TWD: Basic Marbled Loaf Cake

Or, not so basic. The original recipe is a vanilla/chocolate marble cake. Dorie, however, has to gild the lily just a bit with some other options. There is a peppermint/chocolate version and an orange/chocolate version. Then there was the one that really caught my eye - a cardamom/coffee version. Yum!

This was absolutely a winner cake. It was an easy batter to put together. After the base is mixed, you add flavorings to each half. In my case, I added espresso powder that had been dissolved in water to one half and ground cardamom to the other half. Just a side note here - I used cardamom pods and ground them into powder in my spice grinder (old coffee grinder) The difference between pre-ground and freshly ground cardamom is amazing. The fresh stuff has an amazing taste. I highly recommend this method if you can do it.

Golden brown and delicious!

Instead of a loaf pan, I decided to use my Fiesta Bundt pan. I baked it for exactly one hour, and I think it would have been fine at 50 or so minutes. It seems a tiny bit dry to me. My swirling technique still leaves a bit to be desired, but I did get a good mix of each flavor in each slice.

Not so much a swirl as a clump.

This is a good recipe. I truly enjoyed the mix of flavors. I think if I need a simple cake for some event, this would be one that I would revisit. Thank you Carol of The Bake More for choosing this one!