This weeks recipe was picked by Tam, kind of. I gave her two options and she picked this one. Well, I gave her two categories and she chose cakes. I hope she likes it!
This is a Martha Stewart recipe from this book. I checked it out at my local library and have already renewed it once, I either have to renew it again or order it from Amazon.
Marble Cake with White Chocolate Glaze
1 stick or 1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temp., plus more for pan 
1 3/4 cup cake flour (not self-rising or bread flour)
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt (I used kosher)
1 cup granulated sugar
3 large eggs, room temp.
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2/3 cup buttermilk, room temp.
1/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon Dutch-process cocoa powder*
1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons boiling water
White-Chocolate Glaze (recipe follows below)
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
2. Generously butter a 9-by-5 inch loaf pan; set aside.
3. Whisk together cake flour, baking powder and salt; set aside.
4. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes. Add the eggs in one at a time, beating until combined after each addition and scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed. Mix in the vanilla. Add in half of the flour mixture and mix well, add in the buttermilk and mix well, add in the last half of the flour and mix well making sure to scrape down the sides. Remove one-third of the batter and set aside.
5. In a bowl mix the cocoa and the boiling water with a rubber spatula until smooth. Add the cocoa mixture to the reserved (1/3) cake batter; stir until well combined. I did the first part of this step prior to step four and then stuck the cocoa/water mixture into the fridge for a few minutes to cool off, see my thinking on this in the notes below.
6. Spoon the batters into the prepared pan in two layers, alternating spoonfuls of vanilla and chocolate to simulate a checkerboard. To create marbling, run a table knife through the batters in a swirling motion. Do not over swirl.
7. Bake, rotating the pan halfway though, until a toothpick comes out clean, about 40 to 50 minutes. Transfer pan to a rack to cool for 10 minutes. Turn out cake from the pan and cool completely on the rack. Pour glaze over cake, letting it drip down the sides. Cake can be kept in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days.
White Chocolate Glaze
3/4 cup confectioner's sugar, sifted, plus more if needed
2 tablespoons milk, plus more if needed
2 1/4 ounces white chocolate, melted and cooled (not cold or hard)
In a small bowl, whisk together the confectioner's sugar and milk. The mixture should have the consistency of thin sour cream. Add the melted chocolate and whisk until glaze is smooth. If it is too thin, add more sugar, 1 tablespoon at a time; if too thick, add more milk, 1 teaspoon at a time. Use immediately.
Dudes! The piece missing on the top? And the side? I ate it them hot from the oven. Burned my tongue, now I lisp. Nom nom nom. Was good.
Notes:
There were a couple things that threw me off a bit with this recipe.The end of step 4 threw me until I made the cake, why do I only need to reserve 1/3 of the batter for the chocolate portion of the cake? Ah-ha! When you mix the reserved batter with the cocoa/water mixture and try to checkerboard the pan it is thin, way thin and wants to run everywhere. Hence, you need way more vanilla batter to hold the chocolate in place. I learned this the hard way as I didn't reserve 1/3 the batter, I reserved 1/2. That Martha, she's pretty smart and I should have followed her directions.
Now, I could be completely wrong on this next one but I didn't want to have to start over. Starting over irritates me. In step 5 Martha has you boil water and add the cocoa to it then add it to the reserved batter. Okay, lets think about this for a minute. That batter has eggs in it, right? When eggs get hot they scramble, right? After I mixed the water and cocoa it was still fairly hot, okay, it was really hot. I stuck the cocoa/water mixture in the fridge prior to adding it into the batter. Like I said before, maybe my thinking was skewed but better safe than sorry and maybe this counts as a Chellism, made sense to me.
This one is just a heads up. The cake tastes great with or without the glaze, if you are in a rush it isn't a must have. Also, if you choose to add the glaze do it while the cake is still on the cooling rack. Place a piece of foil or parchment under the rack first though as it will overflow and run down the sides. Transfer the cake to your serving plate before it sets though as the glaze will crack if you move the cake after it is set.
