My life is quite a rollercoaster at the moment, but a fun one! September has always been an exciting month: it’s my birthday, the end of summer (I love autumn) and the start of a new school year. But after having spent my whole life in education, it came as quite a shock that this circle of annual renewal was suddenly over.
Don’t you find it hard to break with that new beginning routine once you have a job? September becomes just another month, without the novelty of new stuff to learn, new teachers and new people. Well, I’ve decided to take action! I’ve signed up for classes again! I found a little place that teaches interesting cookery classes and I got all excited when I found out they were offering cake decorating classes and Japanese cookery lessons. Hell, sign me up!
Those who know me are aware of the fact that I have an obsession with all things Japanese, and those who read my blog – well – you probably have gathered by now that cakes are my best friends. So, these classes are damn well perfect for me!
Now, whilst I know that my cakes always look pretty yummy, I am well aware of the fact that they’re pretty plain. I don’t do intricate marzipan flowers, crazy icings or colourful rainbow creations.
I actually don’t want to change that. I’m a purist when it comes to cakes – no sparkling glitter, crazy sugar shapes or marzipan kitsch will ever make it onto my cakes (unless it’s a client order. Client? No clients yet – so no need to worry about that).
So why take that cake decorating course? Because I want to learn the skills. I’m fascinated by discovering professional culinary techniques, finding out how things work and unveiling the mysteries that surround food. Call me nuts, but I’d much rather spend a day watching over the shoulder of a chef than attending a music festival.
Anyway, enough ramblings, here’s this week’s recipe. A childhood favourite of mine: a “Marmerkuch” (in Luxembourgish) or “Marble Cake”. It gets its funky pattern by layering a chocolate and a vanilla dough, then giving it a minor stir and you get the mable effect. I’ve added chocolate chips and almond shavings to the separate doughs, so that there’s a bit of a texture play at work. I hope you like them. They sure look very pretty.
Happy September and may you all enjoy your new start of the new ‘school’ year! ★
Marble Vanilla Chocolate Cupcakes
Makes 9
180g flour
3 eggs
170g sugar
150g butter
50g shaved almonds (or chopped if you can’t find any thin ones)
1 + 1/2 tsp vanilla essence
75g dark chocolate
50ml semi-skimmed milk
2 tsp cocoa powder
1 + 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 pinch salt
Frosting:
150g milk or dark chocolate couverture (if you can’t find that normal chocolate will do)
round chocolate sprinkles (optional)
Preheat the oven to 180°.
Melt the butter and let it cool down. Meanwhile roughly chop the dark chocolate.
In a bowl, beat the eggs with the sugar until it becomes frothy. Add the melted butter and keep beating. Gradually add the flour, salt and baking powder.
Now split the dough into two parts. Add the vanilla essence and shaved almonds to one part. For the chocolate dough, mix the cocoa powder with the milk until dissolved. Then add to the dough and incorporate well. Add the chocolate chunks.
Line your muffin tin with cupcake cases or grease them so the dough doesn’t stick. Put two tablespoons of the chocolate dough into each mould, then add two tablespoons of vanilla dough and finish off with more chocolate and vanilla. Once all the dough is used up, take a small spoon and ‘cut’ through each cupcake, or make a cross if you prefer it more mixed. This will create the marble pattern.
Bake the cakes for 35 minutes. They will rise quite a bit so stick a wooden skewer into one cupcake to check they’re fully baked (this will be the case if the skewer comes out clean, without dough sticking on it).
Take the cupcakes out of their moulds, and let them cool down.
Meanwhile, melt the chocolate couverture in a bain marie – this is a hot water bath. Basically, you take one big saucepan and fill it with very hot (but not boiling) water. Then you take a smaller saucepan into which you put your chocolate. Dip this saucepan into the water saucepan (without water spilling into the chocolate pan) and gently melt the chocolate. This prevents the chocolate from burning or caramelizing.
Once melted, drizzle the chocolate over the cool marble cakes and decorate with chocolate sprinkles.
really pretty styling
Thank you
I love those tea cupcake moulds! I need to find me some. I also adore that antique silver spoon. I love antique silverware. The cake looks amazing and they’re so deliciously how poofy they are.
Thanks my dear! I’m not sure you can get the moulds in the US, but it’s worth hunting for them. As for the “antique” spoon – it’s a new spoon from some supermarket in France, just made to look old. I had to get it.
looks so cute!
Merci
These look so beautiful, Anne!
Thanks missy!
Thank you for this recipe, Anne! I will sure try it!
Ah Fabiana! Cool that you stopped by! We have to meet up one of these days, since you may have noticed that I’m no longer at the office… Speak soon!
Gorgeous cupcake and gorgeous photos
Thanks Cherine!
These look so elegant! I hope you had a wonderful birthday and I’m really sorry I couldn’t make the party. xx
Ah Sarah, you missed out on some great cake
We should really meet up soon for coffee!
Yum! I wish my baking creations looked that pretty! You should try these banana chocolate chunk cupcakes. They are incredible!
I am about to make these delicious-looking cup-cakes. I am fasting at the moment and I am starving! I can’t wait to taste them and I shall tell you how they go! I am a big fan by the way! xx
Oh and your photography is amazing! xx
Hi Aisha,
oh I feel for you, a good friend of mine is fasting for Ramadan, and it’s so hard! I hope the cakes turn out well and that you get to enjoy a whole batch of them tonight! Let me know how it goes!
x Anne
Thanks Anne,
A bit of a crisis happened …I made the mixture, and right at the end I realized that my muffin tray was at my grandmother’s house! I had to use the mixture because everybody in my house was expecting cupcakes so I put the mixture into a loaf tin. I literally just took it out and it looks amazing though! I can’t wait to eat them. xx
Oh dear!!! Well I hope it turned out alright – as long as you increased the baking time it should all be fine. Fingers crossd
The cake/loaf was absolutely delicious! I only got one slice though
!!! I definitely will be using this recipe again! xx
Nom nom nom! These cakes are amazing…my new favourite
)
Just wondering what sort of flour to use
Hi Katie, unless I state selfraising flour in a recipe, it’s always just plain flour. Hope you like the cake!
Thanks!
We made them but we didn’t have a tray with the holed in so one of the cakes collapsed but they were AMAZING
Thankyou for the recipe
Awww thanks Katie, so glad you liked the cake. And, never mind a collapsed cake, the beauty lies on the palate, not on the plate