Chocolate and apricot marble cake
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
- 250 g butter (plus more for the tin)
- 250 g caster sugar
- 4 eggs (lightly beaten)
- 220 g plain flour
- 50 g dark chocolate (chopped)
- 2 tbsp cocoa powder
- 50 g organic dried apricots (chopped)
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. - 2