Sunday, June 10, 2007

Low fat Chocolate Marble Cake

Back to the time when I didn't have an oven in my Singapore apartment, I used to buy Sara Lee's pound cake all the time. There was always at least one loaf in the fridge at anytime. It had became an habit to just grab a pack whenever I did grocery shopping. I particularly like their chocolate and chocolate swirl flavour. Eventhough these pound cakes are not freshly made, they have an irresistible appeal to me. Maybe it's the convenience these pound cakes offered. They could be kept in the fridge infinitely.


Recently, I found a recipe of chocolate marble cake from Alice Medrich's amazing book,Chocolate and The Art of Low Fat Desserts that reminds me of my old flame. Maybe they don't taste exactly the same, but I think they are pretty close. Alice Medrich's version is tender and flavourful. It is also not overly sweet and dry, like other low fat recipes. A welcome surprise to me, and I feel good to share this with friends.


Adorned with bing cherries and strawberries I bought from the farmer's market, it's a simple and healthy treats to eat anytime of the day!

Chocolate Marble Cake
adapted from Alice Medrich's Chocolate and The Art of Low Fat Desserts

2 cups cake flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon instant espresso or coffee powder
1/3 cup dutch-process cocoa powder
1 1/3 cups sugar
1 whole egg
1 egg white
6 Tablespoons unsalted butter
1 cup nonfat yogurt
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Have all ingredients at room temp. Preheat oven to 350 degrees with rack in the lower third of the oven. Spray 8-10 cup tube pan with cooking spray.

Use a whisk to combine four, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Sift together. Set aside. In a small bowl combine the espresso powder, cocoa and 1/3 cup of the sugar with 1/4 cup of water. Whisk until smooth. Set aside. In another small bowl, whisk whole egg with egg white. Set aside.

Cut the butter into pieces and place in an electric mixing bowl. Beat for 1 minute to soften. Gradually add remaining 1 cup of sugar and beat at high speed for about 3 minutes. Dribble eggs in slowly, about 1 T at a time, beating constantly for about 2 minutes. On low speed, beat in a third of the flour mixture. On medium-high speed, beat in half of the yogurt. On low speed, beat in half of the remaining flour. On high speed, beat in the rest of the yogurt and the vanilla. On low speed, beat in the remaining flour.

Measure out 1 1/2 cups of yogurt batter and mix into the cocoa mixture. Set aside.

Use a large spoon to fill the bottom of the pan with about three quarters of the white batter placed in dollops. Cover the white batter with dollops of chocolate batter. Top the chocolate batter with small dollops of white batter spaced so that the chocolate batter shows through. Use a table knife to marble the batters together with a circular or zigzag motion; be careful not to blend them too much. Bake for 45-50 minutes or until the cake starts to pull away from the sides of the pan and a toothpick inserted in comes out clean.

Cool for 10-15 minutes on a rack. Unmold the cake. Cool completely before serving or storing.

15 comments:

Anonymous said...

mm..that does look very god..and it is hard to find low fat recipes that don't have that intruiging cardboard texture..
thanks for posting the recipe!

Lee Ping said...

Dear Mandy,

Yogurt and only 6 tbsp of butter, lower fat content, indeed. I love the use of coffee and cocoa. I have not attempted any "marbleling" effect on cakes before. Good recipe to have and good art to learn and master. If I am successful, I don't have to buy marble pound cakes from Starbucks anymore.

p/s Before I learned how to bake, my husband was a big fan of Sara Lee pound cake as well. :)

Anne said...

Oh gosh I do agree this cake is really good. I'm an avid believer of Alice Medrich recipes and I love mostly all of her low fat recipes as well.

Great looking cake!

Deborah said...

We would always have Sara Lee poundcake at my grandmother's house growing up - so this reminds me of my childhood! This looks wonderful - and low fat?? Could it get any better?

Patricia Scarpin said...

Mandy, I've made marble cakes my whole life but none of them looked great like yours - I'm stunned!

What a wonderful idea to use strawberries or cherries.

Anonymous said...

That looks so delicious!

Helene said...

My first time here but I love your blog! This marble cake looks delicious..and low fat? Heaven!

Mandy said...

marye,
yeah, some of the low fat recipes I tried really tasted like cardboard! yucks!

leeping,
wow, so I am the only one who was crazy about Sara Lee pound cake! :)

Anne,
Agreed! Alice Medrich's recipes are all good. Too bad this book has run out of print. Or I wil definitely get one.

Deborah,
Sara Lee pound cake has been part of my childhood memory too. It's nice to have some reminiscent of those young days.

Patricia,
Thanks! I see you made many awesome stuffs in your blog too!

Kristen,
Thanks for visiting!

Helen,
I love your blog too! You have been one of my inspiration! :)

Nora B. said...

Mandy, I'm always on a look out for low-fat cakes/muffins and this one sounds like a good one to try. Thanks for sharing.

Nora B. said...

p/s: I don't have cake flour...do you think it will make much of a difference if I use plain flour?

Lee Ping said...

No you are not, my husband used to take it out from the freezer, slice it and eat it as is. I don't think he will even buy frozen cakes now, since he tasted fresh baked cakes.

Mandy said...

Nora B,

Yes, you can use all purpose flour insteads of cake flour.The conversion is as follow:
1 cup of cake flour = 1 cup of all purpose flour minus 2 tablespoons and add 2 tablespoons of cornstarch.
I have not used all purpose flour for this recipe yet though, but I will definitely try it out soon.

Lee Ping,
Opps,I think it's a typo. I meant to say I was not the only one who's crazy about Sara Lee Pound Cake.

Aimei said...

Hi Mandy,

Hope you have the time to see this comment :)

Not sure if you still can recall the time when you made this cake. But do you find that the chocolate paste (cocoa powder +sugar and 1/4 cup water) is too much? It makes the chocolae batter too watery and hence my cake (chocolate portion ended up too moist and dense. Any idea why?

Anonymous said...

can i ask one cup equal to how many gram or ml.Thanks

eunice

Anonymous said...

I've just used this recipe as a starting point for a ginger and chocolate marble cake - haven't tasted it yet, but it looks fantastic!

If it tastes as good cooked as it does raw, then this is definitely on to a winner. Thanks for posting :)

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