Hello and top of the mornin’ to ya.
The new year is not too old on us yet and as such I’m sure a lot of you are still keeping to your new years resolutions.
A very popular resolution is to get fit, not eat as much junk and so on, which lets face it, unless you end up going the complete opposite way to an equally unhealthy degree, it never really happens.
So today I’m going to show you some really easy and healthy meals to help you stay fit..
Nope that’s actually a complete lie.
CHOCOLATE!
As far as I’m concerned you only get one life and it’s pretty darn short so just enjoy it.
That means carrot broccoli and kale smoothies can kiss my arse.
Ergh!
So, today’s recipe is really a tantalising Mocha Marbled loaf cake by Mary Berry.
Chocolate cake is layered with coffee cake and chocolate chips are sprinkled in between for a luxurious treat which not only tastes great but looks it as well.
Now I have to say, Mary Berry’s recipe was extremely confusing and it took me quite a while to write up a version that made sense to me, just to start cooking it for myself.
Thankfully I’m sharing with you my simplified version so you can enjoy the baking rather than trying to decrypt it yourself!
Have fun and don’t eat it all at once!
Mary Berry’s Mocha Marbled Loaf Cake
Serves 6-8
Ingredients
250g unsalted butter, softened
Pinch of salt
250g caster sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
4 large eggs
250g self raising flour
30g cocoa powder
2 tablespoons milk
1 tablespoon instant coffee granules/powder dissolved in 1 tablespoon boiling water
2 tablespoons dark chocolate chips
You will also need
1 2LB (900g) loaf tin, greased and lined with greaseproof paper
Method
Preheat oven to 160oc(fan) or 180oc.
Place the softened butter in a large bowl and beat it until creamy.
Gradually add in the caster sugar and the vanilla until fluffy.
In a separate jug, crack the eggs in and whisk up.
Gradually add them into the mix, stirring with each addition.
Sift in the flour and salt and fold in gently until it unifies in color and leaves no streaks.
Transfer half of the batter to another large bowl and to it sift in the cocoa and add the milk, stir.
Add the cooled coffee liquid to the other half of the batter and stir in.
Spoon some chocolate batter into the pan, add a few of the chocolate chips, then some coffee batter on top of that and more chocolate chips, alternating so there will be different coloured cake batters one on top of the other until all the batter and chips are used.
Tap the tin on a flat surface a few times to even out the mixture and smooth off.
Take a chopstick or long wooden skewer and run it through the mix in a swirling pattern to marble it.
Bake for 1 hour/1 hour 15 minutes until well risen and a skewer comes out clean, not sticky, when inserted into the middle of the loaf.
Place the tin on a cooling rack for 20 minutes then remove the loaf from the tin and leave to cool completely.
Enjoy!
Fantastic sliced and served in a bowl of warm custard.