Orange Choco Marble Cake

We are geared for the festive week ahead with Orange Choco Marble Cake, Mast Ladoo and Chivda.

The Brahmachaitanya Mandir at Bangalore is celebrating the 25th anniversary of Gopal Krishna idol. So we have guests from Mumbai, Pune and other parts of Maharashtra and Karnataka. After coming to Blr and living so close to the temple we have been blessed to meet more like minded people. It reminds me a lot of my native place, Thal. The feeling of belonging to a community that I never experienced in Mumbai as our family was mostly away from it.

So here we are ready to meet lots of people, it will be a time for lot of discussions. I like to be a listener at such times, absorbing the experiences of people from different walks of life. It is amazing to watch and listen to genuine stories and some fibs people tell with such confidence. One meets some prudes that don't think beyond their themselves and their immediate benefits and some emotional ones that make you realize what devotion and submission is, to the greater being. Also people who take themselves so seriously that they forget the work given to them. It is a great ground for learning.

At work too we had a Confluence that drained my energies for the last 2 months, gave me sleepless nights. In the end I am able to say it was a great experience, good learning and earning in the terms of acceptance by a large no.of people. I do not know whether this will make my year of dedication worth while. Hope the people value it, bosses included. I received very good support from part of the team. So to thank them I baked some stuff and took along some Chivda too.

I gave out some fun poor man's awards that totally shocked my team and and I was thrilled to see them smiling a lot and I am very sure they shared the stories of the fun with their spouses and kids.

All this said and done, Shree Brahmachaitanya Maharaj says, "Vayavahar kadhi sodu naye". (One has to be practical in this world).

While I strike a balance of the two different worlds this Orange Choco Marble Cake actually symbolizes that. Life has a marble effect. It is not homogeneous. The flavours must complement each other, the tartness and the sweetness. Come to think of it I enjoy both equally. I am gearing up for a practical decision that I have skirted for a long time.

Oh after this rambling I must give the recipe here, it is a food blog after all.

Ingredients

for the orange layer

1 cups all purpose flour
3 tablespoons Tang
1.5 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/8 cup oil
1 tablespoon butter
1 cup milk
3 tablespoon vinegar

for the choco layer

1 cups all purpose flour
4 tablespoons Cadbury's cocoa powder
1.5 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup Mapro's Chocolate syrup
3/4 cup sugar
1/8 cup oil
1 tablespoon butter
1 cup milk
3 tablespoon vinegar

To prepare the cake tin/ loaf tin

1 tablespoon oil
1 tablespoon all purpose flour


Prepare the tin first by coating it with oil and dusting with the flour. Keep aside.

Take to big bowl and work simultaneously on both. Mix together all the dry items.

Choco bowl: all purpose flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and salt. Sieve to homogenize and aerate.

Put the milk and vinegar in a small bowl and blend. As the milk curdles add the oil, butter, sugar and chocolate syrup and make it frothy.

Fold in the flour mix lightly. Keep the batter aside

Orange Bowl: all purpose flour, Tang, baking powder and salt. Sieve to homogenize and aerate.

Put the milk and vinegar in a small bowl and blend. As the milk curdles add the oil, butter, sugar and make it frothy.

Fold in the flour mix lightly.

Now in the prepared tin, scoop out the orange batter first then add the choco batter then top with orange layer again. Now pass a knife through the batter like a wave, this will give the marble effect once baked.

Preheat oven at 180 deg Celsius for 10 mins. Push the tin in and bake till done. Since I used a loaf tin it took me a good 35 mins to bake.

For the icing

50gms butter
2 tablespoons orange zest
50 grams fine granular sugar

Whip all the ingredients together.

Let the cake cool completely. Turn out the cake on a serving dish. Spread the orange butter cream on the cake. This spread is grainy and different for an icing.

The cake has wonderful flavors, is visually appealing and incredibly soft for an eggless cake. I think I have found a secret to moist cakes in this recipe

I must credit this recipe to a whole study I did of all the recipes of eggless cakes, marble ones, orange ones and chocolate ones too all facilitated by the Google we love.

Weekend Music:

Saturday was a Wham day: careless whispers, last christmas, jesus to a child etc. All my favorites.

Sunday was Marathi Music day:
Man Udhaana Vaaryache
Garvaa
Shankar Mahadevan Live - Marathi - lAjUn hAsaNe

Any non Marathi (especially SI) guys wooing Marathi girls go catch Shankar Mahadevan for a crash course. Gosh his wifey is one lucky Marathi Mulgi.