Marble pound cake
This cake is one of the most precious memories of my childhood. It is my grandmother's cake made with love just about every week. It was our after school treat and the whole family looked forward to eating that first warm slice, not long after coming out of the oven. It is a simple pound cake without any bells and whistles. You probably have all the ingredients on hand already and only need about thirty minutes of prepare it and clean the very few dishes while it's in the oven.
The original recipe called for margarine instead of butter, a very popular substitute in the 90's, but I have made the switch to butter. Admittedly, there is something different about it for me but this has more to do with nostalgic memories than anything else. I hope you enjoy this as much as I do and take a few moments to relax with a cup of tea on a Sunday afternoon.
Gateau Grand-Maman
Yields one Bundt cake
Ingredients
1 cup unsalted butter, melted (2 sticks or 230 g)
2 cups sugar (400 g)
4 large eggs
1 cup milk (250 ml)
2 tsp vanilla extract
3 cups all-purpose flour (420 g)
2 1/2 tbsp baking powder
pinch of salt
3 tbsp cocoa powder
Procedure
Preheat oven to 350°F and grease a bundt pan.
Melt the butter in a small sauce pan, or in the microwave is 30 second intervals, and set aside.
In a medium bow, whisk the flour and baking powder, set aside. Either in a large bowl or using an electric mixer, whisk the eggs and sugar for 3-4 minutes to let the eggs make air bubbles and help your cake batter rise. (Note: whenever you add sugar to eggs, it's very important to start beating right away and never let the sugar just sit on top of the eggs otherwise the eggs will clump up and "cook"!) Slowly add the milk while mixing on low speed and then the melted butter and vanilla extract If you're using an electric mixer, stop it, pour the flour and baking powder mixture in and incorporate into the batter slowly on low speed first and then on medium speed until just incorporated and no lumps remaining. Careful not to overmix otherwise the gluten in the flour will start to develop. Pour 3/4 of the batter into the Bundt pan, while reserving about 1/4 of the batter in the bowl and adding the cocoa powder and mixing well. Pour the cocoa batter on top of the first batch and use a knife or long skewer to make small swirls and make a marbled pattern. Bake about 45-50 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Cool on wire rack about 15 minutes and invert onto a cake platter. Keeps in a cake dome or a well-sealed container at room temperature up to 4 days or can be frozen up to 3 months if well wrapped.
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