I'm starting to feel a little funny about a week from tomorrow. You See- I turn 30. (Woah- it sounds weird even typing this ...)
30 feels old. I know it's not that old. I know he is very young in the scheme of life, but it's about how it sounds. I mean, I'm in my 20s for so long. (Ok 10 years is the standard amount of time to be in my 20s, but it feels like a big piece of life.) I think less of the fear of aging, and more about where I thought I'd be 30, and a sense of nostalgia to say goodbye a big part of my life.
To take my mind off the big birthday, I was cooking up a storm. You See- when I feel anxious and panicked, baking gives me a little peace. I also want desperately to have messages for you when I'm in Europe so I actively working against my natural instincts to do everything last minute!
If you have not made a marble cake before, I think it's totally fun! I loved this swirling dough because it was so smooth and velvety. The finished cake is really to die. Buttery and sweet bites with chocolate and vanilla alternately. I think the dough could function as cupcakes or even a marble-y fun layer cake. The options are endless!
On an off topic, here's a funny video of a commercial I did it a few years ago. Certainly my better labor of my 20 years of acting. :)
- ½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
- 1¾ flour cake cups
- 2 tablespoons baking powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 cup sugar
- 3 large eggs, room temperature
- 1 teaspoon 'pure vanilla extract
- ⅔ cup buttermilk, temperature room
- ¼ cup plus 1 tablespoon Dutch tablespoons cocoa powder process
- butter or spray pan
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. generously butter or spray a 9 by 5-inch loaf pan; set aside
- Whisk together cake flour, baking powder and salt .; put aside.
- In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes. Add eggs, one at a time, beating until mixture after each addition and scraping down sides of bowl as needed. Mix vanilla. Add the flour mixture in 3 batches, alternating with the buttermilk and beginning and ending with flour.
- ⅓ Scoop the dough into another bowl and set aside.
- In a small bowl, mix the cocoa powder and ¼ cup plus 2 tablespoons boiling water until smooth. Add the cocoa mixture to the cupcake batter bowl; and stir well.
- To assemble the beginning by creating a pattern pie servers checkerboard in the bottom of the pan by spooning dollops of dough each on opposite sides of the pan. (See image below the recipe.)
- For the second layer, alternate pattern, spoon vanilla batter over the chocolate and vice versa.
- Finish with a final layer of batting again it alternately from the pattern of the second layer.
- Use a knife or skewer to swirl batters all together. Make a couple figure 8s and run back and forth so that it swirled and pretty.
- Bake until a cake tester comes out clean, 40 to 60 minutes *. Transfer pan to a rack to cool for 10 minutes. Turn out the cake from the pan and cool completely on rack. The cake can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature up to 3 days.
Recipe: Martha Stewart
