There are cakes and then there are great cakes. This particular cake being one of the softest, moistest and flavourful cakes that I have ever made falls into the latter category.

When I set out to make this cake after a reader request and after being surprised and shocked with myself for not yet having a marble cake recipe here, I was not prepared for this outstanding result! An old hand at making cakes now I just need to look at ingredients and arrive at possible estimates of ingredients to get a good outcome.

I did the same here, walked into my kitchen and looked at some ingredients and thought of  other missing ingredients and decided to use whatever was on hand (which is quite unusual for me). I had to put that extra home made yogurt sitting in my fridge to good use and decided to use some of it in the cake too.

When I unmoulded the cake from its pan with bated breath a perfectly formed cake in sight was to be the highlight of my day (which is also surprising since the 10th of March 2009, most of my day’s highlights have to do with my little Hari).

That was the first step accomplished. When I got through shooting the entire cake with a very restless just about to be 4 young man wanting to taste the cake and finally cut the cake, my heart welled with even more joy with the incredible softness and texture of the cake.

When I immediately got a call from my friend (who usually sends me an message and will never call during her nap time) saying how good the cake was and how eager she was to try the same and when my husband polished off the extra cake that I had sent for a visitor at his studio, the final step of the taste test got its stamp of approval.

I always say that it is easy not to miss eggs in baking, but with this cake I will go a step further and say that with a recipe like this, there is actually no need at all to use eggs, considering the flavour, moistness and texture of the cake.

One of the missing ingredients from my usually well stocked pantry was cooking chocolate. I did have a bar of good quality callebaut white chocolate but the little fellow insisted that he wanted dark chocolate sauce. So, I quickly whipped up a fudge sauce with just three ingredients which took me three minutes to make. This recipe is for those who may not have cooking chocolate at home (most people have cocoa powder though) and ofcourse those short on time.

You could serve this plain as a tea or coffee cake dusted with icing sugar or make it a celebratory cake by pouring fudge sauce over it and serving it with berries or candied or roasted nuts.

With the flavours of both vanilla and chocolate, this cake is sure to win many hearts!

Eggless Vanilla And Chocolate Marble Cake With Quick Fudge Sauce

 

Ingredients:

420 gm (3 cups) plain flour

65 gm (1/4 cup +2 tbsp) cocoa powder

2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

250 ml +30 ml (1 cup + 2 tbsp) hot water, divided

490 gm (2 1/4 cups) granulated sugar

250 ml (1 cup) oil (preferably rice bran)

250 ml cup medium consistency slightly sour yogurt (Indian curd) or sour cream

1 tbsp vanilla extract

 Method:

Lightly grease the base of a bundt pan and dust it with plain flour and tap to remove excess. Alternatively use two 8” or 9” round pan.

In a large bowl, assemble the dry ingredients- the flour, baking powder and baking soda and sieve together to make the mixture uniform and prevent lumps in the flour mixture.

Preheat the oven to 180C/350F.

In another bowl put in the hot water and sugar and blend with a mixer until the sugar partly melts. Quickly stir in the oil and the yogurt and mix well.

Stir in the liquid ingredients into the dry ingredients, add the vanilla extract and mix well using a hand mixer until you get a smooth batter, about 3 to 4 minutes.

Divide the batter into 2 halves. Put in the cocoa powder and extra water (1 tbsp castor sugar if desired) into one half. Mix well and beat for a minute until the mixture is smooth.

Now place alternate ladles or spoonfuls of chocolate and vanilla batters in the pan. When all the batter is in the pan, using a knife, make swirling pattern through the batters to get the beautiful marble design. This is quite exciting to do and you might have to stop yourself in order to over do it or else you might have one uniform mixture or batter.

Bake in the middle rack of an oven. After 15 minutes lower the heat to 150C/300F and bake for 45 minutes more or until a skewer comes out clean.

 

Makes one large bundt cake or two 8” or 9” round cakes.

 

Quick Fudge Sauce

 

 Ingredients:

200 ml (3/4 cup) cream

110 gm (1/2 cup) brown sugar

3 tbsp cocoa powder

1/2 tsp vanilla extract (optional)

 Method:

In a sauce pan, heat the cream and bring to a boil. Take off the heat, stir in the rest of the ingredients and whisk until smooth.

 

To serve:

Serve the cake dusted with icing/confectioner’s sugar and serve as a tea or coffee cake or pour the fudge sauce over the cake and serve with berries or candied nuts and make it a celebratory cake.