Classic Marble Cake (Marmorkuchen)

The English like their afternoon tea and the German like their afternoon coffee and cake. Marble Cake is a quintessential German coffee cake.

I’ll admit that in my childhood I wasn’t terribly fond of marble cake as I always found it a little boring and rather dry. Recently, I decided to see if that was still the case and whipped one up.  Yup, it was still dry. Tasted good, but I thought it could be better.  

I quickly become kind of obsessed with the idea of making a moist version with more flavour. I tried different recipes, pans, baking times, temperatures and varied some of the ingredients. After more tries than I care to count, I found one that I can honestly say I love.

Traditionally, this is made in a bundt pan or springform pan, which makes for a rather large cake. That’s great for company but when it’s just two of you, a smaller one is better. That way you’re not eating the same cake for over a week. Fine for some cakes but this one tastes best within the first 3 – 4 days.

So, here’s my smaller version! 

Classic Marble Cake 

(Mamorkuchen)

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup (one stick) of room temperature butter*
• 1/2 cup of sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoons of vanilla sugar
• Pinch of salt
• 2 room temperature eggs
• 1 cup of all purpose flour
• 1 1/2 level teaspoons of baking powder
• 1 tablespoon of milk
• 2 teaspoons of rum (optional but adds great flavour, especially if it’s overproof)
• 1/8 cup of vanilla yogurt

Chocolate Part:

• 2 ounces of bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, melted
• 1 tablespoon of milk
• 1 tablespoon of vanilla sugar (or just sugar)

Glaze (optional):

• 1/2 cup of powdered sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla extract
• 2 – 3 teaspoons of water

*Room temperature ingredients (butter, eggs, milk and yogurt) make for best cake texture but the butter is the only one that’s mandatory.

This cake isn’t that hard, but it does take a little bit of set up. Trust me, it’s worth the effort.

With all the times I made it over the last several weeks, I found it easier to everything ready before I started the mixer. It likely doesn’t make much difference to the end product but it does make the mixing part go a lot quicker!

 So, here are my four prep steps I take before I turn on the mixer:

Prep One:

Mix 1/2 cup sugar, 1 1/2 teaspoons of vanilla sugar and a pinch of salt in a small bowl. 

If you don’t have vanilla sugar, just use 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract. However, add it later with the other wet ingredients (milk, rum and vanilla yogurt). 

Prep Two:

Thoroughly whisk together 1 1/2 level teaspoons of baking powder and 1 cup of flour in a separate bowl.

The whisking part is important because it helps lighten up the flour, which will help create a lighter texture to the cake. You can also do this by sifting the two together.

Prep Three:

Coarsely chop up 2 ounces of chocolate. Melt the chocolate and set aside to cool down.

I recently discovered a really easy way to melt chocolate on the stove. No double boilers required!  

Place a small, heatproof bowl in small saucepan filled with 1 inch of water. Bring the water to a simmer and stir until melted.  

Easy, peasy, lemon squeezy! 

Prep Four:

Grease a 8×4 glass loaf pan with the butter wrapper. Might well since it’s just going to be thrown out.

Oh, and yes, I’ve already plopped the butter into my stand mixer bowl.

Now, the batter:

Cream the butter on high until it’s soft.

Gradually add the sugar mixture to the butter, little by little, until the mixture is pretty smooth.

Next, add the eggs in one at a time. Beat each egg into the batter for 30 seconds on a medium setting until it’s thoroughly incorporated. 

Now we’re going to alternate mixing in dry and wet ingredients on a medium setting:

• I start with about a third of the flour mixture.
• Then, I add in the 2 teaspoons of rum.
• Another third of the flour mixture.
• The tablespoon of milk.
• The last third of the flour.
• And then the vanilla yogurt.

The order in which you do the wet ingredients does not matter. 

It should look something like this when it’s all mixed.

Okay, so next we divide the batter into three parts. You can do only two, if you want. I just do three because it creates a nicer marbling pattern.

Put about 1/3 of the batter into your greased loaf pan and another 1/3 into a bowl and set aside. I just eyeball it and I’m sure it’s never exact.

With the remaining batter in the bowl, we’re going to add the following:

• The melted chocolate
• One tablespoon of milk
• One tablespoon of vanilla sugar (feel free to reduce the amount if you’re using a sweeter chocolate)

You can mix it with the electric mixer again, if you want. I just fold it in with a spatula since it’s such a small amount of batter.

Put the chocolate batter on top of the vanilla in the loaf pan.

Next, put the remaining vanilla batter on top of the chocolate.

Lastly, we gently combine the layers by swirling a fork in spirals or a “S” pattern through the whole pan. 

Be careful not to over swirl!

Bake at 350 degree for 45 – 50 minutes, or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean. Keep an eye on it during the last 5 – 10 minutes because it can dry out quickly. 

(If you’re a dark metal loaf pan, reduce the baking time by about 10 minutes.)

Let it cool on a rack for 10 minutes in the pan and then you’re free to gently remove it.

Lastly, we make the glaze while we let the cake cool off. This part is completely optional. I actually like the cake without the glaze just as much as with it.

While I’m giving you my recipe, this isn’t an exact science for me, unfortunately. I really just eyeball the ingredients and mix until I get the desired consistency. However, here’s the recipe that was the base for mine – Basic Sugar Glaze.

It should be thick but pourable, like this. 

This glaze is extremely adaptable. Here’s some other ideas you could use for the liquid part:

• lemon or lime juice
• more rum (or a liqueur)
• only water
• any kind of milk

When your cake has cooled, drizzle it with the sugar glaze.

And there you have it – a slightly complicated but extremely delicious, moist marble cake!

 Go ahead, slice off a piece and enjoy it right away. It’s best when it’s fresh out of the oven. 

Then invite over some company for social afternoon coffee!

What’s your favourite coffee cake?

As always,

Diony

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Mamorkuchen (Marble Cake)

A flavourful, moist marble cake that pairs perfectly with coffee.

Prep Time 20 minutes

Cook Time 50 minutes

Author The Kitchen Maus

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup one stick of room temperature butter
• 1/2 cup of sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoons of vanilla sugar
• Pinch of salt
• 2 room temperature eggs
• 1 cup of all purpose flour
• 1 1/2 level teaspoons of baking powder
• 1 tablespoon of milk
• 2 teaspoons of rum optional but adds great flavour, especially if it’s overproof
• 1/8 cup of vanilla yogurt

Chocolate Part

• 2 ounces of bittersweet or semisweet chocolate melted
• 1 tablespoon of milk
• 1 tablespoon of vanilla sugar or just sugar

Glaze (optional)

• 1/2 cup of powdered sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla extract
• 2 – 3 teaspoons of water

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 8x4 glass loaf pan with butter wrapper or cooking spray. Mix together sugar, vanilla sugar and salt in a small bowl. Whisk together flour and baking powder in separate bowl. Coarsely chop chocolate, melt and set aside to cool down.
2. Cream butter with electric mixer on high until soft. Gradually add sugar mixture until smooth. Next, add eggs, one at a time, mixing each egg for 30 seconds on medium setting. Alternate adding the flour mixture with the wet ingredients on medium until batter is smooth.
3. Put 1/3 of the batter in the glass loaf pan. Set aside another 1/3 of the batter. Fold melted chocolate, milk and sugar into the remaining batter in the mixing bowl. Pour chocolate batter on top of vanilla batter in pan. Add the remaining vanilla batter on top. Lastly, swirl fork or knife through the batter to create marbling pattern.
4. Bake for 45 - 50 minutes or until inserted toothpick comes out clean. Let it cool on a wire rack for 10 minutes before removing it from the pan.

Optional Glaze

1. Mix powdered sugar, vanilla extract and water until glaze is thick but will still pour off the spoon. Drizzle over cooled cake and let the glaze set/hardened.

Recipe Notes

Best when eaten within the first 3 - 4 days.
Having all ingredients at room temperature makes for the best texture but butter is the only one that's mandatory.

Adapted from Dr. Oetker