hnexcerpt101625
Uploaded by
Here & Nowhnexcerpt101625
Uploaded by
Here & NowRecipe from DORIE’S ANYTIME CAKES by Dorie Greenspan. Copyright © 2025 by Dorie Greenspan.
Used with permission by Harvest, an imprint of HarperCollins. All rights reserved.
Simplest, Plainest, Most Old- Fashioned—and Best-Tasting—Marble Cake
Makes about 14 servings
INGREDIENTS
1/4 cup (60 ml) water
1/3 cup (28 grams) unsweetened cocoa powder, preferably Dutch-processed
1 1/2 cups (300 grams) sugar
2 ounces (28 grams) semisweet or bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped
2 cups (278 grams) all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
16 tablespoons (8 ounces; 226 grams) unsalted butter, at room temperature
4 large eggs, at room temperature
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1/2 cup (120 grams) full- fat sour cream, at room temperature
* A word on marbling: Have fun! I like to use a cookie scoop to alternate and layer mounds of chocolate
and vanilla batter. But you can be more random or more precise. The only caveat is that when you dip
your knife into the batter to swirl it, don’t multi-swirl— one or two passes will do the trick. Too much
swirling, and the flavors and colors will be over blended and you’ll have defeated the work you did to
make a cake with two distinctive flavors and an equally distinctive look.
DIRECTIONS
Center a rack in the oven and preheat it to 325 degrees F. Coat the inside of a 10-cup Bundt pan with
baker’s spray or butter it, dust it with flour and tap out the excess.
Bring the water to a boil in a small saucepan. Turn off the heat but keep the pan on the hot burner.
Whisk the cocoa powder into the water, followed by 1/4 cup of the sugar. When the mixture is smooth,
drop in the chocolate and stir until it melts. You can either move the pan to a trivet or a cool burner or
scrape the mixture into a medium bowl and set aside.
Whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt.
Working in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, or in a large bowl with a hand
mixer, beat the butter and the remaining 1 1/4 cups sugar together on medium speed for about 3
minutes, scraping the bowl and beater(s) often. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each one
goes in and scraping regularly. The mixture may seem on the verge of curdling—don’t be discouraged.
Beat in the vanilla and then the sour cream. By now the mixture might be in full curdle, which is ugly but
not fatal. Working on low speed, add half the dry ingredients, and when they’re almost incorporated,
add the rest, mixing to blend and scraping as needed. The batter will have regained its smoothness.
Scrape about one-third of the batter into the pan or bowl of chocolate and use a spatula to thoroughly
blend the two mixtures together.
It’s marbling moment! And the moment to decide if you’d like to simply make a layer of white batter
topped by a layer of chocolate batter or use a cookie scoop or a soupspoon to transfer the batters to the
pan before you marble them. If you’re going to scoop—it’s what I do—I think it’s nice if you alternate
mounds of chocolate and white batters. Depending on the shape and depth of your pan, you’ll have
enough batter for two or three layers of scoops. However you got the two batters into the pan, grab a
table knife or a skewer, dip it almost to the bottom of the pan and draw it through the batter, making a
full circle. You can swirl the batters again, if you’d like, but two times around is really the max—the
sparer the swirling, the more striking the marble pattern will be.
Bake for 55 to 60 minutes, or until the cake has risen, is golden and pulls away from the sides of the pan
when gently tugged; a tester inserted into the center of the cake will come out clean. Transfer the pan to
a rack and let it rest for 5 to 10 minutes, then unmold it onto the rack and allow the cake to cool to room
temperature.
Storing: Wrapped well, the cake will keep for about 4 days at room temperature. It will get a little dry,
but it will still be delightful. You can freeze the cake for a month; thaw in the wrapper.