Chocolate and apricot marble cake

Portions: 8 Total time: 2 hrs
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Chocolate and apricot marble cake

Type of Cuisine:
Prep Time 1 hr Cooking time 1 hr Total time 2 hrs
Portions: 8

Description

In my childhood there was always talk about “pound-to-pound cake” and I remember wondering, what it was; if you do too, wonder no more, because this is it! Or a version of it, anyway... Anybody can memorise this recipe; it is so simple. And then you can add all kinds of other things according to what you like. Marble cake is a classic among them; my recipe has chocolate and dried apricot. It can last for days, tastes good even when a bit dry, and is good for dunking in coffee!

Ingredients

Instructions

  1. Preheat the oven to 180°C/gas mark 4.
  2. Cream the butter and sugar with an electric mixer until light and fluffy. Gradually add the eggs, beating well after each addition.
  3. Sift in the flour and mix again just until a smooth dough forms. Halve the batter and put each half in a bowl.
  4. Add the chocolate and cocoa to one bowl and mix well. Mix the dried apricots into the batter in the other bowl. Butter a 1.5-litre loaf tin.
  5. Pour the chocolate batter into the prepared tin and spread it out evenly, then pour over the apricot batter and spread that evenly, too.
  6. Take a spatula and dip it into the batter, going right to the bottom of the tin and pulling up to make a swirl inside the cake.
  7. Repeat three times in different places in the tin.
  8. Bake for one hour. Insert a skewer into the middle of the cake; it should emerge dry. If not, bake for five to 10 minutes more, then check again.
  9. Leave to cool down in the tin and serve cold.