Marble Cake

 
I have been wanting to make a marble cake for months, but have put it off because I wasn’t sure how it would come out and I hate not getting things right.  I finally gave it a go and it came out okay… the cake tasted good and was lovely and moist, the icing was probably some of the best I had ever made, BUT the ‘marbling’ left a lot to be desired aesthetically as you can see, so this might be a case of practice makes perfect.

250g butter, softened
1 ¼ cups caster sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
3 eggs
2 ¼ cups self-raising flour, sifted
¾ cup milk
2 tablespoons cocoa
3 drops red food colouring

1. Pre-heat your oven to 160˚C and grease a 22cm spring form cake tin.
2. Beat butter and sugar in a bowl until creamy. Beat in the vanilla essence and eggs one at a time. Stir in sifted flour in two batches, alternating with the milk.
3. Divide the mixture into three bowls, beat cocoa into one and mix food colouring into another leaving the third lot plain.
4. Drop large spoonfuls into the greased cake tin, alternating between colours. Drag and swirl a blunt knife through the mixtures to create the marble effect (I think I over swirled so be careful here).
5. Bake for 1 hour or until you can remove a skewer cleanly. Cool in tin, remove and ice.

To make the icing you will need:

50g butter, softened
1 ½ cups icing sugar, sifted
1 tablespoons vanilla essence
3 tablespoons boiling water

Place all the ingredients in a bowl and mix until pale and creamy.