- Hey, I'm John Kanell.
Today on Preppy Kitchen, we're making a marble cake.
So let's get started.
First off, set that oven to 350,
line two nine inch pans with parchment paper.
You're gonna give four ounces
of bittersweet chocolate a good chop,
and set it onto a double boiler to melt.
You could also use your microwave.
For this marble cake, we're making one batter
and flavoring half of it with the chocolate.
To make the batter, we need 330 grams of cake flour.
That is two and three quarter cups.
Perfect. Hmm.
So, cake flour has a lower protein content
and it'll give you just a really delicate,
beautiful crumb for your cake.
For leavening, we're using two teaspoons of baking powder.
One, two.
Half a teaspoon of kosher salt,
and we only say kosher because we're specifying
like a medium grain size.
Using fine grain salt is going to give you a saltier cake
because more fits into the little measuring spoon.
We're going to sift it out.
Sift, sift, sift.
Our scale is done.
It's time to whisk, whisk, whisk,
and just set it aside.
Time to get your stand mixer out.
Now we're going to cream
one cup of butter or 226 grams in a stand mixer
fitted with a paddle attachment.
Once it's nice and creamy,
we're going to add one and three quarter cups of sugar.
That is..two...375 Grams. I did it.
Is it?
350 Grams.
All right, my butter's all creamed up.
Now we're going to add 350 grams
or one and three quarter cups of sugar.
Mix this until it is light and fluffy,
about three minutes, and in the meantime,
I'm going to crack four eggs into a bowl.
So they're ready to add in without the shell.
Mix it up.
You know me. You know I'm going to scrape the bowl down.
I want this fluffy throughout,
and when you're using a stand mixer,
it can kind of tamp the butter down on the bottom
and compact it. So, mixing it down is always good idea.
(mixer running)
- Now, we're gonna add our eggs in one at a time.
Wait for it to incorporate before adding the next.
And yes, you're going
to scrape that bowl down one more time.
See how it's all yellow?
(instrumental music)
- Always hilarious doing stuff on film
because you see just white unmixed, butter and sugar.
I see an egg soup because it is not scraped down.
So, part of the mixture is really soft.
Part of it is totally unmixed.
All right, back to mixing those eggs in.
Ploop.
One thing I didn't tell you is you need to have a cup
of buttermilk and a tablespoon of a nice vanilla add it in.
Fifteen ML, and give it a mix.
This is going to be alternated with the flour mixture
back and forth as you make that cake batter up,
and you'll notice that my chocolate is all melted and ready
to incorporate into the chocolate part of the cake.
With my mixer running on low,
I'm going to add in a third of the flour
and half of the milk.
So you alternate back and forth in three batches,
and don't waste too much time in between the batches,
because you do not want to over mix this cake batter.
If you do, it's not going to be light and fluffy.
Last bit of flour. In you go.
Let that mix until it is just combined.
It is just combined as of this...
Oh no, no, no.
That was the wrong way.
All right it's just combined.
We're going to divide this batter in half.
You can eyeball it. You could use a scale.
It's totally up to you.
Half of the batter goes into the pans.
Half of the batter gets flavored with chocolate.
It's so easy, and I love the visually striking,
just marbleized effect you get.
I love my scale. I'm going to use it again
and recycle the bowl.
Just zero the scale-out, and, by the way,
I got a ton of questions asking about like,
what scale do I use?
I love my Oxo scale.
O-X-O.
There's a link in the description box
along with all the other products I use in the Amazon store.
Just measuring up 330 grams. That's all I needed.
That's about one and a half cups of batter
that you're reserving.
This chocolate is melted,
and it's not screaming hot or anything.
So, it's going to go right into this reserved batter.
Now we're going to mix this chocolate into the batter,
along with a quarter cup of buttermilk,
and then, we're going to start marbleizing.
My cake pans are buttered and parchment papered,
but I didn't add the flour in.
So, I'm just going to toss around a nice sprinkle
of flour for the side.
It's really the side that matters.
Not the top because the parchment paper will not stick.
Now, we're going to add our batters into the pan.
A lot of times people just add the vanilla batter
and then add the chocolate batter in on top
and swirl it around, but after much experiencing
marbleizing cakes, I like to kind of go back and forth.
It gives you a better, better play of colors
which is one of the main attributes of this cake.
Now we're going to add some of this amazing chocolate in.
No, I have not been eating cake batter off-camera.
How dare you!
(laughs)
- Now for the fun part.
We're going to swirl this up. I'm using a little spatula.
You could also use a knife.
Just go in there.
Don't over mix it, but you know,
get little ribbons of chocolate throughout.
So, you're dragging the vanilla through the chocolate
and creating a nice marble pattern.
I do this for marbleized cheese cake all the time,
which is one of my favorite recipes.
Okay, that looks good.
On to the next piece.
Before these go into the oven,
I'm wrapping them in cake strips. It's totally optional,
but it'll give you a cake that you never have to level off.
It'll does bake really evenly and have a soft edge too.
Wet cake strips on the edge.
The cake layers are going to bake for 30 to 35 minutes
at 350, or until the centers are set
and a skewer comes out clean.
Into the oven.
While the layers bake,
we're going to make our delicious chocolate frosting.
Starting with one and a half cups or about 340 grams
of unsalted butter that's at room temperature.
We're going to cream it up for a few minutes
so it's nice and creamy.
Then, sift the cocoa powder in,
and this cocoa powder is pure rocks.
So we definitely need to sift.
That looks good.
Now, we're going to add a quarter teaspoon of salt in
along with one third of a cup of cocoa powder,
and if you can tell by the color,
I'm using Dutch processed today,
because it gives you a nice dark, rich color.
Push that cocoa powder through.
Like I said, it's pure rocks today.
Don't know why.
That's all in.
Now, we're going to mix this up until it's nice and creamy.
Scrape the bowl down.
We should have scrape the bowl down theme music.
Like Ina Garten has her...
(John scats)
- Like that.
All right, now, we're going to mix this up.
Really get it nice and mixed up
because nothing stands out more
than a lump of butter in cocoa powder.
See that butter? Look at that.
(light music)
- This is about, ah...
This is about five and three quarters
or 675 grams of confectioner's sugar.
I weighed it out on my scale.
I'm going to add this in a bit at a time,
alternating with the cream.
I'm using five tablespoons.
Make sure to mix on low.
You don't want a crazy sugar cloud,
but you also don't want to beat too much air
into your frosting. That's why you have those big holes.
Well, that's why you would have those big holes of frosting.
Mixing on low, we're going to drizzle in
a little bit of cream, and you're going to think,
"Oh my gosh, it's not mixing."
It'll mix. Just walk away and come back.
It will be done before you know it.
(guitar music)
- Let's drizzle in the remaining cream.
Let it mix up.
And this is optional,
but you could definitely add a teaspoon of vanilla.
In you go.
Adds a little bit of flavor.
Mix that up until it's nice and creamy,
and if you want a thinner consistency,
that's more easily spreadable,
just add an extra tablespoon of cream in there.
That frosting's nice and creamy.
So, let's assemble the cake.
I let my cakes cool in the pan for about 20 minutes.
Now, we're going to invert this onto a cake plate
or whatever you want to use,
and just like that it came out,
and you can see there's a beautiful marbleized texture
even on the very top of the cake.
And because we used cake strips, it's perfectly flat,
no need to trim.
Center that up,
and now we're going to add about half a cup or so
of frosting right on top and just smooth it out.
I need to put a little dollop of frosting
right on the bottom to hold the cake down, that's the glue.
Now, we're going to invert the second layer right on top.
Just use your hand instead.
If your cake is ever stuck in the pan...
Look how pretty that is.
All you need to do is give
it a good knock on the side like this.
Pop, pop, pop, pop, pop.
It'll shake it off, and it'll just free it up.
Take the remaining frosting, spread it all over your cake.
Cover the side of the cake with frosting,
and then just swirl it up to your heart's content.
You can do any decoration you want with this cake,
but for me, the inside is the star of the show.
So, I like to keep it simple on the outside.
If you like this recipe, check out my easy cake playlist.
That is some melt in your mouth amazingness.
Hope you get a chance to make this recipe,
and I'll see you in the next video.