White Chocolate / Double Chocolate Marble Cake

How Delicious does that sound?!?!  I saw a post on Pinterest for "Zebra" cake, or Marble cake. I just loved the idea, so it got me on the hunt for two delicious recipes with similar cooking temperatures and times.  I had the recipe for white chocolate cake, which is my husbands favorite, and the double chocolate pound cake, which is one of my favorites, so I thought that would be perfect!  The chocolate cake cooks at 325 for 60 min (when using the giant cupcake pan), and the white chocolate cake at 350 for 35 min. I figured not using the giant cupcake pan the chocolate cake would cook a little faster, and not the white chocolate cake would cook a little slower at a lower temperature! Fingers crossed!

The Double Chocolate Pound Cake is courtesy of Wilton.  It is delicious.  I have used it many times for many different cakes and it always gets great reviews.   It is a pound cake, so it is a dense/heavy cake.  The recipe is fairly straight forward, so I mixed up the ingredients and set it aside.  The White Chocolate Cake is courtesy of Allrecipes.com.  Also a delicious cake, that always receives fantastic reviews. This is also quite a dense/heavy cake.  The are both great cakes for stacking.

To make the marble/ zebra cake, I just dropped alternating 3 scoops of each cake mix, and making sure they spread out a little before dropping the next layer.  Pretty easy, and great dramatic effect!  I set the oven on 325 and baked the cakes for about 40 minutes (using 8" cake pans), 35 minutes (using 6" cake pans and the large cupcakes took about 30 minutes.

DOUBLE CHOCOLATE POUND CAKE

Ingredients:

• 2 teaspoons instant coffee
• 1/2 cup water boiling
• 1/2 cup cocoa powder unsweetened
• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 3 sticks butter softened
• 2 cups granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup brown sugar firmly packed
• 4 eggs
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 cup sour cream
• 1 cup mini semisweet chocolate chips

Instructions: 

1. Preheat oven to 325°F. Grease and flour or use pan spray with flour to prepare pan. 
2. In small bowl, dissolve instant coffee in water; stir in cocoa powder and mix well. Set aside to cool. 
3.  Stir together flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt; set aside.
4. In large bowl, beat butter, granulated sugar and brown sugar with electric mixer until light and fluffy.
5.  Beat in eggs, one at a time. Add vanilla; mix well.
6. Combine cocoa mixture and sour cream. Add flour mixture alternately with sour cream mixture, beginning and ending with flour mixture, beating after each addition until smooth.
7. Fold in chocolate chips. Spoon 4 1/2 cups batter into top of cupcake pan; spoon remaining batter into bottom of pan. Bake 60-70 minutes or until toothpick inserted into center comes out clean. Cool cake in pan on wire rack 15 minutes. 
8. Turn cake onto wire rack to cool completely. To assemble cupcake ice top of cake's bottom half. Place top half of cake atop iced bottom half. Decorate as desired.

WHITE CHOCOLATE CAKE

Ingredients

• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 6 (1 ounce) squares white chocolate, chopped
• 1/2 cup hot water
• 1 cup butter, softened
• 1 1/2 cups white sugar
• 3 eggs
• 1 cup buttermilk
•  
• 6 (1 ounce) squares white chocolate, chopped
• 2 1/2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1 cup milk
• 1 cup butter, softened
• 1 cup white sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Sift together the 2 1/2 cups flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Set aside.
2. In small saucepan, melt 6 ounces white chocolate and hot water over low heat. Stir until smooth, and allow to cool to room temperature.
3. In a large bowl, cream 1 cup butter and 1 1/2 cup sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, beating well with each addition. Stir in flour mixture alternately with buttermilk. Mix in melted white chocolate.
4. Pour batter into two 9 inch round cake pans. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes in the preheated oven, until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean.
5. To make Frosting: In a medium bowl, combine 6 ounces white chocolate, 2 1/2 tablespoons flour and 1 cup milk. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until mixture is very thick. Cool completely.
6. In large bowl, cream 1 cup butter, 1 cup sugar and 1 teaspoon vanilla; beat until light and fluffy. Gradually add cooled white chocolate mixture. Beat at high speed until it is the consistency of whipped cream. Spread between layers, on top and sides of cake.

Happy Baking!!

JoJo!!