This Vanilla and Chocolate Marble Loaf Cake is always perfect for afternoon tea. The Half Vanilla Half Chocolate Cake made with Yogurt is a classic childhood dessert you never get tired of eating!
Preheat your oven on 180'c / 350'f. Grease and flour your Loaf Pan (1) and set aside.
Melt the Butter in the microwave and set aside to cool down.
In the bowl of your stand mixer (2), whisk the Eggs and Caster Sugar on a medium-high speed for 3 to 5 minutes, or until doubled in size and lighter in colour.
With the mixer on low, slowly add the Melted Butter then the Vanilla Extract and Greek Yogurt. Whisk until combined, using a spatula to scrap the edges if needed (3).
In a separate bowl, mix the Flour, Baking Powder, Baking Soda and Salt. Add it to the wet ingredients in two times (4) on low speed, mixing just until combined. Try not to overwork the batter or it will deflate.
Pour about half of the batter into a separate bowl and set aside.
Sift in the Cacao Powder into the first bowl and slowly whisk until combined, scrapping the edges of the bowl with a spatula if needed.
Pour small parts of the batters into the Loaf Pan, alternating between the Vanilla and the Chocolate batter (5).
To create the Marble Effect, dip a knife all the way down the bottom of the pan (without scratching it) and do a zigzag movement along the pan to mix the two batters together.
Bake for 35 to 40 minutes, or until a skewer comes out clean.Optional: to get a clean 'crack' in the centre of the loaf, remove the pan from the oven after about 10 minutes of baking and slash the centre of the cake with a sharp knife. Place back in the oven to finish baking.
Notes
I used a 25 cm / 10 inch Loaf Pan.
Use a Cooking Spray (or oil / melted butter) to heavily grease the pan, then dust it with Flour. Rotate the pan to make sure there is flour everywhere, then flip the pan and tap it against your kitchen bench to remove any excess.
You can use a hand mixer too - or do it by hands with a whisk but you might not get as much air in the batter as with a mixer.
I often find that some of the heavier ingredients fall down the bottom of the bowl before getting mixed in, so it is important to bring them back up with a spatula.
You can add it all at once, but it tends to create less lumps when added in two times. It also avoids getting any powders flying out of the mixer.
To do it more cleanly, I placed the two batters in two Piping Bags then piped rows of vanilla and chocolate batter next to each other, alternating the two between each layers . You can also just use a large spoon and drop dollops of batters next to each other, alternating between the two.