Cherry and Chocolate Marble Loaf Cake
John created this dish for Great British Bake Off ™ Series 15. A Black Forest-style marble loaf with a sour-cherry sponge, dark chocolate ganache and cherry macarons, it won warm praise for its height, perfect texture and lovely flavour, with Paul Hollywood calling the real cherry sourness driven into the crumb "quite tricky to do". This Fix-It version corrects the single flagged fault – a marble that read as a splodge – by matching the two batters to the same consistency and using one deliberate swirl for a clean, defined pattern. It was part of the strong week that earned John the series' first Star Baker title.
- Time: 150 min
Source: Relaxed Recipes
Ingredients
- FOR THE MARBLE SPONGE BASE
- unsalted butter, softened
- caster sugar
- large eggs, at room temperature
- self-raising flour
- whole milk, to loosen
- vanilla extract
- salt
- FOR THE SOUR-CHERRY HALF
- dried sour cherries, roughly chopped
- kirsch or cherry juice, for soaking
- cherry paste / concentrate
- FOR THE CHOCOLATE HALF
- cocoa powder , sifted
- hot milk or water, to bloom the cocoa
- dark chocolate, melted
- FOR THE DARK CHOCOLATE GANACHE
- heavy cream
- dark chocolate , chopped
- cherry paste
- FOR THE CHERRY MACARONS
- ground almonds
- icing sugar
- large egg whites , aged, at room temperature
- caster sugar, for the meringue
- A little pink/red gel colouring
- Cherry jam or cherry buttercream, to fill
- EQUIPMENT
- loaf tin, greased and lined with parchment
- Stand mixer or hand mixer
- Two medium mixing bowls
- Skewer or thin knife
- Small saucepan and heatproof bowl
- Piping bag
- Baking sheet and silicone mat or parchment
- Digital scale