This chocolate marble cake (gâteau marbré) is a classic childhood French dessert and so easy to make!  Very moist, it also has a special place in our hearts – so many sweet memories to go along with that delicious cake.  And do you know who makes the most popular marble cake in France?  Mais bien sûr (but of course): Papy Brossard (Grandpa Brossard)!  The marble cake “Savane” from Papy Brossard made the joy of many children and still does.  Just like school children in the US love to dunk their chocolate cookies in milk, in France, children love to dunk a slice of “Savane” in a hot cocoa (un chocolat).  They would not miss their snack rendez-vous with Papy Brossard after school for the world!  You can see below a sweet French commercial for the famous Papy Brossard French marble cake but first let’s talk about the Art of the Home homemade chocolate marble cake recipe.

Chocolate Marble Cake Recipe (Gâteau Marbré)

Chocolate Marble Cake Recipe (Gâteau Marbré)

Chocolate Marble Cake Recipe (Gâteau Marbré)

Our chocolate marble cake recipe calls for dark chocolate so it is especially delicious with an afternoon coffee or tea or after lunch for dessert with an espresso.  Check out our easy Art of the Home chocolate marble cake recipe and Art of the Home suggestions below, including a quicker version of this moist chocolate marble cake recipe.  Enjoy and bon appétit!

Chocolate Marble Cake Recipe (Gâteau Marbré)

by Art of the Home

Ingredients (for about 8 servings)

• 3 eggs
• 1 cup of sugar
• 1 and 1/2 stick of soft butter (3/4 cup)
• 1 and 1/2 cup of flour
• 1 tsp of baking powder
• 1 Tbsp of vanilla sugar
• 4 oz of dark chocolate
• 1 pinch of salt

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 °F.
2. Butter sides of a loaf cake pan and place parchment paper on the bottom.
3. Separate eggs and keep the egg whites in a separate mixing bowl.  In mixing bowl or using a Kitchen Aid type appliance, mix egg yolk with sugar and vanilla sugar until you get a pale yellow mixture.
4. Scrape side and bottom of mixing bowl with rubber spatula and mix in softened butter (if you melt butter in the microwave, wait that it cools off before mixing in).
5. Add baking powder to flour and sift.  Add sifted flour to egg/sugar/butter mixture and mix until you get a smooth and thick pale yellow mixture.
6. Beat egg whites (add a pinch of salt beforehand, it helps the process) until the eggs whites are firm (they should hold to your whisk and make a peak).
7. Carefully fold about half of the beaten egg whites into the butter/egg yolk /sugar/flour mixture.  Then repeat with the other half.  Note: It’s important not to mix but fold so you don’t break your mounted egg whites (“blancs en neige” literally egg whites made to be snow, they do look like snow don’t they?).  
8. Split mixture in half into 2 separate mixing bowls (keep one half in the bowl you’ve been working on and put the other half in your egg white bowl for example).   Simply eye ball it, no need to be exact.
9. Now let’s melt our chocolate in a “bain marie” (water bath).  Break the chocolate into even pieces.  You’ll need to put your chocolate pieces in a heat-proof bowl (or a small saucepan) and place it on top of a larger saucepan filled with hot water.  Let the chocolate cool for 5 minutes or so and add melted chocolate and in one of the bowls.
10. Using a soup spoon (1 for the chocolate mixture and another one for the plain mixture), layer the batter in the loaf pan.  Alternate between the chocolate and plain mixture by placing thin layers of each mixture in the cake pan.  Each layer is about 4 spoons.  You can use the back of the spoon (or a rubber spatula) to smooth out the layers but this is art, no need to be too precise — that’s the beauty of it all!  Depending on how thick your layers are, you can get 2 or 3 layers of each.  It’s your choice to start with the chocolate or the white batter but we typically start with white.  Once your done, insert a fork at one end of the cake and make an S (as in “so sweet!”) but that’s just a suggestion, you can make whatever design you like.
11. Bake for about 50  minutes in a preheated oven (350 °F).  Confirm it is ready by inserting a toothpick or knife in the center of the cake — when it’s ready the toothpick should come out dry.
12. Let cool for 10-15 minutes, gently detach the sides of cake with a thin knife and remove from mold.
13. Wait until it cools off before slicing.

Art of the Home Suggestions:

1. Involve your Little Chefs: this chocolate marble cake recipe is a great cooking activity to do with children – they love twirling the fork and discover the design that comes out of the oven — so much fun!
2. Semi Sweet Chocolate: we use dark chocolate in our chocolate marble cake recipe but you can certainly use different types of chocolate, semi-sweet chocolate chips, combination of dark and sweet, or just whatever chocolate you have on hands — it’s delicious with any chocolate!
3. Quick Chocolate Marble Cake Recipe: if you don’t have baking chocolate handy or don’t have time to melt the chocolate, you can substitute the melted chocolate with 3 heaped Tbsp of unsweetened cocoa powder.
4. Decoration: for a special treat, you can add a scoop of vanilla ice cream or a spoon of crème Chantilly (Chantilly cream) next to your slice of marble cake — looks a bit more festive and very appetizing too!

Chocolate Marble Cake Recipe by Papy Brossard

French Commercial for Savane by Papy Brossard