Marble Butter Cake

Uncle, one hei mee without hei!

I remember saying this at desperate situations... ordering a bowl of hei mee (prawn noodle) without hei (meaning prawns in Hokkien). I had to do this whenever my friends invited me to eat with them at their favourite hei mee place. Sometimes, these specific coffee shops that sells nothing but their famous hei mee. So, the sad me had to make this accommodating request to avoid any social-suicide and also survive through my fresh prawns allergy.

ok... I can accept eating hei mee without hei but definitely NOT baking marble butter cake without any butter... LOL! Please pardon me for beating around the bush, linking hei mee with marble butter cake... because I reckon this is the best way to illustrate how important the role of butter in a nice buttery marble butter cake. Here, I like to strongly emphasize that I will NOT bake anything low fat or butter-reduced for our marble butter cake bake-along with Joyce from Kitchen Flavours and Lena from Frozen wings. Not to brag but mine is seriously BUTTERY, moist and smooth and this is the one that I'm after...

Yes... You are the nice BUTTERY marble butter cake that I like.

Since young, we used to celebrate our Chinese New Year with Bengawan Solo marble butter cakes... I don't know why but I guess we did this because my father likes butter cakes.

I have not celebrate Chinese New Year in Singapore for more than the past decade and have not been eating much Southeast Asian-style marble butter cake since then. Southeast Asian-style marble butter cake??? Is there any difference between Southeast Asian-style marble butter cake or non-Southeast Asian-style marble butter cake? How do I you define which butter cake is Asian or which is not? Since young, I have been eating many butter cakes with my father and I think I can tell the differences...

Maybe it is just me and my opinion... I can't help to think that most typical Westerners' kind of butter cakes are typically rich in butter content with compact texture. Most of the typical butter cake recipes that I have seen are the ones that were made with creaming of butter and sugar first and then with the additions of eggs, milk, flour and raising agents. These recipes don't require any separation of eggs and their methods of mixing is usually straightforward and easy. Whereas, some of the Asian-originated fully-packed butter cakes that I know are less compact with tender crumbs and finer texture.

If you do a Google search for the "best marble butter cake recipe", you will see these two Asian-originated marble butter cake recipes. Truly, it is the best that I'm after...

• Old fashioned Marble Cake by Little Teochew
• Marble Butter Cake by Life is great

In actual fact, these two recipes are exactly the same recipe as it originally comes from Life is great. Mixing this butter cake requires separation of eggs and it is maximally loaded with butter... Yeah, lots of butter! There is no other liquids like milk, or yogurt in this recipe. Just eggs and minimal flour to bind the maximal amount of butter. I would highly recommend this butter cake recipe if you are a butter cake lover. It is seriously buttery but delightfully light with subtle fluffiness.

I have to say that I really have nothing to complain about this recipe except that the mixing of this cake batter can be quite lay-chay (meaning troublesome in Hokkien). Lay-chay???... As mentioned in the recipe, two electric mixers are required to bake this cake or unless you have very strong arm muscles... LOL!

I need to use both a stand mixer and a hand mixer to bake this cake. Very lay-chay!

To start, whisk egg yolks with sugar until light and combined.

Use stand mixer to cream butter, and egg yolk mixture...

Use hand mixer to whisk egg white until stiff peaks...

... and combine both together!

Add cocoa powder into a quarter of the batter 

Wait! Don't bake this yet...

I need to make a swirl...

Ai ya! There is a crack on the cake surface! Not perfect?

Not Perfect? Nay! For me, I can ignore the crack. This cake is perfectly buttery with delightfully fluffy texture.

Here's the recipe that is adapted from Life is Great - Updated on 14 July 2016. A reader has requested me to re-write the recipe with showing any modifications and so this is exact recipe that I have used. 

Makes one 14 cm round cake, you use 2 x this amount to make one 20 cm round cake 

4 large eggs, 60g each (weight with shell) separated
100g (1/2 cup) caster sugar
175g (3/4 cup) unsalted butter
135g (3/4 cup plus 3 tbsp) all purpose flour
3/4 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp pure vanilla extract
10g (1 tbsp) good quality cocoa powder - I used 10g Valrhona Dutch processed cocoa
1/4 tsp salt

Preheat oven at 180°C or 160°C (fan forced) with a wire rack in the middle. Line one 14 cm round cake tin with baking paper. Sift flour, baking powder and salt in a bowl. Set aside.

Cream butter in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment till light and fluffy. In a separate bowl, whisk egg yolks with sugar until light and combined. Gradually add egg yolk mixture into the butter and beat on medium speed till just incorporated. In a separate bowl, with a hand mixer in medium, whisk egg whites until stiff peaks form, in about 10 mins. Use a spatula to fold in the egg white mixture into the egg yolk mixture in 3-4 batches. Add in vanilla extract and dry ingredients. Stir gradually until just incorporated.

Divide the batter into two, 3/4 in one portion and the rest in another portion. Sieve cocoa powder over the smaller portion and fold to mix well. Pour batter into tin, alternating between the two mixtures, starting with the yellow batter and ending with the cocoa mixture. Tap the filled tin on kitchen top gently to eliminate any air bubbles. With a long skewer, swirl around the batter to create the marble effect. Bake for 40-55 mins or until a tester inserted into the middle of the cake come out clean.

Allow cake to cool slightly in the tin for about 10 mins and transfer onto a wire rack to cool completely before serving. Cake keeps at room temperature up to three days and can be frozen up to 3 months.

There is also another recipe that I really keen to bake which is this famous Mrs Ng SK's butter cake by Wendy, Table for 2 which many Asians have baked this recipe in the form of marbled butter cake too. After loading myself with this delicious butter cake, I'm feeling a little guilty after enjoying this cake... My thighs, tummy and brain are telling me that I need to take a break now and will love to bake this recipe in the near future.

Happy Baking
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