly and made use of semisweet chocolate.

3. I decreased the sugar by ¼ cup, and used brown instead of white.

4. I also cut down on the baking time by 10 minutes.

Ingredients:

(For 16 small pieces)

• 1 stick (8 Tbsp) butter
• 2 ounces semisweet chocolate (I used Baker’s)
• 1 ounce semisweet chocolate chips
• ¾-1 tsp instant coffee powder (I used Nescafe)
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• ¾ cup brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• ¼ cup all-purpose flour
• ¾ cup chopped walnuts
• Salt

Method:

Preheat the oven to 325 F. Line an 8-inch square baking pan with foil and grease well.

Melt the chocolate and butter in a microwave-safe bowl. Add the coffee powder, vanilla extract, salt and sugar and mix well. Add the eggs, stir in the flour and mix again. Add the chopped walnuts and combine to get a smooth batter.

Dump the batter into the prepared pan and spread as evenly as possible. Bake for about 40 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out relatively clean with a few crumbs still attached.

Cool completely before slicing or else it will be difficult to get perfect straight-edged pieces.

Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday