Cake #15 - The Naughty Senator: Peppermint and Chocolate Rum Marble Cake

This was my first cake out of the All Cakes Considered cookbook by NPR producer Melissa Gray.  I've enjoyed reading her cookbook, but I don't love the way the book is designed and formatted.  Gray did a cake project where she took a cake a week to work (unlike me, she didn't eat some first and keep several slices for home).  See my post about her project.

My son loves mint - he has since he was a little guy - and so this seemed a good one to try.  It's the first marbled cake I've ever made and I loved how the two batters (one chocolate and one pale green) looked together - this is a really pretty cake in slices.  (It doesn't look like much as a whole baked cake.)  

I was, however, disappointed by its taste.  The chocolate didn't seem chocolaty enough.  The mint was fine but maybe mint-flavored cake just isn't my thing.  And the rum flavor didn't come through even with the glaze.  My son loved it though.  Both kids had thin slices of it after breakfast several days this week.

Gray lists the rum glaze as optional, so I only tried it on half the cake.  I took the unglazed half to work and part of the glazed half to a friend.  At work, someone said that the cake was good but dry.  People who tasted the glazed half (including my husband) loved it.  I would say the glaze isn't optional.  It's a very tender cake with a fine crumb, and it is a bit dry without the glaze.

(Because the glaze has alcohol in it, I did some internet research about whether the alcohol remains in the cooked glaze.  At least one source, citing actual tests, claimed that much of the alcohol does remain, even after heating.  So, if you're serving to kids or to people avoiding alcohol, you may want to adapt the glaze.  It's very little actual rum, so I didn't worry about my kids, but I'm sure some people would.)

Gray suggests other variations (listed at the end of the recipe), which I think I might try.  Chocolate and almond sound good, but there would have to be some way to bump up the chocolate flavor in that part of the cake.  Maybe I should look for other recipes to compare it to, and see if other recipes include actual melted chocolate.  (Of course there are plenty of chocolate cake recipes that only use cocoa that are perfectly chocolaty - I'm not sure at this point what the difference is.)  Hard to say if I should try to revamp this recipe or look for another...maybe I'll know more once I've tried other cakes from this cookbook.

The cake name doesn't make much sense without Gray's anecdotes about U.S. Senators and their bad behavior, which inspired the cake flavors, and the moniker.  

The Naughty Senator: Peppermint and Chocolate Rum Marble Cake

2 cups sugar

¼ cup unsweetened cocoa

2 sticks (1 cup) unsalted butter at room temperature

4 large eggs

3½ cups sifted cake flour

3 teaspoons baking powder

½ teaspoon salt

1 cup milk

2 teaspoons peppermint flavoring or extract

3-4 drops of green food coloring

2 teaspoons rum or rum extract

For the glaze:

1/3 cup unsalted butter

¾ cup sugar

3 tablespoons water

2 teaspoons light rum

1.       Center a rack and preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Grease and flour a 10-inch bundt pan.

2.       In a small bowl, combine ½ cup of the sugar and all the cocoa.  Set aside.

3.       With the mixer, cream the butter at medium speed, gradually adding the remaining 1½ cups of sugar.  Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.

4.       In a separate bowl, dry whisk the flour, baking powder, and salt together.

5.       With the mixer on low speed, add 1 cup of the flour mixture, beat, then add 1/3 cup of the milk and beat again.  Repeat until all of the flour mixture and milk are blended into the batter.  Beat on medium-high speed for 2 to 3 minutes.

6.       Pour half of the batter into a clean medium bowl. 

7.       Add the peppermint flavoring and a couple of drops of green food coloring to own bowl of batter.  NOTE: Don’t use too much food coloring, just enough to get it a pastel green.  Mix well.

8.       Pour two thirds of the now green batter into the bottom of the cake pan.  Set aside the remaining green batter.

9.       Clean off your mixer beaters, dry, and return them to the mixer.

10.   Add the cocoa and sugar mixture to the yellow batter and add the rum or rum extract.  Beat until smooth.

11.   Using your spatula, pour the chocolate-flavored batter over the green batter in the cake pan.

12.   Layer the remaining third of the green batter over the chocolate batter.  Then marble.  Marbling: Light fold the batter in the pan to get the marble effect – but don’t fully fold the ingredients together.  Take a small spatula or plastic knife and cut through the middle of the batter ring to the bottom of the pan.  Bring the spatula or plastic knife toward you and then up toward the side of the pan.  Rotate the cake pan with your other hand and repeat.  You’ll do 2 rotations total.  No more.

13.   Bake for 1 hour until the cake tests done.

14.   For the glaze: Melt the butter in a small saucepan over medium heat.  Add the sugar, water, and rum and stir until smooth.  Remove from the heat.

15.   As soon as the cake is out of the oven, before removing it from the pan, take a skewer and poke holes through it.  Then pour three-quarters of the glaze over the top of the cake.  Let cool in the pan for 10 to 15 minutes.

16.   Unmold the cake onto a cake rack and let cool for 10 more minutes.  Put a plate under the rack and drizzle the rest of the glaze over the cake.

17.   Variations:  For a different flavor combination, you can keep half of the batter chocolate without the rum, and flavor the other half with 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract OR 1 teaspoon of almond extract OR 1 teaspoon of cheer extract, instead of peppermint.

From All Cakes Considered by Melissa Gray