Let’s not kid ourselves here. Vanilla and chocolate must live in harmony. So I thought to myself, why not make my all time favorite marble cake, which is one gorgeous loaf of golden and decadent chocolate swirls. This recipe is fool proof and quite honestly the best one i’ve come across, and it’s been more than 10 years, so yes, it’s amazing. This recipe is the brilliant concoction of one of my favorite people, Mehak. I’ve been asking her to make this cake since 7th grade, and she never disappoints, so here’s a gift from me to you guys, because no one should have to live without this recipe. No one.

Here’s what you’ll need:

1 cup butter, softened

1 cup sugar (add 2 tblspn for sweeter cake)

4 eggs

1 tsp vanilla

1 2/3 cups flour

1/2 tsp salt

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

2-3 Tblspn milk

3 Tblspn cocoa powder

Preheat your oven to 350 F/180C

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Grease and line a medium sized baking tin or a large loaf pan with butter and baking paper. Or you can make this in a bunt pan(grease with butter and flour). In a large bowl whisk the butter and sugar. You can use a stand mixer, which I prefer. Whisk in the eggs, one at a time, until just combined.Then add the flour, salt and baking powder and fold until completely mixed in. Add the vanilla and milk.

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At this point you have two options. You can grab another bowl and divide the mixture, adding cocoa powder to one of them, or you can just dollop half of the batter into your baking tin, add the cocoa powder to the remaining batter, then dollop it over the vanilla. Obviously you’ll get a better swirl and marble effect if you use two bowls, dolloping the batter into the cake tin alternately, but if it’s just for you, to enjoy with a cup of tea or coffee, i’d stick to one bowl, as I always do.

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So that’s it, once you’ve added both the chocolate and vanilla mix to the cake tin, give it a few swirls with a tooth pick or knife and bake it for 40-45 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. You can also make mini loaves, just decrease the baking time about 20 minutes, but check with a toothpick to make sure. Baking time can vary according to the size/depth of your baking tin. If you use a loaf pan it will take longer, and the top will harden a bit, but don’t worry, because under the hard layer is moist heaven.