A Squeeze Makes the Swirl: Chocolate Syrup Swirl Cake

My husband Tom works for a public relations firm that serves a wide range of clients. From time to time he comes home with some client swag and recently he showed up with a bottle of Hershey's Simple 5 Chocolate Syrup. Tom asked if I could make anything with it and I didn't have any idea -- so I decided to visit the Hershey's website and look for a recipe there. I decided to make a Chocolate Syrup Swirl Cake.

This recipe is a chocolate-vanilla marble cake and coconut is listed as optional ingredient for the vanilla portion. I love coconut and decided to include it. To make the base vanilla batter, you cream softened butter with sugar and vanilla; mix in eggs; and alternately add in the dry ingredients (flour, baking soda, and salt) and buttermilk. The chocolate batter is two cups of the vanilla batter combined with a cup of chocolate syrup and a little additional baking soda. I added sweetened coconut to the remaining vanilla batter and spread it into a well-greased Bundt pan. Then I poured the chocolate batter on top of it, without mixing the batters together. I put the pan in the oven wondering how it would become a swirl cake, because it didn't seem like the thick vanilla-coconut batter on the bottom was likely to mix on its own with the much runnier chocolate batter on top.
After baking the cake I let it cool for about 15 minutes and then tried to release it from the pan. It was stuck, even though I had generously sprayed every nook and cranny of my Bundt pan with cooking spray with flour. I used brute force and the cake came out with a some of the top missing; I was able to pry off the piece that was stuck to the pan and fit it back onto the rest of the cake. Because the cake was still warm, the two pieces ended up adhering together reasonably well.

I still don't know how it happened, but this cake really was self-marbling. The chocolate batter ended up swirled throughout. This cake was delicious, even without any glaze or frosting. I think the reason I loved it so much was the coconut -- it gave the cake an amazing chewy texture. And who knew -- chocolate syrup makes for a very chocolatey and flavorful cake. This cake was completely satisfying.

Recipe: "Chocolate Syrup Swirl Cake" from hersheys.com.

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Comments

Suelle said…
I made this cake

https://mainlybaking.blogspot.co.uk/2016/10/chai-swirl-loaf-cake.html

by just layering alternate portions of batter into the baking pan. I think that convection currents are set up in the batter as the heat gradually penetrates to the centre of the batter during cooking, and these currents of heat takes the batter with it, causing self-marbling. As the bottom and sides of the cake cook, the batter rises, causing the uncooked batter in the centre and top to sink.
Ah, that makes sense. The pattern in your chai swirl cake is gorgeous!!
Louise said…
Take a look at the magic that occurs with Maida Heatter's Polka Dot Cheesecake. I've made it and it looked just like this one. http://www.saveur.com/article/Recipes/Polka-Dot-Cheesecake
Holy cow, I am totally going to try that -- how fun!