Recipe – Marble Butter Cake

My first memory of marble cake, was at TANGS. I don’t know if you remember, there used to have many cooking demonstrations at the basement of TANGS Orchard. During weekends, my mum would bring me there for a walk.

And there was this particular wok which was the most popular. The promoter would always use the wok to steam marble cake. Mum and I, together with other audience, would stand right in front, watched her demonstrations while waiting for the cake to cook. The aim was to take the cake actually. I am sorry I sounded like a glutton but the cake smells really good and almost anyone who walked past would pause and take a look. When it was ready, all the audience would grab a piece of cake and it would disappear within minutes! The promoter was really good in baking cakes!

 

Now that I have gotten an oven, marble butter cake is one of the top list. Because Aunty doesn’t really like butter cake, and I am not a fan of pure chocolate cake, so this is a good balance for both of us. It was a pity we didn’t get the marble butter cake recipe from the TANGS promoter. But as I was surfing the net for the recipe, I came across my friend, Pickyin’s blog post on Marble Butter Cake and decided to try it.

Marble Butter Cake

Adapted from Life is Great who got the recipe from Nazrah’s mother-in-law, Neni Rose, who apparently got it from Kak Aiton.

Yield 1 8-inch round 3-inch high cake in this preparation

Cooking time 1 hour Prep time 30 minutes

Ingredients:
8 large eggs, separated
250g castor sugar
340g unsalted butter
250g all purpose flour
1 1/2teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 tablespoons good quality cocoa powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoon lemon juice

Method:
1. Preheat oven at 160°C with a wire rack in the middle. Sift flour, baking powder and salt in a bowl. Set aside.

2. Cream butter in the bowl till light and fluffy. In a separate bowl, whisk the egg yolks with the 100g sugar till light. Gradually add this into the butter and beat on medium speed till just incorporated. Add in all purpose flour into the mixture in 3-4 batches.

3. Whisk the egg whites till formy. Gradually add in lemon juice and the remaining 150g of sugar until stiff peaks form. With a spatula, fold in the meringue into the egg yolk mixture in 3-4 batches. Add in vanilla extract until incorporated.

4. Divide the batter into two, 3/4 in one batch and the rest in another bowl. Sieve cocoa powder over the lesser batch and fold to mix well. Pour batter into tin, alternating between the two mixtures, starting with the yellow batter. Rap pan on counter several times to eliminate air bubbles. With a long skewer, swirl around the batter to create the marble effect. Bake for 40-55 minutes or until a tester inserted into the middle of the cake come out clean.

5. Cool on wire rack completely before serving. Cake keeps at room temperature up to three days and can be frozen up to 3 months.

If you realize, there is abit of crack on top because I was busy watching TV and didn’t manage to place aluminium foil in time. Nonetheless, this is a very fragrant cake. Thanks Pickyin!

Maureen

Born into a family of enthusiastic foodies, Maureen has always loved all things culinary, especially the local cuisine here in Singapore. With a life-long fascination with the rapidly evolving food scene in Singapore, she started this website in 2007 to explore and celebrate all types of local Singapore dishes and to share her love of travel and food with the world. With 4 years of experience as a journalist and producer, she has a wealth of experience in food writing, photography and styling.