Edit Sept 2017 – This is one of the first recipes I ever baked and by now must have baked it gazillion times! I’ve used this recipe as a simple vanilla cake, turned it into pineapple cake and lemon cake and so much more!! This one’s a keeper for sure 🙂

Everybody loves a cake. I love baking cakes more than I love eating them. The best part of the baking is the heavenly smell in your kitchen!

I was always fascinated with marble cake. It had both chocolate and vanilla – my favourite flavours, and the pattern looked lovely. So when I got my new convection mode oven, my first attempt had to be the marble cake. I bought all the necessary ingredients, bakeware and was ready to go. There were lots of recipes and lots of videos that helped me understand the process. The recipe I am sharing here is an amalgamation of all those recipes – this came out to be perfect in my first attempt itself!

I’ve made this marble cake umpteen times now, and every time this comes out just right. Hope it works for you too.

Ingredients –

Maida/All purpose flour – 300 gms
Unsalted butter (room temp) – 170 gms
Caster sugar – 250 gms
Eggs (room temp) – 3
Baking powder – 2-1/2 tsp
Baking soda – 1/4 tsp
Salt – 1/2 tsp
Vanilla essence – 1-1/2 tsp
Yogurt (room temp)- 1/3 cup
Milk (room temp)- 1/2 cup
Cocoa powder – 2-1/2 tsp

Process

1. Preheat microwave to 180C.
2. Prepare the 9″ baking pan by greasing with butter. You can line the base with parchment paper/non-stick.
3. Sift maida, baking powder, baking soda, salt together in a bowl and keep it separate. Ensure there are no lumps.
4. In a big bowl, beat the butter until smooth. Gradually add the sugar and continue to beat until the mixture is light and fluffy (about 3-5 minutes).
5. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.
6. Beat in the vanilla extract and yoghurt.
7. Now alternately mix the flour mixture and the milk to the batter, in three additions, beginning and ending with the flour. (start with flour, then half of the milk, then flour, then rest of milk, then remaining flour)
8. Remove a little more than half of the batter and place into a separate bowl.
9. To the remaining batter stir in the cocoa powder.
10. Place the batters into the prepared pan by alternating spoonfuls of vanilla batter with the chocolate batter. Once you are done with this step, it’ll look like a chessboard of sorts with alternate white and brown colours.
11. Then, with the end of a wooden skewer or fork, gently draw swirls through the batter to marbleize it. Don’t over mix.

12. Bake the cake for about 30-35 min until a toothpick inserted in the centre just comes out clean. If you are using a microwave instead of convection mode, Bake the cake in 900W Microwave mode for about 5-6 minutes. (ensure you use a microwave-safe pan for baking)
13. While the cake bakes, enjoy the smell your kitchen must be full of, and feel free to lick off the batter from the bowl and spoon 😛
13. Once out of the oven, let it cool over a rack. Serve with love 🙂

Some tips for baking that I’ve learnt over the time – 

1. Never overmix the batter – the air you incorporate while mixing the batter helps the cake become soft and fluffy, else it’ll be dense.
2. Once the batter is mixed, bake it immediately. The science behind this is that the baking powder starts working as soon as it gets some moisture. You want it to work its magic when the cake is being baked and not before it even is inside the oven! Hence, ensure the oven is pre-heated, your baking dish is ready and greased, all ingredients have been measured out and accessible to you before you start the procedure.
3. I cannot emphasize much on the RIGHT quantity of ingredients, just a little over/under can lead to not-so-perfect results. If you are serious about the baking, invest in a good kitchen weighing scale and measuring cups/spoons.