Marbled Sicilian Orange Cake

A classic orange cake marbled with chocolate. You can make it plain without the cocoa batter and drizzle with orange icing if you like.

Marbled Sicilian Orange Cake

Adapted from: Bisous A Toi ,The Kitchen Guardian & Nasi Lemak Lover

Ingredients:

250g butter, soft

250g caster sugar *I reduced to 220g

4 medium eggs

250g self-raising flour (or you can use 250g all purpose flour & add 1 tsp baking powder)

1 1/2 tsp finely grated orange zest (or zest from two oranges)

85ml orange juice *I used 100ml

1/2 tbsp 'Sunquick' orange fruit drink concentrate *I added (optional)

1 tsp vanilla, I added

4 tbsp cocoa powder

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 180C. Grease and line a 22cm cake pan. *I preheated at 170C 

2. Using an electrical beater, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. 3. Beat in the eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition, if necessary adding a spoonful of flour with the last egg to prevent the mixture from curdling. Beat in the orange zest and vanilla. Add the flour all at once and mix well, then slowly mix in the orange juice and concentrate (of using).

4. Spoon out a third of the batter and sift in the cocoa powder. Mix well.

5. Pour the remaining two thirds of the batter into the prepared pan. Dollop the cocoa batter on top and swirl with a skewer. Bake in the preheated oven for 45-50mins or until a skewer inserted into the center of the cake, comes out clean. If it starts to brown too quickly, cover loosely with a sheet of lightly greased aluminum foil. 

5. Leave the cake, in the pan, to cool on a wire rack, then unmold and serve. 

Note:
I halved the recipe above and baked this cake in a 9X5 inch loaf pan for about 30 mins.