Monday, November 30, 2009

Great Oma Margarete's German Marble Cake~



For the upcoming Holiday 2009 edition of the GeneaBloggers cookbook. Now is the time to gather those favorite holiday recipes along with any photos and stories that help illustrate how important the recipe was to your family. For details on how to participate, head on over to Geneabloggers.



The family history of our marble cake~



The little girl on a relatives lap is me! great Oma Margarete ~ 1888~1972 ~ sits next to my Opa all the way to the right. My two uncles Helumt and Adi (twins) are standing along with my cousin Meggi who was always near and protective, even as I grew older! This photo captures one of the many visits held on each Sunday!

My Oma (grandmother), my Mom and the author of this blog, grew up on this German Marble Cake! This cake is my childhood favorite out of any of the German dishes my mom made. Mom would make this cake just about every Sunday, and I would get to lick the bowl too (best part)! It’s great with coffee or tea.

Every Sunday afternoon in Germany, tradition would be that the family members would get together for coffee at my great -grandmother, Margarete Kaiser Saule’s home. This German Marble Cake was part of that tradition at every visit!

Little did she know it would be passed all the way down to me! Thank you Mom, Oma and great Oma, I will continue to pass this recipe – with pleasure!


~ My Great Oma Margarete's German Marble Cake ~

1 cup soft butter
2 & 2/3 cup sugar (2 or up to 2 & 2/3 cups)
2 & 2/3 cups flour
4 eggs
1 package vanilla sugar or 1 teaspoon vanilla essence/extract
2/3 cup cornstarch
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 pinch of salt
½ cup of milk (add additional milk slowly if needed for smoother batter)
¼ cup cocoa powder
1 tablespoon powder sugar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour a fluted tube pan or bundt pan.

In a large mixing bowl, crème together the softened butter, sugar and vanilla essence/extract until fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, mixing thoroughly after each addition.

In a separate mixing bowl, sift and combine the flour, corn starch, baking powder and salt. Add dry ingredients to butter mixture and blend together thoroughly.

Pour half of the yellow batter into greased pan. Add cocoa powder to remaining batter and blend. Slowly pour the cocoa batter on top of the yellow batter. Carefully (not too much or you will loose the effect), draw the knife several times through the batter, creating a marbleizing effect.

Bake for one hour or until toothpick inserted comes out clean. Allow cake to cool in pan for 20 minutes, invert onto a plate or cake plate and sprinkle with powdered sugar.

Enjoy!


Mom lives about an hour and thirty minutes away from me, she drove down and stayed with me during Thanksgiving week. As we sat together, mom translated this recipe from German to English, she shared tradition and stories about this marble cake. Our time together was very special. Thank you mom, you are the best!
Photo now owned and held by Gini Webb (further research to be done on other relatives in photo).






5 comments:

my Heritage Happens said...

Glad you had such a nice visit with your mom!

Barbara Poole said...

Yummy, sounds so good. Now what should I make first, that or your soup? How about both. Thank you.
Barbara Poole

Anonymous said...

that is a beautiful tradition, to have held on to.

Elyse Doerflinger said...

Gini - what a great recipe! I think I will have to try this to see how yummy it is!

Speli said...

Oops. Wanted to make this, but the sugar is missing. How much sugar? 1 1/2 cups?