Recipe: Marbled chocolate cake

Name: Marbled chocolate cake
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 60 min
Total time: 70 min
Yield: 6 servings
Cuisine: French
Ingredients: 4 eggs; 5.25 oz (150 g) caster sugar; 5.25 oz (150 g) soft butter (creamed); 5.25 oz (150 g) dark chocolate 60%; 8 oz (230 g) flour; 1 packet baking powder

By chef patrick Asfaux 4.9/5 (54 reviews) · 🍳 11 made it

Prep 10 min

Cook 60 min

Total 1h10

Servings 6 serv.

The trap of marbled cake: too much hot melted chocolate that cooks the batter on direct contact. The solution? Melt just enough, barely warm, then spread it in layers. 1 hour at 150°C, and you'll have a soft cake, not a dry block.

Ingredients for 6 servings

Adjust for

servings

4 eggs
5.25 oz (150 g) caster sugar
5.25 oz (150 g) soft butter (creamed)
5.25 oz (150 g) dark chocolate 60%
8 oz (230 g) flour
1 packet baking powder

Step-by-step directions

1 Preheat the oven to 300°F (150°C) (Gas mark 5).

2 In a bowl, whisk the butter and sugar together, then add the eggs. Then fold in the flour and baking powder that you've already mixed together with a spatula. Set aside at room temperature.

3 Melt the chocolate in a bain-marie or microwave (2 times 15 seconds) as quickly as possible, just melted and barely warm, this is the secret to keeping the benefits of the chocolate.

4 Pour your batter into 4 small bowls, then mix the chocolate into 2 of these bowls.

5 In your loaf tin (like a Tefal mold), pour a layer of plain batter, then a chocolate layer, then a plain layer, then the last chocolate layer. Bake for about 1 hour at 300°F (150°C) (45 minutes with fan heat). As usual, check with a skewer that the center is hot and dry throughout. Your marbled chocolate cake is done.

A chef's advice

Forget the sweet red wine. This 60% chocolate cake calls for a dry, light white: a Vouvray demi-sec or an Alsace Riesling. The acidity of the white contrasts with the richness of the butter and the sweetness of the cake. No oak, no tannins that harden the palate. The acidity brings out the dark chocolate.