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Friday, August 20, 2010

Marble cake and puppies

Earlier in the week I had the opportunity to visit some friends who's Great Dane bitch had had her first litter of puppies. The pups are two weeks old now, all 18 of them! Yes that is correct, 18 puppies. Its an around the clock task to ensure they all get a good feed from Mum, each feeding time taking around three hours. I take my hat off to Louise and Peter and their three kids, what a job. Silly me I forgot to take my camera, suffice to say it was like a sea of squirming little bodies. So cute.

Knowing that a homemade cake would not be high on their list of priorities, I decided to give this recipe a go. My Mum use to bake this cake for special occasions and I believe the recipe came with the cake tin.


Continental Marble Cake
3 1/2 oz melted butter
5 oz SR flour
2 tablespoons cocoa
2 tablespoons warm water
3 eggs
8 oz caster sugar
grated rind of a lemon
2 oz milk

I would suggest using a stand mixer for this recipe

Grease and flour a fancy ring tin (the actual tin Mum used was a spring form ring tin)
Preheat oven to Moderate (180C)
Sift flour and a pinch of salt together
Beat eggs until foamy
Add sugar and continue mixing until thick and ribbon like
Gently fold in flour, lemon rind, milk and melted butter, don't over mix the batter
Mix the cocoa and warm water together until dissolved
Take out 1/3 of the mixture and add the dissolved cocoa mix
Pour the remaining cake batter into the prepared tin
Spoon the chocolate batter into the tin and gently swirl the mix with a knife to achieve the marble effect
Bake in a moderate oven for approximately 35 minutes, or until a skewer inserted comes out clean.
Allow to cool for 5 - 10 minutes then remove from tin.
When cold, place the cake on a rack over a plate and drizzle thin chocolate icing over cake to decorate

Icing
1 cup of pure icing sugar, sifted
1 teaspoon of butter
1 - 2 tablespoons of milk

Place icing sugar, butter and milk in a mixing bowl, sit in a larger bowl or kitchen sink containing hot water. Mix well, continue mixing, add a little more milk if it is too thick. The icing should run off your spoon but still be thick enough to coat the cake.

The texture of the cake is spongy, different to a cake made creaming butter and sugar together. Lovely and moist with a hint of lemon.

Hope you have a lovely day
Cheers Lisa

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

This looks delicious. 18 puppies - oh my!!

Rose said...

I think I know what to make for next week's morning tea. 18 puppies? :-O