(Not-So-Marvel) Marble Loaf

It has been a while since I have posted and my only excuse is that I have been very busy and not set enough time aside to write up a blog post.

I have been continuing to bake but I haven't been as happy with my outcomes recently. I baked some brownies and tried to decorate them with an Easter theme but I overheated the chocolate and couldn't decorate them the way I had envisioned - irritating. When I have bakes like this I end up not baking for a while as I feel I have lost my 'touch.' It always seems to be the final stages that I mess up and then feel they aren't good enough to put on the blog. I just have to remind myself that I am not a professional and I am going to make mistakes and ruin recipes, easier said than done though after spending time planning and putting together all the ingredients, not to mention buying the ingredients. Being a student, baking does not always fit into your weekly budget - ingredients are surprisingly expensive!

Two of my favourite Baking books - Hummingbird Bakery book and Biscuiteers Book of Iced Biscuits. 

To say I wasn't as happy as I'd hoped with this cake would be an understatement...but nonetheless, the cake itself was tasty and my flatmates and I had finished it within two days!

☆- Prep Time: 30 - 35 minutes.
Cooking Time: 55 minutes - 1 hour.
Easiness: Medium.

Ingredients: 

• 225g unsalted butter, softened. 
• 225g caster sugar. 
• 275g self-raising four, sifted.
• 4 eggs. 
• 2 tsp. baking powder. 
• 2tbsp. milk.
• 1 tsp vanilla extract. 
• 2 tbsp cocoa powder (I used hot chocolate powder)
• 2 tbsp hot water. 
• 100g plain chocolate. 
• 60g unsalted butter. 
• An extra 30g cocoa powder. 

Method: 

Sponge:

1. Preheat the oven to 160° and line a baking tin (21x11x7cm) with grease proof paper.
2. Place the butter, sugar, flour, eggs, baking powder, milk and vanilla extract into the bowl together and mix well until the batter is smooth. 
3. Split the batter evenly and put half in another mixing bowl. 
4. In a third bowl, mix the hot water and cocoa powder together. 
5. Once the cocoa powder and water mix has cooled, add it to one of the batters and mix through thoroughly. 
6. Spoon the two mixtures into the tin randomly. Then tap the full loaf tin to spread the mix a bit more. 
7. Place in the oven for 55 minutes. 

Icing: 

1. Melt the chocolate and butter in a bowl over a pan. 
2. Once fully melted, whisk in the cocoa powder (but make sure not to over-whisk because that is what I did and the chocolate glaze turned out quite thick and lumpy. Keep the mix thick but smooth.)
3. Using a palette knife spread the chocolate evenly over the cooled sponge. 

So, it doesn't look like an original Mary Berry bake, but hopefully next time round, I can 'perfect' the bake...especially the icing. Thank you for reading and enjoy!