Bergisch marble cake

Ingredients for 1 servings:

• 200 g butter, soft
• 170 g cane sugar
• 1 pinch of salt
• 4 eggs
• 300 g flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 150 ml milk
• 25 g baking cocoa
• 50 g dark chocolate
• Powdered sugar or dark chocolate icing
• Breadcrumbs for the mold

Instructions

Working time approx. 25 minutes; Rest time approx. 1 hour; Cooking/baking time approx. 55 minutes; Total time approx. 2 hours 20 minutes

Preheat the oven to 180°C (top/bottom heat) or 165°C (fan). Butter a loaf pan and sprinkle with breadcrumbs. In a large bowl, cream together the butter, brown sugar, and salt for 4-5 minutes until light and fluffy. Then gradually beat in the eggs thoroughly. In a separate bowl, weigh out the flour and mix it with the baking powder. Then quickly stir into the egg mixture along with 100ml of milk. Pour half of the batter into the loaf pan. Stir the cocoa powder and the remaining milk into the remaining batter. Grate the chocolate and fold it in. Pour the dark batter onto the light batter in the pan and use a fork to spiral through both batters several times to create a marbled pattern. Bake in the lower third of the preheated oven on the oven rack for 50-60 minutes. Do the skewer test! Remove the cake from the oven and turn out after 15 minutes. Let it cool on a wire rack. Cover with dark chocolate icing or a dusting of powdered sugar, if desired. Note: I love marble cake. For me, the perfect marble cake is chocolatey in the chocolate part, but not too sweet – a little bitter. It should be moist and light, yet a little crumbly like a pound cake, and above all, it has to be full-flavored! I’ve baked and tasted many marble cakes, and only a few meet these criteria. Often the cake loses its flavor once it’s light (due to too much egg, for example), or the light and dark batters taste almost the same, or the cake is just too sweet. That’s how this recipe evolved over time. For me, the perfect marble cake!