Finest Marble Cake (Marmorkuchen)

After trying so many recipes out there for a perfect Marble cake my heart goes for this rich and luxurious recipe from Alfons Schuhbeck, in his book "Meine Bayerische Küche". Adding a bit more ingredients and time but seriously worth it.

Ingredients:

200g butter, room temperature

150g powdered sugar

1 tbs vanilla sugar 

1/2 tsp grated lemon zest

6 eggs, separated 

2 tbs rum (optional or you can add 1/2 to 1 tsp rum extract)

200g all purpose flour

1 tsp baking powder

100g blanched ground almond

1 1/2 tbs cocoa powder, sifted

70g dark chocolate, grated 

1/4 tsp salt

150g sugar 

Butter and flour for the form

Powdered sugar for garnish

• In a mixing bowl add the butter, powdered sugar, vanilla sugar, grated lemon zest. Beat them until light and creamy. Add in the egg yolk one at a time and mix well between addition, mix them well. Add in the rum and continue beat the mixture until light and fluffy.
• In a large bowl mix the flour with baking powder and sift it. After that, mix well the sifted flour with the ground almond. 
• In another large bowl mix the egg whites with salt and 1/3 of the sugar, beat them until creamy. Slowly add the rest of the sugar and beat them until stiff peak.
• Preheat oven to 175 ˚C.
• Add 1/3 of the egg whites mixture and 1/3 of the flour mixture to the egg yolk mixture, fold well and repeat the process.
• Butter and flour the bundt cake form evenly. Its important that the whole cake form is evenly covered with butter so later the cake will come out easily.
• Fill the form with half of the mixture, fold well the rest of the mixture with the sifted cocoa powder and grated dark chocolate. Pour the chocolate mixture to the half filled cake form, take a fork and run it through the batter in swirling motion to create a marble effect.
• Bake for about 70 minutes, let it cool for 10 to 15 minutes. Flip the form on a serving plate and the cake should come out easily. Garnish it with powdered sugar.