Chocolate Marble Loaf Cake

Sliced Marble loaf cake on a white paper.

5 from 29 votes

This wonderful moist Chocolate Marble Loaf cake (Pound cake) is the perfect elegant yet easy teacake to serve for breakfast, or as a dessert! My "Better than Starbucks Marble cake" consists of fluffy and delicious swirl of Vanilla and Chocolate cake covered with a 3 ingredients crunchy chocolate hazelnut glaze!

Prep Time30

Cook Time45

Resting time1

Total Time2 15

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: American

Servings:

Calories: 532kcal

Author: Katalin Nagy

Equipment

Ingredients

For the Marble loaf

160 g Unsalted butter room temperature soft
160 g Granulated sugar
1 teaspoon Vanilla extract
3 Eggs room temperature
60 g Greek Yogurt room temperature
105 g Flour for the vanilla part
¾ teaspoon Baking powder for the vanilla part
¼ teaspoon Salt for the vanilla part
80 g Flour for the chocolate part
25 g Cocoa powder unsweetened, for the chocolate part
¾ teaspoon Baking powder for the chocolate part
¼ teaspoon Salt for the chocolate part

For the syrup

70 g Water
70 g Granulated sugar

For the glaze (optional)

250 g Callebaut Dark Chocolate (callets) good quality semi-sweet chocolate
38 g Vegetable oil
30 g Hazelnut roasted, chopped

Metric - US Customary

Instructions

For the marble loaf cake

Prepare your Loaf pan Whisk egg in a separate bowl then slowly mix in while your Electric hand mixer is on.
Preheat oven to 175 C / 347 F
In a bowl beat sugar with room temperature, soft butter with an Electric hand mixer (or stand mixer) for few minutes until fluffy
Mix in egg, small amount at a time, and whip the mixture for another minute
Add yogurt in and mix in vanilla
Sift the dry ingredients for the vanilla part together (flour, baking powder, salt)
Sift the dry ingredients for the chocolate part together into a different bowl (flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, salt)
Divide the wet ingredients into two and Prepare the vanilla cake butter by gently folding the flour, baking powder, salt mixture into one of the wet ingredients.
Prepare the chocolate batter by gently folding the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, salt mixture into the other wet ingredients.
Fill a piping bag with your chocolate cake batter, another one with your vanilla cake batter and pipe the cake batters into your prepared Loaf tin by alternating between the vanilla and chocolate cake batter
To create the marble effect grab a knife and make some zigzag movement in the pan. Make sure that you do not over mix the cake batters, or they might melt together
On top of the cake apply a very thin butter line (with the help of a pastry bag)– this will help the Loaf cake to open up nicely and evenly
Bake for 45 min or until skewer inserted comes out clean
Towards the end of the baking time make the syrup: boil water and sugar in a saucepan until slightly thickens and reaches syrup consistency
Once loaf is baked, pour the warm syrup over in a few stages, this is the drizzle stage. The syrup will sink in. Let the cake cool few minutes in the tin and move it onto a cooling rack.
Chill the cake 1h in the fridge before glazing (or 15 minutes in the freezer)

Chocolate glaze

Place Callebaut Dark Chocolate (callets) or your chosen finely chopped high quality chocolate into a bowl, melt in microwave stirring every 30 seconds
When chocolate is melted (temp reached 45C-50C / 45C-50C / 113F - 122F) mix in oil, heat the mixture up again to 45C / 113F then cool it down to about 25C / 77F by stirring
Mix in hazelnut
When glaze on right temperature (25C / 77F) pour it over the chilled cake, then pop it back to the fridge for a minute, the glaze will set quickly
Store your Marble Loaf for 2-3 days either on room temperature or in the fridge in air-tight container

Notes

INGREDIENT NOTES

All ingredients must be on room temperature to properly emulsify: eggs, yogurt puree etc.
Try using the best quality ingredients; 82% butter, high quality chocolate, unsweetened dark cocoa powder, pure vanilla extract for the best texture and taste. Do not skip salt that will balance the sweetness of this cake

TECHNIQUE NOTES

Digital scale is required for consistent, happy baking experience:)
Do not overwork the cake batter, after the wet ingredients whipped up, switch to a rubber spatula to incorporate the dry ingredients
While mixing the chocolate and vanilla cake batter make sure you do not over mix it to a stage that they melt together during baking
On top of the cake batter before baking apply a very thin butter line – this will help the Loaf cake to open up nicely and evenly instead of breaking in a random way in the oven
Use parchment paper in your Loaf tin or butter and flour it so the cake can easily be removed after baking
Do not skip the syrup, it will make your Loaf extra moist
Always pre-heat your oven and consider using a digital oven thermometer for the best results
Baking this Marble Loaf cake takes 45 minutes in my oven however focus on the texture, not the time. Apply the toothpick check (it should come out clean) to avoid raw cake
While making the chocolate glaze pay attention the the temperature of the glaze, the ideal temperature is 25C / 77F. Too hot=thin? It will run through the Loaf without properly coating it. Too cold=thick? It will coat in a "wrinkly" way.
Only glaze chilled loaf, never glaze warm loaf

Nutrition