Saturday, March 12, 2011

Marbled Pound Cake


What would a March weekend be without me baking a pound cake? It's become part of my Saturday routine. I hope you're enjoying Pound Cake Month here on A Well-Seasoned Life. Now, I'm going to take some liberties here. How I have agonized over this one?!? First of all, the official title of this recipe as seen in Christmas with Southern Living Cookbook, copyright 1997, is Two-Toned Pound Cake. I don't know about you, but I just don't like the sound of that. It conjures up images of two-toned shoes, saddlebucks to be exact. Also, a two-toned car - I'm thinking a 70's station wagon with wood paneling. I don't think anyone will mind if I change the name to the far more appetizing title of Marbled Pound Cake.


Marbled Pound Cake

1-1/4 cups butter or margarine, softened
2-1/2 cups sugar
5 large eggs
2-2/3 cups all-purpose flour
1-1/4 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1 c. milk
2 tsp. vanilla extract
1/4 cup cocoa
Sifted powdered sugar

Beat butter in a large mixin bowl at medium speed about 2 minutes or until soft and creamy. Gradually add sugar, beating at medium speed 5-7 minutes. Add eggs, one at a time, beating just until yellow disappears.

Combine flour, baking powder, and salt; add to butter mixture alternately with milk, beginning and ending with flour. Mix at low speed after each addition just until blended. Stir in vanilla.

Remove 2 cups batter, and stir in cocoa. Spoon one-third of remaining batter into a greased and floured 13-cup Bundt pan; top with half of chocolate batter. Repeat layers, ending with plain batter. Gently swirl batter with a knife to create a marbled effect.

Bake at 325 for 1 hour and 5 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pan on a wire rack 10 to 15 minutes; remove from pan, and cool completely on wire rack. Sprinkle with powdered sugar.

I do, in fact, own a Bundt pan which I did use to make this cake. However, I do prefer my old, dependable tube pan. This pan let me down. I had a little overflow in the oven and had to add a pan to catch the drippings. Kimmy is not happy about this little complication. I am going to assume that not all Bundt pans are created equal and mine is smaller than the standard Bundt.


This batter started with two and a half sticks of softened butter.


Mix the butter until smooth and add the sugar.



This is another five egg pound cake.


Add the eggs one at a time. I crack them in a separate bowl to make sure they're good.


Mix until thick and fluffy.


In a separate bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder, and salt.


My procedure for adding the flour and milk to the batter is add one cup of flour, mix well. Add a half cup of milk mixing well. Repeat the process. Add the final cup of flour and mix well.


I like to add my vanilla when I add my first half cup of milk. I think it ensures even distribution of the flavoring.


Good enough to eat, but not recommended!



Scoop out two cups of batter and put in a small bowl. Add 1/4 cup of cocoa.


Now, that really looks good enough to eat!


Put 1/3 of the plain batter in the pan.


Add half of the chocolate batter. Repeat steps.


Finish with the last of the plain batter. Swirl batters with a knife, a photo that I conveniently forgot to take. So sorry! Like I said earlier, this was a little more batter than this poor pan could take. So, if your pan is small like mine, make sure you put a sheet pan under it to catch any overflow.


Chocolate and vanilla! The best of both worlds!

Enjoy!!


For more recipes from Pound Cake Month, try:

8 comments:

  1. Yum! I sure hope some of this makes it to the office Monday morning! My mother made marble cakes when I was a child...and I have not seen one since!

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  2. Yum..can't wait to try it! My family loves pound cake and chocolate! What a great combination!

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  3. Your pound cake looks wonderful. Dense and moist. Perfect.

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  4. It was delicious while it lasted! ;)

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  5. What a pretty cake!

    Thanks for linking up with Sweet Tooth Friday!

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  6. This is beautiful! And I LOVE pound cake! I can't wait to make this. Thanks!

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  7. Chocolate and Vanilla PERFECT!

    And starting today on THIS WEEK’S CRAVINGS Linky Party we are featuring CHOCOLATE… CHOCOLATE… and MORE CHOCOLATE. We would love to have you link up any great chocolate recipe!

    http://momscrazycooking.blogspot.com/2011/03/this-weeks-cravings-21-chocolate-and.html

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  8. Thanks so much for coming back and linking to THIS WEEK'S CRAVINGS... we are already enjoying a ton of recipes, so make sure to stop back by and see all the different CHOCOLATE stuff! It's gonna be one SWEET week of all CHOCOLATE!

    And don't forget to come back next week for "HIDDEN INGREDIENT"... "What can you hide in your recipes?"

    http://momscrazycooking.blogspot.com/search/label/THIS%20WEEKS%20CRAVINGS

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