TWD: Peppermint Marble Loaf Cake

This week’s Tuesdays with Dorie was selected by Carol of The Bake More: basic marbled loaf cake.  The idea was simple – make the batter for a classic pound cake then divide it in half, flavor each half as you like and swirl the two batters together in the pan.  Dorie provided several options for flavor variations, but she noted that the peppermint marble loaf was her favorite.  Several of the TWD bakers who made the recipe early in the week tried that version and loved it and since I’m a big fan of the chocolate/mint combo it was an easy decision to go that route.

In the peppermint marble loaf, white chocolate and peppermint extract are added to half of the batter and bittersweet chocolate to the other half.  I’d purchased Trader Joe’s white chocolate on a whim a few weeks ago and decided to use it here.  I happen to love white chocolate, and this bar with its high cocoa butter content (45%) was delicious which made it nearly impossible not to snack on as I chopped it up for melting.  The recipe called for 4 oz of chocolate but my 3.5 oz bar worked fine.   

In the hopes of achieving a nice pattern with my marbling, I transferred the batters to piping bags and piped alternating rows of color into the pan.  Getting the batter into the bags proved to be a bit messy, which gave me plenty of opportunities to sample the batter.  It was really tasty, which was the first indication this cake would be loved here; the second was the intoxicating aroma of chocolate and peppermint as the cake baked – I couldn’t wait to dig in.  But, since I finished baking around dinner, I wrapped the cake in plastic and then somehow proceeded to forget about it for 3 days.  I think it worked to my advantage because when I finally got around to trying it, the cake was perfectly moist and tender.  The white chocolate all but disappeared, leaving just the right amount of peppermint flavor in the light part of the cake.  I was pleased with my marbling efforts (for probably the first time ever) so this cake was definitely an all-around winner.  

Many thanks to Carol for hosting this week!  You can find the recipe on her blog or on pages 230-231 of Baking: From My Home to Yours.