Reeling in the years

                                

Who remembers marble cake? Grannies favourite served with a pot of tea straight off the kitchen range. As a little one I wondered how Nana managed to combine all those colours and integrate them to look so good. So I decided to have a go myself. Mine is called Army marble cake. Army because of the colours and my childhood desire to become a super hero army girl.

Begin by creaming 4 oz of margarine and the same weight in sugar I was very much at home with this project. The phrase creaming comes up in almost every recipe and it involves whisking the sugar and butter until they become one.As the spice girls would say 'When 2 become 1'. Next just like making a Madeira cake add 2 beaten eggs whilst gradually whisking adding air to the mixture. Now for the flour. Grab 6oz of self raising and sieve and stir into the mixture along with a pinch of your very finest salt.If you have seen Hocus Pocus then you all know to keep salt close by at Halloween. Add a dabble of vanilla essence and some milk until it's at dropping consistency. Now for the funky part.

Remove 1/3 of the mixture and pop it into another bowl. Add some green food dye and let the magic happen as you stir. Then take 1/2 the remaining mixture and add cocoa and a sprinkle of baking powder.Taking dollops of each mixture keep going until your baking tin is covered.I used a 9 inch round tin just to be different but traditionally they were also served in a loaf shape.Then using a skewer make zig zag motions through the mixture. Pop in a moderate oven and bake for up to 1 hr.




From the bottom it looks like a football and on the top and beautiful camouflage piece. I had loads of fun recreating and you can too adding what ever colours you like I think marble cakes will make a come back yet!