Chocolate Fudge Marble Cake: The cake that never fails... except today!

Oh, I thought it would be so simple.

My stalwart, standard cake. If it sinks, the icing hides it. If it rises, it looks even better. When you cut it open, people are always amazed by the pattern, yet you know it's so simple to do. It never, ever, goes wrong and is perfect to take into work, or school... Mum used to make it for school fetes and the like, and then taught me how to do the marble effect, and it still amazes me how something so simple can impress people so easily! :P

So I learned some very important things today - some important baking lessons AND that the infalliable cake is actually falliable...

Well, actually, it isn't, I am, and I really knew that already :P

But the most important lesson is this - follow your gut instinct with mixture sizes, and when you get a new pan, be prepared to maybe get it wrong... better to make too little than too much.

This cake will make you friends


A store-cupboard cake that will never do you wrong. People love the marble effect and it's so easy to jazz up with simple toppings. Quick, simple and, above all, forgiving!


For the sponge
6 oz caster sugar
6 oz margarine/butter
6 oz self-raising flour
3 eggs
1 tbsp baking powder (approx)
2 tbsp cocoa powder (approx)
1 tsp vanilla extract

For the fudge icing
2oz margarine/butter
2 tbsp milk
2 tbsp cocoa
About 10oz icing sugar?

Cream the butter and sugar together. Crack 3 eggs in, mixing with each addition. Sift in the SR flour and baking powder (I say 1 tbsp but I change it every time and always forget what works best!) and fold. Mix in the vanilla extract.

Now get your greased, lined tin and scoop half the mixture into it with a tablespoon, in blobs kept slightly apart, with gaps in between. It doesn't matter if some blobs run together.

Sift in enough cocoa to the remaining mixture to turn it brown - not a very dark brown but not too light either, it's your preference really - and mix. Place the remaining mix in the gaps and anywhere else you can fit it!

Then give this mixture in the pan one swirl - resist the temptation to do more or it'll all just mix together.

Pop it in the oven for about 25-30 mins (180 degrees in a fan one)- might need more, I forget! You'll know when it's done, it tends to spring back beautifully and rise nicely.

A quick note about pans - mine today was a failure because I was using a new 21cm pan and this was too much mixture for it, so it went everywhere and involved a lot of oven cleaning and burning smells in my halls of residence - not a good start to my uni cooking adventures! I think the one I use at home is 23cm and a lot deeper. You can always change the ratios in this to 4/4/4/2 instead (butter/sugar/flour/eggs).

Take out and leave to cool. For the fudge icing, put the butter in a saucepan and melt it. Take off the heat and add the milk and cocoa, then start to sift in icing sugar until it's a fairly runny consistency still but will gloop enough to stick to the cake :P The cocoa is also personal preference... I ALWAYS use green & blacks, which very quickly gives you a deep colour and rich flavour. Mum prefers to make the fudge icing dark, the colour of good dark chocolate, whereas I prefer to have more of a milk chocolate colour.

Using the 2/2/2 mix here will sometimes give you enough, but i tend to be a bit more generous with the butter and milk so i know i'll have enough for a big thick layer on the edges of the cake too. If it gets too thick, you can pop it back on the heat (don't forget to stir!) or add a bit more milk - the icing is as forgiving as the cake ;)

Pop anything you want on top. A crumbled flake is nice and easy, or malteasers around the edge always go down a treat (as long as you get the right amount for the number of people you're serving!). I once got a posh box of chocolates and put them round the edge too... experiment with anything you have handy :)

There you are... a super-simple cake that can't go wrong, unless you're me :D