American Cake - Cake #7: Lemon and Molasses Spice Marble Cake

Time Period: 1800-1869

Marbling is not an American invention. European bakers used this technique long before we did, but by the mid-1800s, it caught on here, most likely thanks to German immigrants. Professional bakeries offered this eye-catching design, but home cooks soon discovered that if they just dyed part of their batter with molasses and spices, they could recreate the effect. Or, they could use the method of just making two separate batters and swirling them together, which is what this recipe does.

It took until the end of the 19th century for chocolate to be incorporated into the dark batters, improving the range of marble cake flavors even further. No chocolate in this one, though. Half spice cake, half lemon cake, this cake uses the neat trick of dividing up the eggs; the yolks went into the molasses cake, and the whites went into the lemon one. In order to punch up the overall lemon flavor, there's also a simple preparation of lemon glaze to pour over the top.

That doesn't mean the overall preparation is simple, though. When a recipe requires two separate cake batters and egg whites whipped into soft peaks, you can either own three stand mixers, or you can prep one batter, transfer it to a bowl, clean the mixer, prep the second batter, transfer it to a bowl, clean the mixer, and prep the egg whites. I do not own three stand mixers, so this cake took...a while. In order to ensure a good swirl, I looked up a YouTube video about how best to combine the batters without making it look muddy.

It wound up looking pretty good, though my tube pan tends to give cakes that sad streak - I'll need to research if there's any way around that. And it wound up tasting pretty good - like the Martha Washington Great Cake, it tasted better on the second day. Unlike Martha's cake, though, I'm not sure the flavor justifies the work this cake requires. If I ever MUST make another marble cake and have a half day to devote to baking it, this is a perfectly enjoyable recipe, but it's doubtful that this one is going into the dessert rotation, unless I'm really in the mood to wash every dish in the house twice over.