Chocolate and Orange Marble Loaf Cake
This delicious marbled loaf cake, moist and chocolatey with fragrant citrussy notes, looks far more complicated to make that it really is. The loaf liner makes the cake incredibly easy to remove from the tin and avoids the need for laborious greasing and lining. You can keep the cake for a good few days if kept wrapped up or under a domed cake plate. For maximum contrast between the swirl dark and light sponges, We use the intense deep black Dutch cocoa powder, which you can find online. However, good quality supermarket cocoa powder is perfectly good.
Ingredients
325g self-raising flour
240g caster sugar
1 tsp baking powder (divided into two)
1 tsp salt (divided into two)
1.5 tbs cocoa powder
240ml sunflower oil
100ml semi-skimmed milk
4 free-range eggs
zest of one orange
Equipment
Tala siliconized grease-proof loaf tin liner
2 large mixing bowls
- Place a Tala loaf liner inside the Tala loaf tin and preheat the oven to 160 degrees Celsius fan (320 Fahrenheit fan).
- Into one of the large mixing bowls measure 175g self-raising flour, 120g caster sugar, ½ tsp salt, ½ tsp baking powder, 120ml oil, 50ml milk, 2 eggs and half of the orange zest.
- In the other mixing bowl measure 150g self-raising flour, 120g of sugar, 1½ tbs cocoa, powder, ½ tsp salt, ½ tsp baking powder, 120ml oil, 50ml milk, 2 eggs and the other half of the orange zest.
- Whisk the ingredients in both bowls until the mixture is smooth (top tip: start whisking the ingredients in the bowl that doesn’t contain cocoa powder first, so that you can avoid washing the whisk when you switch bowls!)
- Using a serving spoon, dollop two generous, spaced-out spoonfuls of plain coloured cake mixture into the loaf tin. Then, using the other serving spoon, spoon two spoonfuls of the cocoa mixture into the ‘gaps’ (in other words, where the other cake mixture isn’t - this is not a precise science, just try to alternate blobs of contrasting cake mixture).
- Swirl the mixture in a zig-zap motion lengthways along the tin (be sparing, just an elongated ‘s’ shape will do. And then zig-zag the other way (crossways) across the tin. You will find that you can fit in a few more zigs and zags this way.
- Spoon some more spaced-out blobs of cake mixture on top, alternating colours as you go and swirling now and then until the cake mixture has been transferred into the tin.
- Bake for about an hour and 15 minutes until a cake tester inserted into the middle of the cake appears clean when removed. If the cake needs longer, bake for another five minutes and test again.
- Allow the cake to cool on the side in the tin.
- Turn out and serve. You may need to run a knife around the top of the tin to loosen it, but the loaf liner will minimise the need for this, and the cake should turn out easily.