Gluten free marble cake

This has always been my daughters all time favourite cake and I have done marble cake for so many birthday cakes in so many shapes and in so many colour combinations I have lost count! They love it because unlike most cakes each slice is different which kind of adds to the excitement and you can create the most wonderful effect. The flavour is amazing but you don't just have to make it a marble chocolate cake you can leave all the mix plain or you can separate the mix but colour it different colours rather than making it chocolate if you fancied making a slightly different inside to a birthday cake. My favourite is either rainbow or camouflage. As with most of the recipes if you are not gluten free then just switch regular self raising flour back in. 

Ingredients

300g gluten free self-raising flour ( I use Doves Farm or Freee foods they are now called)

200g butter, softened

250g caster sugar

3 eggs

200 ml soured cream

30g cocoa powder

1 tsp vanilla essence

Optional icing

25g butter

1-2 tbsp milk

15g cocoa powder

100g icing sugar

50g white chocolate

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180c/ gas mark 4

2. Grease and line the base with baking parchment either 20 cm round tin with a loose bottom or a 23cm by 13cm loaf tin (or I actually sometimes split the mix between two smaller loaf tins to save one cake for a rainy day as freezes well too!)

3. In a bowl cream the butter until soft using either a hand held electric whisk or a free standing machine with the paddle attachment. Or a wooden spoon as I used to and I taught my daughter when she first began baking)

4. Add the sugar and continue mixing until it is pale in colour light and creamy.

5. Add the eggs one at a time and add in 1 tbsp flour after each addition or more if it starts to curdle.

6. Add in your soured cream and beat until it is well mixed and then with a large metal spoon gently fold in the remainder of the flour. (In case you did not know and are interested, the use of a metal spoon at this stage is because it helps prevent the air being lost in the folding in process)

7. Then remove half the mixture into another bowl and sift the cocoa into the mix left in the original bowl. Carefully fold in until it is well mixed. 

8. Into the second bowl add in the vanilla essence and mix really well.

9. Then this is the fun part. into your tin drop random blobs of each mix alternating between the two mixes without being too precise. When all the mix is added then give the tin a tap on the work top to level it and then with a skewer or sharp knife lightly swirl the mixture to marble it.

10. Bake in the oven for 45-50 mins until it is golden and a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean. I always check after the shortest time. 

11. Leave in the tin for 10-15 mins to cool then turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely.

12. Serve.....enjoy!

Optional

12. The cake is delicious just like this but sometimes if I want it to look extra special then I ice, it so if you wish to also then melt the butter in a small pan, add the cocoa powder and beat until mixed in whilst over the heat still. Remove from the heat and add in the icing sugar and 1 tbsp milk to begin with adding more if the mix is too thick, mix until the icing sugar is blended in. I like my mix to be slightly thicker because I like to then feather the top with white chocolate so I don't always need the full 2 tbsp milk.

13. Put to one side while you melt the chocolate in a small bowl set over a pan of boiling water.

14. When ready to ice then cover the top of the cake with the chocolate icing. If you would like a neat glossy finish and the icing has thickened a lot take a palette knife and dip it in water (shaking off the drips) carefully smooth over the top of the icing, re-wetting the knife every now and then. 

15. You can the just trickle the melted white chocolate all over, pipe in patterns with a fine tip nozzle or trickle all over and then feather. Whatever takes your fancy.