Marble Sheet Cake Recipe

I love marble cakes and I love sheet cakes even more; though I have posted marble cake earlier, I just could not resist sharing this gorgeous marble sheet cake, because this sheet cake is amazingly addictive.

I made this more than thrice already and I am looking for an excuse to make them again.....it is that good.

Why am I calling this as marble sheet cake?? and not just marble cake or zebra cake....it is because I love sheet cakes, I am kind of totally in love with them. Sheet cakes are the best when you are baking for a large crowd or for a birthday party. Also, since Kerala has been declared drought hit and with severe power and water shortage, sheet cakes are my best go as they are oven friendly; what I mean is that for sheet cakes baking time is less compared to the standard 7-8 inch round, square pans, or loaf pans. Though the cakes will be thinner the plus point is that I am saving power too....and that gives me guilt-free ~~baking~~ power indulgence occasionally.

The cake itself is sweet and I did not feel the need to give it an icing, I think this cake is at its best just plain.
The cake flour gives a nice satiny texture to the cake which I loved.

This cake is made with cake flour, please refer notes as how to make cake flour at home. Usually, I like to bake cakes with just 1 stick of butter and minimum eggs. But with this cake, I am changing the rules....we need 5 eggs and that is beyond my limit, but still something made me try this, and boy, I was soooo glad that I did; otherwise I would never ever have this amazing cake.

As usual I have made this recipe simple and easy with step by step pictures. Hope you will enjoy it as much as I did.

I love everything about this cake and I am sure you will also, so lets get baking.

Slightly adapted from here

Marble Sheet Cake:

Ingredients:

Cake flour: 3 cups.
Baking powder: 2 tsp.
Salt: 1/2 tsp, since I used salted butter I did not use salt.
Sugar: 2 1/2 cups.
Cadbury cocoa powder: 1/2 cup.
Water: 6 tbsp
Butter: 1 1/2 sticks/150 gms, melted and cooled.
Vanilla essence: 1 1/2 tsp.
Eggs: 5.
Milk: 1/2 cup, I used whole milk.

Method:
Notes: To make cake flour.
Put 2 tbsp of cornflour into the cup and fill up with all purpose flour. This gives 1 cup of cake flour. So since you need three cups of cake flour, you have to do it twice again.

Grease/dust a pan and keep aside.

Sift flour, baking powder, and salt (if using). Keep aside.

In a saucepan, add 1/2 cup sugar, 1/2 cup cocoa powder, and 6 tbsp of water. Whisk until the mixture is smooth and keep aside.

In another bowl, melt the butter. Just place the bowl over the flame and when the butter starts to melt switch off the fire, the heat from the bowl will make the rest of the butter melt....keep stirring it.

Add in 2 cups of sugar.

With a hand mixer, beat on medium for about 1 minute or until nicely blended. Then add in the eggs one at a time mixing well after each addition, and beat the mixture until it is light and creamy.

Add the vanilla essence, I used vanilla beans; if you are using, slit the bean and scrap the seeds with a knife.

And add it to the creamy mix. I love natural vanilla bean.....the flavor is just OMG.

Add the flour in three additions alternating with the milk, beat on low until just blended and creamy.

Add 2 cups of the batter into the cocoa mix and stir until blended....keep aside.

Time to preheat oven; 180 degree C; and into the greased pan pour 4 scoops of vanilla mix.

Alternate it with cocoa mix.

Then vanilla mix, and again cocoa mix.

Run a knife into it, lightly.

And bake for 30-40 min at 180 degree C in a preheated oven or until a tooth pick inserted into the center comes out clean.

Notes: The pan I used here is 10x10 in square pan and it took about 30-35 min to bake.
If you are baking in 7-8 in pan, I would suggest you to make in two batches as this is a fairly big cake.
If you are using a 10 inch bundt pan, it will take around 60 minutes to bake.
Depending on the size of your scoop the marbling effect will be thicker or thinner.

Enjoy :)