A couple of days ago I wanted to make a marbled cake. It was Friday and some friends were coming to stay with us. Now every time we have friends over, they have to eat cake. Not because I want to be a good host and entertainer. No, it’s for very selfish reasons: I need people to test my new recipes. And since I am not working right now I cannot bring my baked goods to my coworkers to test, our living room has become a food lab and while biting into a slice of cake, our friends are bombarded with questions. Fortunately nobody has complained yet.

While pouring the melted chocolate into all of the batter I realized that this was not the way to make a marbled cake. It was all chocolate already! I don’t know where I had my thoughts, apparently not on my recipe. At first I was disappointed, but then I decided to stick with the chocolate, add a little more of it as well as some chocolate chips and move on. After the cake had baked and cooled down, I tasted a slice and was very glad I had made that mistake earlier. This cake had a really great texture! It wasn’t very moist but it was amazingly light and fluffy. It also keeps fresh for a couple of days and won’t dry out. It’s just a little but crumbly.

Light and Fluffy Chocolate Cake

165 g (3/4 cup) margarine, at room temperature
250 g (2 1/4 cups) sugar, divided
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
120 g (1/2 cup) plain soy yoghurt
240 ml (1 cup) plain soy milk
400 g (3 1/4 cups) all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
20 g (1/4 cup) Dutch processed cocoa powder
75 g (2.65 oz) bittersweet chocolate, melted

80 g (1/2 cup) semisweet chocolate chips

For the glaze:
100 g (3.5 oz.) semisweet chocolate
1 teaspoon coconut oil
25 g (1/4 cup) chopped or sliced almonds

Grease a bundt pan with margarine and set aside. Preheat the oven to 160°C (325°F).

Combine margarine and half of the sugar and beat until light and fluffy. Add remaining sugar, vanilla extract, and soy yoghurt. Beat again. Add milk, flour, baking powder and soda, salt, and cocoa and beat the mixture until combined. Pour the chocolate into the batter and mix until incorporated.

Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for 45 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool for another 45 minutes before removing from pan. (This step is very important. If the cake is removed to soon, it will probably brake apart.)

Let the cake cool completely. For the glaze, melt chocolate and coconut oil and pour over cake. Carefully sprinkle with almonds. Tip: If you let the chocolate set on the cake a little bit first, it’s easier to make the almonds stick to the cake and not slide down.