This Mother’s Day Marble Loaf was made in partnership with Menier Chocolate.

What could be better than a slice of marble loaf covered in glossy chocolate ganache and a warm cup of tea to accompany it? One of the reasons I named my blog a cup of tea and cake was because I wanted people to sit down over tea and cake to connect more, to have deep meaningful conversations together and spend quality time with one another. There’s no better gift on Mother’s Day than enjoying your Mumma’s company and celebrating everything that your Mum does for you – and being completely present in the moment. This gorgeous Mother’s Day marble loaf is a perfect marriage of vanilla and chocolate batter made using Menier’s 100% Cocoa Powder, swirled delicately together and topped with the silkiest of chocolate ganaches, created with Menier’s 53% Cocoa Dark Chocolate Drops.

Mother's Day Marble Loaf

How to make the best ganache for this Mother’s Day Marble Loaf:

In an ideal world, your ganache should be smooth and silky. However, if it looks grainy, greasy or has curdled, then the emulsion has broken. This essentially means that the fat has separated from the liquids. Before you embark on making your ganache, I highly suggest reading through these tips to make a perfect ganache. And if everything goes wrong? Check out trick five to fix a ganache that’s far from perfect!

  1. Use a glass bowl. I find that using a glass bowl gives your ganache a gorgeous shine that you just don’t get with a plastic bowl.
  2. Use a stainless steel spoon to “whisk” the chocolate and cream. In my opinion, using a spoon over a balloon whisk is better as you don’t incorporate so much air and it’s gentler on your mixture.
  3. DON’T overheat your cream or chocolate! This is super important as a boiled cream will cause your mixture to split. Make sure you heat it gently, on a low heat, until it’s just steaming or beginning to simmer then remove it from the heat immediately. Your chocolate should also have cooled for around 5 minutes before you mix the two together.
  4. Add a tiny bit of sea salt to the cream before heating. This doesn’t make a difference to the texture of the ganache, it simply brings out the intense flavour of the chocolate.
  5. If all else fails… If you end up with a grainy, greasy or curdled ganache after using the above tips, there are ways to save it. Warm the mixture in a bowl over a saucepan of boiling water, and mix vigorously. Hopefully it’ll come back together, but if not, it’s better to start over again.
Mother's Day Marble Loaf

Ingredients and alternatives for this Mother’s Day Marble Loaf:

Stuck for ingredients? I’ve got you. Here are a few substitutes for making this cake:

  • Eggs: If you don’t have large eggs, you can use 3 medium eggs instead. I also always use free-range eggs in my recipes.
  • Sugar: while this recipe calls for caster sugar, you can also use granulated or golden caster sugar as an alternative.
  • Butter: always use unsalted butter in your recipes so you have full control over how much salt you add in.
  • Flour: if you don’t have plain flour, spelt flour is also a great alternative.
  • Sour cream: crème fraîche, Greek or plain yoghurt, or buttermilk are all great substitutes if you can’t get hold of sour cream.
  • Milk: semi-skimmed or skimmed milk can also be used in this recipe, as can any plant-based milk.
  • Double cream: whipping cream can be used instead, or any cream with a high fat content of 30% or above. 
Mother's Day Marble Loaf

See how I made this over on Instagram!

Mother's Day Marble Loaf

Mother’s Day Marble Loaf

A simple marble loaf recipe made with 100% cocoa powder, and finished with a glossy chocolate ganache – perfect for Mother's Day!
Prep Time 30 minutes
Cook Time 1 hour 10 minutes
Total Time 1 hour 40 minutes
Course Dessert
Servings 8 slices

Ingredients
  

For the cake

  • 175 g unsalted butter
  • 275 g caster sugar
  • 3 large eggs beaten
  • 300 g plain flour sifted
  • 2 tsp baking powder
  • 175 g sour cream
  • 3 tbsp Menier 100% Cocoa Powder sifted
  • 1 tbsp full fat / whole milk
  • Pinch fine sea salt

For the ganache

  • 100 g Menier 53% Cocoa Dark Chocolate Drops
  • 100 ml double cream

Instructions
 

  • Heat the oven to 180C/fan 160C/350F. Lightly butter a 900g loaf tin and line the bottom and sides of the tin with baking parchment.
  • Put the butter and sugar into a large bowl and use an electric mixer to cream together for 5 minutes or until light and fluffy.
  • Add the eggs in thirds, mixing until completely combined before adding more.
  • Meanwhile, sift the flour, baking powder and a pinch of salt in a large bowl. Once all the eggs are combined, add the flour mixture in three additions, alternating with the soured cream. Mix until you have a smooth batter and everything is nicely incorporated.
  • Divide the batter equally into two bowls, then sift the 3tbsp of cocoa powder into one bowl. Add the 1tbsp of milk to the same bowl and beat together until smooth and combined.
  • Fill two piping bags with the two batters then pipe into your prepared tin, alternating the stripes both horizontally and vertically until you've used up all of the batter. Lightly tap the tin on your work surface to get rid of any air pockets, then use a chopstick, knife or skewer to swirl the two batters together. Be gentle and go easy as you still want a distinction between the two flavours.
  • Bake for 1 hour 10 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the middle of the cake comes out clean, or with a few small crumbs clinging to it. Remove from the oven and leave to cool in the tin for 15 minutes before lifting out onto a wire rack to cool completely.
  • In the meantime, make your ganache. Put your chocolate into a heatproof bowl big enough to sit on top of a saucepan filled with a few inches of water. Bring to the boil, making sure the water doesn't touch the bottom of the bowl, stirring the chocolate at all times until completely melted.
  • In a separate saucepan, bring your cream to a gentle simmer over a low heat.
    N.B. You don't want your cream to boil or bubble!
  • Once the cream is steaming and there's a gentle simmer, take it off the heat immediately and pour it over the chocolate, whisking constantly to create a stiff but glossy ganache. Leave for 30 secs – 1 min to cool slightly before pouring it over the loaf cake, allowing any excess to drop down the sides. Use an offset spatula to spread the ganache over the top of the cake then leave to set.
  • Slice and serve with a cup of tea.
Keyword cake, chocolate, loaf cake, marble loaf, mother’s day, vanilla

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March 22, 2022

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