This.  Cake!

Ok…you know I can be fickle when it comes to my love for cake.  I love this one and that one and that other one over there and easily vacillate between fruit and chocolate and spice and cream as my favorite.  But today…on this wintry, rainy day in January when Nashville is preparing for twenty degree temps, this is my FAVORITE cake of all time and it fits the bill perfectly!  It’s sweet, but not too sweet…it’s perfectly moist…it’s complex without being complicated and it is just SIMPLY BEAUTIFUL!   So gather your seven ingredients (yes…only 7!) and get to baking!  Don’t forget to have a cup of coffee, a fire or favorite blanket and a good book at the ready!  XO

CHOCOLATE APRICOT MARBLE CAKE                                                                               (Adapted from Scandinavian Baking by Trine Hahnemann)

Ingredients:

• 1 cup butter (I always use salted butter)
• 1 1/4 cups sugar
• 4 eggs
• 1 7/8 all-purpose flour
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 3/4 oz best dark chocolate, at least 60% cocoa solids; finely chopped (I used Lindt Excellence with Sea Salt)
• 2 Tbsp cocoa powder
• 2 oz organic dried apricots, chopped

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees

Cream the butter and sugar with an electric mixer until light and fluffy (3 – 4 minutes).

Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.  Sift in the flour and mix again, just until a smooth dough forms.  Halve the batter and put each half in a bowl (I left half in my standing mixer for the chocolate).  Add the chocolate and cocoa to one bowl and mix well.  Mix the dried apricots into the batter in the other bowl (I mixed this half by hand).  Butter or spray a loaf pan.  (I also use four mini loaf pans.)

Pour the chocolate batter into the prepared pan and spread it out evenly, then pour over the apricot batter and spread that evenly, too.  Take a spoon and dip it into the batter, going right to the bottom of the pan and pulling up to make a swirl inside the cake.  Repeat three times in different places in the pan.

Bake one hour (or for mini loaf pans, bake 30 – 35 minutes).  Insert a toothpick into the middle of the cake; it should emerge clean.  If not, bake 5 minutes more, then check again.

Let cool in the pan.  Serve morning, noon or night!