This is a moist, decadent, crowd pleasing bake. The gorgeous swirls make this cake extra special, while the rich orange and chocolate flavors in this perfectly moist cake are stunning.
Chocolate Orange Marble Loaf Cake
Ingredients
- 30 g Cocoa Powder 3/8 cup
- 75 g 300g (1.5 cup) Granulated sugar 3/4 cup + 1.5 cup
- 50 ml Water 3/8 cup
- 3 oz Dark or semisweet chocolate or chips
- 3/4 cup Buttermilk, room temp 180 ml
- 3 Eggs room temp
- 1 tsp Vanilla extract or paste
- 300 g All purpose flour 2 1/3 cup
- 3/4 tsp Baking powder
- 1/2 tsp Baking soda
- 1/2 tsp Salt
- 3/4 cup Unsalted butter, softened 12 tbsp
- 1 tbsp Orange zest
- 1 tsp Orange extract
For Glaze:
- 1/4 cup Unsalted butter 4 tbsp
- 120 g Granulated sugar ~ 2/3 cup
- 60 ml Water 1/4 cup
- 1 tsp Vanilla extract or paste
- 1 tsp Orange extract
- 1 tbsp Orange zest
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 325F.
- Lightly grease a standard loaf pan (8.5 in x 4.5 in or 9 in x 5 in) and line with a long piece of parchment paper for easy removal later.
- In a small saucepan over high heat, combine water, cocoa powder, and 75g of sugar and whisk until smooth.
- Turn the heat off, immediately add chocolate and whisk until fully smooth and chocolate is melted. Set aside.
- In a medium bowl, whisk buttermilk, eggs, and vanilla. Set aside.
- In a large bowl, whisk flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and remaining 300 g sugar to combine.
- Add softened butter and half of the buttermilk mixture to the dry ingredients and beat with a handheld / stand mixer, using paddle or beater attachment, on low speed until moistened but still crumbly (~1 minute).
- With the mixer running on low, slowly add remaining buttermilk mixture until incorporated. Increase speed to medium and mix for 3 minutes, scraping down bowl as necessary, until batter is pale and creamy.
- Transfer about half of the batter to another bowl. Add chocolate mixture and whisk until smooth and fully incorporated.
- Add orange zest and orange extract to the other half of the batter and mix just until zest is evenly dispersed.
- Pour half the orange batter, then all of the chocolate batter, then the remaining orange batter into the prepared loaf pan. Swirl with a butter knife by running it through in a wiggly pattern 2-3 times.
- If it feels like there is too much batter for your pan, reserve some of both batters and pour into a smaller pan, like a muffin tin or mini loaf pan. Note that there should be about an inch of space above the batter in the larger pan before baking. Bake both tins, in this case, at the same temperature but check on the smaller tin periodically starting at about the 30 minute mark.
- Bake for 70-80 minutes, until a cake tester comes out clean and/or the internal temp in the center of the tallest part reaches 200F.
- While the cake is baking, make the glaze: In a small bowl, mix the sugar and orange zest together with your fingers to release the flavorful oils from the zest into the sugar.
- In a small saucepan, combine the butter, sugar and zest mixture, water, vanilla, and orange extract. Bring to a boil over medium heat, then reduce heat to low and simmer until the sugar is dissolved.
- When baking is done, set the loaf pan on a cooling rack and poke holes all over the surface of the cake with a long skewer or toothpick, going almost all the way to the bottom. Spoon or brush half of the glaze evenly over the cake, letting it absorb as you go.
- Cool for 30 minutes in the pan, then carefully remove using the parchment overhang as handles and place on a serving plate. Carefully spoon or brush the remaining glaze over the cake.
- Let the cake cool for at least 2 hours before serving.
Notes
This recipe makes about 7 cups of batter. If your tin is smaller than 9″x5″, you will probably have too much batter. In this case, keep a second smaller tin (a muffin tin, or mini loaf pan) greased and ready. When you pour the two kinds of batter into the larger tin, reserve some of each batter to pour into the smaller tin.
Make sure you leave an inch of space above the cake batter in the larger tin before it goes into the oven to bake. Overfilling the tin will result in the cake overflowing and making a mess in the oven.