Marble Pound Cake

My son and I was craving for cakes yesterday. We are not looking for soft spongy cake but a rich buttery cake instead. After his afternoon nap, we tuck into the kitchen and quickly fast hand fast leg come out with this butter marble pound cake. With the little helping hands, I manage to do some weighing for the  following ingredients while he was holding the hand mixer to beat the butter and also do my washing at the same time. 

We are very happy with the result. My son can eat a big piece after his dinner and so do I, oh no I actually had 2 big pieces in one go. The cake is moist and soft, I mean not the spongy fluffy soft but you get what I mean about pound cake which is soft like easy to swallow unlike the stall bought one which will stuck between our throat. 

I guess the homemade yogurt make it moist too. The yogurt I made had stay 5 days in the fridge which become thicker and creamier. Beside, the sweetness is just right for us as the sour yogurt had balance up the sweetness. So if you like to try the Recipe,  please don't try to reduce any further as you still need some sweetness in there because it is still a CAKE. Another thing is I purposely use salted butter. We like our butter cake with a little salty that makes it flavourful. Not to forget, the little coffee in the cocoa batter is a bonus that gives extra flavour. Will make this again  when  we crave for buttery cake again and could be a gift too!

Recipe for pound cake pan 18 x 8 x 6.5cm

120g plain flour

1/3 teaspoon baking powder

120g salted butter

50g caster sugar

2 egg yolks

2 tbsp homemade plain yogurt

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 egg whites

50g caster sugar

Cocoa mix (2 teaspoon cocoa + 1 teaspoon instant granulated black coffee + 1 tablespoon warm water)

Grease and line the pound cake pan with baking paper. Shift the flour, baking powder and ground almond.

In a clean bow, beat the butter then gradually add in the caster sugar until the sugar dissolved into the butter and the mixture become fluffy and pale in color. 

Mix in the egg yolk one at a time and beat until just combine. Then  mix in the vanilla extract and yogurt until just combined.

In another clean bowl, beat the egg whites with a pinch of sugar until the bubbles appear then add 1/3 of the sugar. Gradually beat in the rest of the sugar until the egg whites become stiff peak foam. Gently fold in half the egg whites into the butter mixture, don't have to mix too much. Then mix in half of the flour ingredients and combine everything. Gently fold in the remaining egg whites then add the remaining flour ingredients until well combine. 

Take 1/3 of the batter to another bowl, mix with the cocoa paste until well combined.

Pour some of the plain batter into the pound cake pan and a few dollops of cocoa batter. Continue with the plain batter then the cocoa  batter until all batter fill the cake pan. Use a chopstick to run in the batter to give a quick swirl. 

Bake in a 180C preheated oven for 15 minutes.  When the batter set and it start to expand, open the oven door and use a knife to cut a line at the center of the batter, continue to bake for 40 minutes or until and skewer insert into the cake and come out clean. Be careful not to over bake the cake as you dont want a hard dry cake. 

Let it cool down on a wire rack and enjoy!