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09/14/2001 Archived Entry: "Wonder Loaf, A Marble Cake"

Last week, when Doris Schecter, owner of My Most Favorite Dessert Comapany, a kosher bakery and café at 120 W. 45th St. in Manhattan, was a guest on Food Talk, a listener called to ask about a particular marble cake that used to be made at many Jewish bakeries. I knew it well. Doris did, too, but the recipe is not in her book, My Most Favorite Dessert Company Cookbook: Delicious Pareve Baking Recipes.

The cake, which used to be made in many Jewish bakeries, is a light yellow cake with streaks of chocolate that seemed unincorporated into the batter, like candy. Until a year or so ago, I and my listener were able to buy a particularly good example of it at the Allenby Bakery in Coney Island. That bakery is now sadly gone, and neither my caller nor I know anywhere that it can be purchased. Doris and I had some ideas about how to duplicate it, but I should have thought to reach out to George Greenstein, who always has the answer to these questions about old-time bakery goods, Jewish and not. Georege is the author of Secrets of a Jewish Baker, which, I always have to add, is not only about Jewish-style baked goods. George was a baker all his working life, as was his father. He owned a bakery on Long Island where everything was made from scratch and from pure, wholesome ingredients. His book was his retirement project.

George sent me this note when he heard the question on food talk:

“The marble cake that your listener was referring to is called "Wonder Cake". It was baked in every Jewish bakery in New York in the olden days (1950s and ‘60s, and then some). It was called "Wonder Cake" for two reasons. The first being that a standard loaf cake was made light and fluffy to some extent by the addition of whipped egg whites folded into the batter. The second, and to me the real reason for the name, is in the method used to marbleize the loaf. A coating chocolate, not a very fine one, is melted, allowed to cool but not to harden, and is drizzled or swirled over the top of the batter in the mixing bowl, then quickly and lightly swirled down into the batter with the hand or a wooden spoon. Some of the chocolate will blend into the batter and some will remain unabsorbed. It requires a certain amount of delicate handling and generally needs several attempts to become proficient. When the proper result is obtained, part of the cake will be marbleized with chocolate batter with different degrees of chocolate intensity and some chocolate will not be absorbed at all. When biting into the cake, parts of the cake will have a vein of chocolate cake, and other parts will be more or less hard chocolate threads. When it is eaten one WONDERS how the feat was accomplished. The recipe is in my book.”

So here it is:

Wonder Loaf
Makes two 8- or 9-inch loafs

1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon sugar
1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon (1 stick plus 1 tablespoon) unsalted butter or margarine, softened
1 3/4 cups cake flour
2 eggs plus 2 egg yolks
1 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon slat
1/4 cup milk or water
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup egg whites
1/4 cup sugar
Pinch cream of tartar (optional)
6 ounces (about 1 cup) semisweet chocolate bits
Shortening, for greasing pans (optional)
Flour, for dusting pans (optional)

In a large bowl, lightly cream or rub together the sugar, butter, and 1/2 cup of the flour. Beat in the eggs and egg yolks one at a time. Mix in the remaining 1 1/4 cups flour, baking powder, and salt. Slowly add the milk and vanilla, then beat thoroughly.

In a separate bowl, beat the egg whites into soft peaks. Slowly add the remaining 1/4 cup sugar and cream of tartar (if desired). Beat until stiff peaks form and the egg whites are shiny. Gently fold the whites into the cake mixture.

Meanwhile, melt the chocolate in a double boiler, in a microwave oven, or over a flame tamer. Let cool, then drizzle the melted chocolate in spirals over the top of the finished batter in the mixing bowl. With a spatula, quickly swirl the chocolate down through the batter to marbleize. Do not over-mix. See note.

Grease two 8- or 9- inch loaf pans, then line them with parchment or waxed paper and grease and flour-dust the bottom. Carefully scoop the batter into the prepared pans, filling them two-thirds full. In the bakery, we drizzled extra melted chocolate over the tops and ran some thin lines with a knife length-wise through the batter, creating a marbleized design.

Bake in a preheated 350 degree oven until browned and the center feels firm when gently pressed with a fingertip, 45 to 60 minutes. Don’t burn your finger on any hot melted chocolate that may be on top. (If you forget, welcome to the club.) Let cool for 5 to 10 minutes in the pans, then remove and let cool completely on wire racks.

Note: You want to keep some chocolate from blending fully into the batter. When the cake is being eaten, folks are supposed to wonder how it was baked with strands of rich unmelted chocolate on the inside.