Neapolitan Loaf Cake
A tri-color cake of strawberry, vanilla and chocolate baked in a loaf pan. It's fairly simple to throw together if you have a kitchen scale, a handheld mixer and three medium size bowls. This cake has a light texture and while a glaze wouldn't hurt, I think it's best served with whipped cream and fresh berries.
Servings 8
Cost 5
Ingredients
- 1 ½ cups cake flour (170 grams/6 oz)
- 1 ¼ teaspoons baking powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 6 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened (84 grams)
- ¾ cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar (175 grams)
- 1 large egg, room temperature
- 1 ¼ teaspoon vanilla extract divided use
- ½ cup plus 2 tablespoons whole milk (5 oz)
- ½ tablespoon strawberry Jell-O powder
- ¼ teaspoon strawberry extract optional
- ½ oz semisweet chocolate, melted (14 grams)
- 2 teaspoons extra dark unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1 teaspoon vegetable oil
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease an 8 ½ by 4 ½ inch loaf pan and line with a strip of parchment.
- Whisk or sift together flour, baking powder and salt.
- In a large mixing bowl, beat butter and sugar at medium-high speed with an electric mixer until light and creamy. Add the egg and beat until fluffy. Scrape down sides of bowl and add 1 teaspoon of the vanilla extract.
- With a heavy duty scraper, add flour mixture, and milk alternately, ending with flour mixture. Beat the batter with the mixer for about 30 seconds.
- Weight out 7 oz of batter and put it in a separate bowl. Repeat with another 7 oz of batter so that you have three bowls. The original bowl will be the vanilla.
- To one of the measured bowls, stir in melted chocolate, cocoa powder and oil to make a chocolate batter. To the other, beat in Jell-o powder and extract (if using). Add remaining ½ teaspoon of vanilla to the vanilla batter to pump the vanilla flavor.
- Drop spoonfuls of batter into the pan, alternating colors and creating your own pattern. Repeat until you’ve used all the batter.
- Bake the cake at 350 degrees F. for about 45 minutes or until a skewer inserted comes out with moist crumbs.
- Let the cake cool in the pan for about 20 minutes, then carefully remove from pan and let it cool completely.