Chocolate Orange Marble Cake

It's holiday time again and this time we are visiting the beautiful country of Taiwan. It's a short 4 day trip but mostly on the move. As such it's imperative to carry as much finger food and snacks as possible. With a toddler on board, hunger pangs can strike anytime and anywhere. Being prepared is a wise thing to do as such. Keeping my little one's and my preferences in mind, this chocolate orange marble cake has been baked and packed for this exciting and adventurous trip. See you all soon with more recipes and chit chat.... Till then, take care and lot of love!! 

Ingredients 

1/2 cup butter

3/4 cup sugar

2 eggs (you can increase this to 3 as well; I fell short of 1 egg but feel it will taste even better with an additional egg)

2 tsp orange essence (you can also substitute with vanilla essence)

100 ml orange juice (fresh is best, but canned will work as well)

1 tsp baking powder 

1/2 tsp baking soda 

50 ml milk

2 cups flour 

1 1/2 tbsp cocoa powder 

1 1/2 tbsp orange zest (peel the skin of oranges with a peeler and cut it very fine; you can also use candied orange peel chopped very fine or dried orange peels)

Direction 

If using fresh orange, peel and cut the zest and keep aside and juice the orange. 

In a bowl, cream the butter and sugar together. Add the eggs one at a time and whip till smooth and creamy. Add the orange/vanilla essence (I strongly recommend using orange) and the orange juice. Whip further for a minute. Now add the flour mixed with the baking powder and baking soda alternating with the milk. Stir well till no lumps remain. Now divide the batter into two equal or unequal portions and mix in the cocoa powder into one (I mixed into the one with more quantity) and orange zest into the other. In case you do not have access to orange zest (either fresh or candied or dried) you can skip it. However, you must add the orange essence then in the first step to achieve the perfect orangey flavor. 

Pre-heat the oven at 180 degree celcius for 10 minutes. Now take a 8" round pan and spray with cooking spray. Line it with parchment paper and spray again. This helps in easy release of the baked cake. Now alternately spread the two batters in whatever pattern you wish to. With the help of a long skewer or toothpick, make swirls in the batter to help form a pattern inside. 

Now bake in the pre-heated oven for 25-30 minutes or till a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Remove from the oven and let it cool in the pan for 10 minutes before transferring to a wire rack for cooling completely. Store in air tight containers once sliced.