You’d think by now I’d learn not to judge a cookbook by its cover. And yet, I still do. When I first saw the Little Book of Chocolate Cakes and Pastries by Melanie Dupuis, I wasn’t expecting to find recipes that would become go-tos. It’s an unassuming cookbook filled with cute illustrations of cakes. However, behind those illustrations are helpful tips that will school you in the art of using chocolate for cakes and pastries. It took two recipes, well the marble cake really, for me to realise this little book of chocolate was a winner. Filled with classics (chocolate chip cookies, marble cake and brioche) as well as some unique bakes (rock cake, moelleux and tiger cakes), it breaks down what could sometimes be a complex baking recipe into something you can see and do.
Dietary Notes
Must love cake and chocolate. All recipes are vegetarian using either eggs, butter, milk or a combo of them all.
Best For
Anyone who loves baking with chocolate and wants to learn how to make more complex bakes.
Cooking Level
Intermediate – Advanced: She uses a lot of technique in her baking, but the step by step pictures and illustrations help make it achievable. Each recipe tells you exactly what you need from an equipment and skills perspective making it a wonderful book to learn from.
The Marble cake is what made me fall in love with this cookbook so it’s natural it’s the one I’m sharing. While marble cake seems simple – just vanilla and chocolate combined – actual solid recipes are hard to come by. Especially recipes that are easy and yield the perfect marble loaf. A trick to that perfect marble is her technique of using piping bags to pipe cake batter into a tin to give you the perfect marbled swirls.
The Best Marble Cake Recipe
Ingredients
Vanilla Cake Mix
- 2 eggs
- 4 egg yolks
- 215 grams caster sugar
- 115 grams whipping cream
- 50 grams sunflower oil
- 170 grams flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
Chocolate Marble Mix
- 1 egg
- 2 egg yolks
- 125 grams caster sugar
- 70 grams whipping cream
- 35 grams sunflower oil
- 85 grams flour
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- 20 grams cocoa
Instructions
- To make the vanilla cake mix: whisk the eggs, egg yolks and sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer. Add the cream and oil. Sieve the flour and baking powder into a bowl and mix. Add to the wet ingredients and mix together. Pour batter into a piping bag.
- To make the chocolate marble mix: whisk the eggs, egg yolks and sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer. Add the cream and oil. Sieve the flour, cocoa powder and baking powder into a bowl and mix. Add to the wet ingredients and mix together. Pour batter into another piping bag.
- Preheat the oven to 160C. Line a 30x8x8cm loaf tin with baking paper. Pipe about 230g of the vanilla mixture into the bottom of the pan. Then add 200g of the chocolate marble mix in the centre, pipe vanilla on top and then chocolate. Alternate until you have no more batter, making sure to finish with the vanilla mix.
- Bake for 1 hour, until a toothpick inserted into the middle of the cake comes out clean. Allow to cool before removing from the cake tin.
Cake and Pastries is published by Quadrille and distributed by Jonathan Ball Publishers. It is available here.
