Forget Toothpicks, Use A Spoon For Beautiful Cake Marbling

The appearance of a marbled cake, with two or more colors elegantly swirled throughout the crumb, certainly looks impressive, but you don't fancy tools to accomplish it. These cakes are usually marbled using just a toothpick. By pouring multiple types of batter into the same cake pan, then dragging the point of a toothpick throughout in swirly and wavy patterns, you can create a striking tie-dye effect of many colors.

While there is nothing wrong this classic technique, using a spoon to marble your next cake may yield even better results. You can use one just like a toothpick, but spoons can create bigger and thicker swirls, making for a more striking marbled finish. They're also a more sustainable tool to use for marbling. Unlike toothpicks, a kitchen is guaranteed to always have silverware in stock. Toothpicks can only be used one time per pick, then they get thrown away, which eventually leads to you running out and having to buy more. Using a spoon saves on both waste and money. With that being said, using a spoon to marble cake batter requires a slightly different technique.

Using a toothpick for marbling works fine, but presents some issues. To understand these shortcomings, we'll talk about a loaf-shaped pound cake, perhaps the most popular style of cake to marble. A marbled pound cake is made by pouring one of two batters about ¾ of the way into the pan. Another batter fills the rest of the pan, then you stick a toothpick into the batter and move it around to create swirls. 

The problem with a toothpick is its length: It's not long enough to reach the bottom of the pan and effectively swirl both layers of batter. You can end up with marbling that is barely visible. A spoon's handle is much longer and its head is much wider. It can plunge all the way to the bottom of a cake pan and swirl the batters together in a more thorough manner, with pleasing results.

To create even more distinct swirls in your pound cake, don't simple layer one of your batters on top of the other. Try pouring the differently-colored batters directly next to each other. It will be easier to drag a tablespoon through and design a swirly pattern to your liking. While pound or loaf cakes will benefit the most from this technique, a spoon is worth a try with round layer cakes, brownies, and more. With all of this said, however, there are some cases in which a toothpick does a better job.

Spoons will work marvelously for marbling in cake or brownie batter, but frosting is another matter. A tablespoon won't be very helpful when making delicate swirled designs in frosting, icing, or even chocolate ganache. Ganache lends itself to beautiful and intricate spiderweb-like designs, which can only be made with a skinny toothpick or bamboo skewer. Drizzle white chocolate ganache over warm dark chocolate ganache and try to swirl it with a spoon, and you'll wind up with a muddy, blended effect. Swirling a darker-colored frosting into a lighter one also works better when done with a thin tool and delicate hand.

Marbling also isn't the only way to produce beautiful multicolored cakes. Checkerboard cakes use two different types of cake and ring-shaped cutters to reveal a checkerboard pattern in each slice. By baking two colors of cake, cutting them into rings, and stacking the rings in a certain way, you can create this stunning effect. If you want to really impress your friends, there's also Battenberg cake, which has a checkered appearance. This classic, almond-flavored confection in colors of pink and white is shaped like a rectangle and wrapped in marzipan. No matter what kind of two-toned cakes you come up with, your guests will no doubt be impressed by these treats.