Winter Marble Cake

Joe and I hosted our first-ever dinner party!  We both reflected on the fact that this meal marked the first time our table was at full capacity, which was not difficult to do since it seats only four.  I decided to prepare a few of my favorite simple Italian dishes that I encountered during my summer Italian cooking challenge. As many hosts strive to do, I wanted to prepare something elegant while at the same time remaining secretly fuss-free.  The menu was as follows:

Pork Chops in Marsala

Green Beans with Garlic Breadcrumbs

Simple Potato Salad

Hot rolls

Pumpkin Chocolate Marble Cake

Making hosting look easy.

Besides cooking and cleaning, I needed some additional time to make sure our apartment was baby proof!  As it turns out, babies that crawl are quite the magnets to all electrical outlets and hidden cords. Even after we taped up cords and scattered toys across the carpet, the four adults took rotating shifts chasing around our animated 1-year old visitor, Levi. It wasn't until dessert when we could all finally remain at the table without worry. This was because Levi suddenly fell captivated by an unsuspecting baby decoy:  the large plastic lid of my cake Tupperware!  We could barely stomach our cake without spitting into giggles as we all observed him push the lid across the carpet, poke at it, attempt to make it roll or simply be in its company. In a way, this dessert truly succeeded in slicing up smiles, as well as compliments!  

Chocolate Pumpkin Marble Cake:
a guaranteed crowd pleaser!

The true chef deserving of praise for this bi-flavor pound cake is my mother. She baked this cake as a festive Christmas dessert when Joe and I were in Minnesota this past holiday season. She passed the recipe onto me and the rest is history!  Winter seems to be gaining strength in much of the Midwest. If you want to bring warm smiles to your dinner table for two or many, I highly recommend this as a final course.  Below I am sharing a modified version of the recipe that I consider to be far better than the original. I substituted fresh pumpkin for canned. If you do so as well, I recommend simmering your fresh pumpkin puree over low heat for about an hour to thicken. And, of course, try my mother's famously elegant (but secretly simple) rich chocolate glaze.  

Chocolate Pumpkin Marble Cake 

Adapted from "My Recipes" website

1 1/2 cups butter, room temperature

3 cups sugar

6 eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla

1 1/4 cups canned pumpkin (or cooked fresh shown below)

2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour (substituting 1 3/4 cups for whole wheat, optional)

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

3/4 cup unsweentened cocoa powder

1 cup milk, whole preferred

1. In a large bowl, with a mixer on medium speed, beat butter and sugar until well blended. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in vanilla. Scrape half the mixture into another bowl.
2. To make pumpkin batter: Beat pumpkin into half the butter mixture until well blended. In another bowl, stir together 1 3/4 cups flour (whole wheat if using), 1 teaspoon baking powder, 1/2 teaspoon salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves. Add flour mixture to pumpkin mixture and beat on low speed or fold in with a flexible spatula just until blended.
3. To make chocolate batter: In another bowl, mix remaining 1 cup flour, 1 teaspoon baking powder, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and the cocoa. Add flour mixture alternately with the buttermilk to the other half of the butter mixture (starting and ending with flour mixture), beating after each addition just until blended.
4. Spoon half the pumpkin batter into a buttered and floured 12-cup bundt-cake pan. Drop half the chocolate batter by spoonfuls over (but not entirely covering) the pumpkin batter. Repeat to spoon remaining pumpkin and chocolate batters into pan. Gently run the blade of a butter knife around the center of the pan several times, then draw the knife across the width of the pan in 10 to 12 places to swirl batters.  See pictures below!
5. Bake in a 350° until a wood skewer/toothpick inserted into center of cake comes out with a few moist crumbs attached, 55 to 60 minutes. Let cake cool 10 minutes in pan, then invert onto a rack, lift off pan, and cool cake completely.  Pour warm chocolate glaze (recipe below) over the top of the cake, letting it drip down the sides. 

Marvelous marbling!

Easy Chocolate Glaze 

Connie Nuss (my mother)

3 Tbsp. butter

3 Tbsp. corn syrup

3 Tbso. semi sweet chocolate

Place chocolate into a microwave safe bowl and heat until melted (30 seconds, stir, 30 seconds, repeat). Stir in the corn syrup and butter until well mixed and smooth (add additional 30 second sessions of cook time as needed).  Pour over desired cake or dessert while hot.