White and Dark Chocolate Jaffa Swirl Cake

I think I practically grew up on marble cake and love a good one at that. I don't often make it so when I happened to come across this particular recipe from a borrowed library book, I knew I had to get my ingredients out. The thought of adding white chocolate and dark chocolate into a cake batter sounded so tempting. This was definitely a double dose of chocolate fix and if you love cakes of this sort, who in the right mind could say no!

I would usually half most of my recipes especially if what I'm baking is for the first time. However this time I went ahead with a full size cake simply because it called for a bundt pan. If I had a smaller size pan, I probably would have halfed it but no regrets though. The cake came out deliciously moist and flavourful. I could taste the intensity of the chocolate with each and every bite. I took most of the cake to office and shared it around. It certainly got the thumbs up all around. Who says using a food processor can't give you a great cake. By the way if you are planning to get a cake/dessert book, I highly recommend Mix & Bake by Belinda Jeffrey . It has some really great recipes which I have already tried out and will post at a later stage.



White and Dark Chocolate Jaffa Swirl Cake
Recipe from “Mix and Bake” by Belinda Jeffery
Serves 12 – 16

Ingredients:

55g good quality white chocolate
55g good quality dark chocolate
290g unsalted butter, chopped at room temperature
2 ½ cups plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
¾ tsp bicarbonate of soda
½ tsp salt
4 eggs
1 ½ cups castor sugar
1 cup buttermilk *
1 ½ tsp vanilla extract
3 tsp finely grated orange zest
Chocolate ganache for topping

* If you don’t have buttermilk, use 1 cup full cream milk and add in 1 Tbsp of vinegar or lemon juice. Leave stand for 15 minutes before using it.

Method:

1) Preheat oven to 180C. Butter and flour a bundt cake pan.

2) Put the white chocolate and dark chocolate in separate microwave-proof bowls. Pour 20g of butter into each of the bowl. Microwave at intervals of 15 seconds until the chocolate is melted. Remove from microwave and stir the chocolate and butter together until mixed. Set the bowls aside to cool.

3) Put the flour, baking powder, soda and salt in a bowl. Use a whisk to mix well.

4) Add the eggs and sugar into a food processor and whiz for 1 minute. Add the remaining butter chunks into the egg mixture and process for another minute.

5) Pour in the buttermilk and vanilla extract, and process for 15 seconds.

6) Pour in the flour mixture and blend it with a few quick pulses. Scrap the bowl at least once in between pulses to make sure that the mixture is fully blended.

7) Transfer the batter equally into 2 bowls.

8) In 1 bowl add in the melted dark chocolate and using a spatula, mix to incorporate together.

9) In the 2nd bowl, add the melted white chocolate, zest and using a spatula, mix to incorporate together.

10) Pour half of the white chocolate batter into the bundt, top it with the half of the dark chocolate batter.

11) Finish it off with another layer of white chocolate batter and top it with the remaining half of the dark chocolate batter.

12) Using a thin sharp knife, run it through the batter in a petal or figure 8 motion. This will give it a swirl shape but don’t over-do it as the batters will then blend together.

13) Bake for about 45 – 50 minutes.

Chocolate Ganache:
(Makes 1 ¾ cups)

Ingredients:

250g good quality chocolate, cut into small cubes
125g butter
50 ml water

1) Put chocolate, butter and water into a medium-sized saucepan over low heat. Let the chocolate and butter melt stirring the mixture frequently, until the ganache is smooth. Do not let the mixture get too hot and boil as it will turn grainy and oily.

2) Once it is silky smooth, take it off the heat. Let it cool until it’s barely warm and of a thick pouring consistency before using it.

3) Any left over can be stored into an airtight container, seal it tightly and leave in the fridge. When ready to use, gently warm it over very low heat, let it cool to the right consistency.