Marble Babka

I was away for a few days, so the blog took a little break. I decided to take a short family trip and get some rest. Oh, it was lovely and warm. I already miss the palm trees, pools and saunas…

I hope you missed me, at least a little bit :) I was supposed to prepare a post while "on vacation," but unfortunately my internet was so slow that there was no way to get anything done. Besides, a break from the computer and TV, and even my phone, did me good.

But I'm back now and I'm returning to publishing recipes. Today I'm suggesting a cake for Easter, and very soon (maybe even tomorrow) I'll invite you to a post with my ideas for Easter dishes. If you like babka (a classic Polish Easter cake, baked in a tube or bundt-style pan), I also recommend my recipes for chocolate babka and butter babka.

Marble babka

Back to the babka… It's classic, but a little lighter than the traditional kind, thanks to the yogurt butter and low-fat milk. Still, let's not kid ourselves, there has to be some fat and sugar for it to taste good :) And at Easter you can go a little wild, after all. I liked this recipe because the cake is a bit lighter, but also, compared with the other babka recipes I happened to have on hand, it doesn't need many eggs. On baking day that was very important to me, because I needed a cake "right now" and I only had 4 eggs. Luckily the cake turned out great. It was delicious, fluffy and slightly moist, and it disappeared quickly.

Marble babka

Instructions:

Cream the butter, sugar, vanilla sugar and a little bit of salt until fluffy, then add the eggs one at a time. Before adding the next egg, make sure each egg is thoroughly mixed into the batter.

In a separate bowl, mix together the sifted flour, potato starch and baking powder.

Alternating with 125 ml of the milk, slowly add the flour mixture to the batter, mixing constantly.

Grease the babka pan with butter and dust lightly with flour. Pour 2/3 of the batter into the pan. Mix the remaining batter with the cocoa and the remaining milk, then pour it over the white batter and (go ahead!) swirl it with a fork to get the marble effect. Place the cake in an oven preheated to 180°C (350°F), on the second rack from the bottom, and bake for about 55 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out dry. Take the cake out of the oven and leave it in the pan for about 10 minutes, then turn it out onto a wire rack and let it cool. Dust with powdered sugar.

Enjoy!

Additional information:

One serving contains: 235 kcal

Instead of vanilla sugar, you can add a few drops of rum extract to the white batter.

Source: EatSmarter 1/2011