Isn’t it funny that no matter how much you do for your kids, from arranging their breakfast into a smileyface, styling their hair how they like it, making sure their juice comes in the right colour cup, as soon as dad comes home it’s ‘Mum who?’
When I say funny I mean incredibly annoying but it does, as most things in life, has an up-side. After a rare night out, early morning start and a small touch of ‘wine-flu’ your kids only wanting daddy is pretty bloody brilliant!
And of course if I need to sway them back to the mum-side I can always play the baking card 😃
I loved the look of marble cakes when I was a kid. Chocolate and vanilla sponge swirled together? What’s not to love?
There’s not many kids who wouldn’t fancy a bash at this and it’s a lot easier than you might think.
You’ll need 2×8″ sandwich tins, or a 9″ round or bundt cake tin, well greased or lined with baking paper.
Ingredients
For the cake
- 225g Butter
- 225g caster sugar
- 225g self raising flour
- 4 large eggs
- 50g cocoa powder
- 50ml boiling water
- Generous teaspoon vanilla essence or paste
For the vanilla buttercream (sandwich cake)
- 200g Butter
- 400g icing sugar
- Generous teaspoon vanilla essence/ bean paste
For the chocolate fudge icing (bundt)
- 100g chopped dark chocolate
- Heaped tablespoon butter
- 100g icing sugar
- Few tablespoons boiling water
- 50g chopped white chocolate
Preheat oven to 170°C gas mark 4.
Beat the butter and sugar together until creamy then mix in the eggs.
Stir in the flour until just combined then spoon half the batter into a separate bowl.
In a mug mix the cocoa powder and boiling water to form a paste. Mix this into one half of the batter.
With the remaining half, stir in the vanilla. You’ll have 2 lots of cake batter as per below.
Pour a few tablespoons of each batter into the prepared tins and swirl with a spoon to slightly mix the colours.
Bake for 20-25 minutes or until a knife inserted into the centre comes out clean.
Whilst cooling knock up your buttercream or icing.
Disclaimer – kids will eat alot of buttercream during the mixing process.
Vanilla Buttercream
If you have an electric whisk this is a doodle if not be prepared for slight arm ache: mix the butter, icing sugar and vanilla until smooth and pale.
When your cakes are cool, sandwich with 3rd of the buttercream, then spread or pipe the remaining buttercream over the top.
We had some Milky ways so we chopped to decorate but any additional decoration is completely optional 😃
Chocolate fudge icing
In a bowl set over a pan of simmering water, melt the chocolate and butter together.
Stir in the icing sugar and water, mixing until smooth.
Spoon over the bundt cake.
Melt the white chocolate again in a bowl set over a pan of simmering water.
Drizzle over the chocolate icing to create a monochrome effect.
Enjoy
Baking With Kids 