Welcome home recipe trial: Marble Cream Cheese Cake

Welcome Home Hubby...

My husband was out of town last week, and since we missed him so much, I decided to bake a cake for him and have the children draw pictures for him so that he would be surprised when he got home. I also planned to have the house entirely clean, but with all the halloween parties and scouts and church, I didn't quite accomplish that goal! I decided to try a recipe that I recently found on the food blog, House of Annie. It looked delicious, and since we love chocolate and cream cheese, I decided to give it a try.

Annie's recipe actually came from another website, which is linked from her blog. The measurements are given in grams, which I attempted to convert to U.S. measurements. With that said, the recipe is not exact, but I will share my converted version.

Marble Cream Cheese Cake

6 oz. butter

1 cup granulated sugar (it calls for castor sugar but my results were good with granulated)

3 eggs

1/4 cup cocoa powder (I added more than the original recipe called for)
3/4 cup self-rising flour
1 tsp. baking powder
Semi-sweet Chocolate Chips (This was not included in the original recipe, but I added them to one half of the cake batter and it turned out very good)

For the cream cheese layer:

8 oz. cream cheese (softened)
1/3 cup powdered sugar (Annie recommends not using powder sugar, but it worked well for this layer)
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 egg

Directions:
1. Cream butter and sugar.
2. Add eggs one at a time.
3. Add sifted cocoa, flour, and baking powder. (she didn't mention sifting, but I think it's important that it is sifted)
4. Divide this batter if half.
5. Add chocolate chips to half of the batter if desired.
6. Prepare Cream Cheese Layer: Mix cream cheese, powdered sugar, vanilla, and egg. Beat well.
7. Pour 1/2 of the chocolate mixture in greased 8" round pan. (I poured the half with the chocolate chips in first)
8. Pour Cream Cheese layer on top of that layer.
9. Pour remaing 1/2 of the chocolate mixture on top, covering all of the cream cheese layer.
10. Bake at 325 degrees for one hour. (I reduced the temperature because I bake most of my cakes at 325, and it worked perfectly)

This recipe makes one 8" round layer.

What we thought....

Five people ended up tasting this cake and this is what we thought of it...

The cake was good and very moist. We are big time chocolate lovers, and this cake didn't have enough chocolate in it, even with the chocolate chips added. Next time I will try adding 1/3 cup of cocoa powder. I may even try adding the chips to all of the chocolate mixture. However, we all agreed that this cake would be perfect with a cup of coffee or even hot chocolate just the way it is. You wouldn't need the extra chocolate in it then. If you like eating something sweet in the morning...this is for you! It's just sweet enough...I don't like a very sweet cake and the sweetness factor was perfect! This recipe is a keeper!!