Four Years

A few days ago, was the four-year anniversary of my blog. I can’t believe it’s been four years since I started writing here.

Thank you all for joining me on this journey.

I didn’t want to make a big deal out of this, celebrating the occasion with big cakes or extravagant dishes. I wanted to share with you a simple cake and one of my favorites that I make more often than any other; a vanilla and chocolate marble cake.

I wanted to share a piece of this cake with all of you because this is how it often feels when I sit down to write a blog post. It feels like I’m talking to friends over a cup of coffee and a slice of good cake.

I make this for S so that he has something to nibble at work, for my afternoon sweet cravings and for the beautiful smell that fills my home every time I bake it.

Hope you enjoy it as much as we do and make sure to share it with the ones you love.

Here’s to four more years, friends. Thanks for sticking around.

Vanilla and Chocolate Marble Bundt Cake

I always use a bundt pan for this cake, but you can also make it in a round springform pan (20 cm).

Yield: 6-8 pieces

Ingredients
230 g unsalted butter, at room temperature, plus extra for greasing the pan
230 g caster sugar
4 medium-sized eggs
2 tsp pure vanilla extract
230 g all-purpose flour, plus extra for flouring the pan
2 tsp baking powder
Pinch of salt
50 ml fresh, whole milk
50 g Dutch-processed cocoa powder (I use Van Houten or Callebaut)

Special equipment: bundt cake pan, stand mixer or hand-held mixer, fine sieve


Preparation
Grease well with butter the bottom and sides of your bundt pan and flour it. Tap out excess flour.

Preheat your oven to 180 degrees Celsius / 360 Fahrenheit.

In the bowl of a stand mixer (or in a large bowl), add the butter and sugar and beat with the paddle attachment (or a hand-held mixer) on medium-high speed until light and fluffy.

Add the eggs one-by-one, beating well after each addition, then add the vanilla extract and beat well.

Sieve the flour, baking powder and salt straight into the bowl of your mixer and mix on low speed until just combined, for a few seconds. Then pour in the milk and mix on low speed to combine.

Empty half of the cake mixture into a bowl, and sieve the cocoa powder straight into the bowl of your mixer. Mix on low speed until combined and do not overbeat otherwise your cake will be tough.

Using a large spoon or spatula, fill your bundt pan by alternating spoonfuls of the vanilla and cocoa mixture (see photos). Then, using a skewer or knife, make swirls but don’t overdo it otherwise you won’t have a marble effect.

Place the pan on the low rack of the preheated oven and bake for 30 minutes. Then transfer the pan to the middle rack of the oven and bake for a further 15 minutes or until a toothpick or knife inserted in the middle of the cake comes out clean.

Remove pan from the oven and place on a wire rack to cool. Once it has cooled, take it out of the pan and serve. It’s beautiful warm, but at room temperature and when the flavors have had time to mingle, is even better.

You can keep it covered, at room temperature for 2-3 days.