Grandma’s Marble Pound Cake – my family recipe; dense and rich; with wonderful flavor coming from lemon zest, rum and chocolate!
My old fashioned Grandma’s Marble Pound Cake from scratch recipe has been in my family for generations. The cake is dense and rich with wonderful flavor coming from lemon zest, rum and chocolate.
My mom would sometimes bake it in a bundt cake tin so she would get Marble Bundt Cake. It is suitable for holidays like Christmas and Easter, but she often made it on Sundays or even on weekdays when she was craving something sweet.
Don’t you love those old recipes with phrases like: take 2 “ribs” of chocolate, or “use as much baking soda as you can fit onto a tip of the knife”? Luckily, I saw my mother using “tip of the knife” quantity of baking soda, so I know approximately the amount necessary. I decided for 1 1/2 teaspoons of baking powder instead, as I didn’t want my pound cake to be too “spongy”.
Pound cakes generally don’t contain leavener, like baking soda or baking powder because the lift is achieved by creaming butter and sugar together. In the end you fold beaten egg whites into the mixture. Even though I creamed butter and sugar together with egg yolks, I still used 1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder and got quite dense loaf, just as I wanted.
I need to warn you that this cake is not very sweet. It was usually served sprinkled with liberal amount of powdered sugar. If you like sweeter desserts, you may want to add more sugar to the batter.

- 130 g (1/2 cup or 1 stick + 2 tsp) butter, room temperature
- 3 eggs, separated, room temperature
- 200 g (1 cup + 1 Tbsp) sugar
- 250 g (2 1/4 cups) cake flour
- 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 6 Tbsp milk
- grated lemon zest
- 1 Tbsp dark rum or rum flavoring
- 90 g (3 oz) bittersweet chocolate, melted
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Beat egg whites until stiff peaks form.
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Mix butter, egg yolks and sugar together until fluffy.
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Add flour, baking powder, milk, lemon zest and rum and mix until incorporated.
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Gently fold in beaten egg whites using spatula or a spoon (do not use mixer for this step).
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Divide the batter in two equal parts. Mix melted chocolate into one half of the batter.
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In a buttered and floured loaf pan, place one by one tablespoon of yellow and brown batter intermittently. Drag a fork through the dough to get marble pattern.
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Bake at 165 C (330 F) for 50-60 minutes. Check with a toothpick for doneness.
How much is 130 g of butter in US cups? You converted all the other ingredients but the butter. I’ve tried every link I could think of but cannot get an answer.
130 g of butter is about 1/2 cup or 1 stick + 2 tsp.
How much is 130 g of butter in US cups? You converted all the other ingredients but the butter. I’ve tried every link I could think of but cannot get an answer. I subscribe to your newsletter but PLEASE ANSWER MY QUESTION.
YOU DID NOT ANSWER MY QUESTION
I found conversion right away. It is 1/2 cup. A cup of butter is equal to 227 grams, or 8 ounces. In the United States, butter is often measured in sticks, with a cup being equivalent to 2 sticks
130 g of butter is about 1/2 cup or 1 stick + 2 tsp.
I did not answer your question because it was 2:29 AM (I live in Europe) and I was sleeping. It is physically impossible for me to spend 24 hours a day sitting at my computer.
I’m sorry but using your figures – a cup is equal to 227 grams – then a 1/2 cup would be 113.5 grams, Isn’t that correct? That would be 16.5 grams short. I’m afraid you lost me when you mentioned a cup being equivalent to 2 sticks – I already knew that but fail to see what it has to do with 130 grams. I would think the amount of butter or shortening in a cake should be precise, and I can’t see where 1/2 cup is precise.
Thanks for trying,
LaVerne.
I expected this type of questions and that’s why, when making Marble Cake, I used my kitchen scale, measured ingredients in grams and then transferred them to a measuring cup. These are the measurements I came up with.
I suggest my readers not to rely on on-line measurement converters as they didn’t turn out to be correct. I think it is best to use kitchen scale and gram or oz measurements if you want to be precise. That is very important for baking while when cooking you can improvise more.
What can I use instead of rum?
You can use rum flavoring.
Oooh!I’m going to pin this delicious cake to my let them eat cake board.
I would love to see that board! 🙂