Choco Vanilla Marble Loaf Cake [Egg-less]

Marble cakes reminds me of one of the most adventurous phase in my life... my roommate days in Richmond, US :)

As part of work, I got to travel to the States. Ah, those 2 wonderful years were packed with beautiful memories, awesome friends and yummy food! We tried out many restaurants, varied cuisine and a wide range of munches for those after office hunger pangs. Marble cake was one amongst these. I had not heard of a marble cake before, and was mesmerized by the pattern that these cakes had in them. Not into baking then, I did not really get into the details of it.

More recently, when I came across some pictures of this cake in various blogs, I was reminded of those lovely days and sooo wanted to bake it up! And I did and was quite please with the outcome and it definitely did taste very similar to the ones we used to munch on back then :)

My oven decided to give me a hard time... the glass turn table broke :( so the baking was done without the dish just sitting stationary inside, instead of the usual revolving inside the oven. All through the baking time... my fingers were crossed! The crust was little cracked up due to uneven baking, but the overall outcome and taste was YUM! :)

I planned my cake similar to the Vanilla Tea Cake. (In addition to the Vanilla batter, made another half portion with the cocoa powder to make the Chocolate batter.)

Ingredients

Vanilla Cake

All purpose flour/Maida - 1.5 cups
Thick Curd/Yogurt - 1 cup
Sugar - 3/4 cup
Baking soda - 1/2 tsp
Baking powder - 1 and 1/4 tsp
Vegetable oil - 1/2 cup
Vanilla essence - 1 tsp

Chocolate Cake

All purpose flour/Maida - 1/2 cup

Cocoa Powder - 1/4 cup
Thick Curd/Yogurt - 1/2 cup 
Sugar - 1/4 cup 
Baking soda - 1/4 tsp
Baking powder - 3/4 tsp
Vegetable oil - 1/4 cup 
Coffee essence - 1/2 tsp

Method

Vanilla Cake Batter

• Pre-heat Microwave (in convection mode) to 180 deg C.
• In a mixing bowl, beat the yogurt and ensure all lumps are removed. Add in the sugar and mix well.

• Add baking powder and baking soda to this mixture and mix well.

• Set aside this mixture for 5 mins until small bubbles appear on the surface.

• Add vanilla extract and oil to this mixture and mix all the ingredients well.

• Add the flour in parts and gently fold in the batter until no more dry flour is seen.

Chocolate Cake Batter

In another mixing bowl, prepare the batter for chocolate cake follow the similar process as in the vanilla cake batter with the following changes:

• Skip the Vanilla essence. (I added in Coffee essence, this is optional.)
• Instead of plain flour, sieve together cocoa powder and all purpose flour and then proceed onto preparing the batter until no more dry flour is seen.

Layering Choco Vanilla Marble Loaf Cake

• Prepare a baking pan, by greasing it with butter and pour in the Vanilla Cake batter and then the Chocolate Cake batter over it, into this baking pan.
• Gently mix in the two batter, to create a marble look.
• Bake in pre-heated oven for 30-35 mins until the top turns a golden brown and a tooth pick inserted into the middle of the cake comes out clean.
• Cover the top with a aluminium foil if the top is getting crusty before the cake is fully baked.

I had some extra batter after I made the loaf cake, so made this mini bundt cake as well :)