Lazy Choc Cheese Marble Cake

I was cracking my head contemplating what to make for our last linedance potluck party. I know my weaknesses- laziness, clumsiness and sympathetic.

Laziness- can't blame me, i was completely worn-out due to the past weeks' workload. So I have decided to get more rest over the weekends. And most importantly, reserve some fuel to line dance in the evening. So any cooking that involves a tedious mechanism is definitely a no no..

Clumsiness-Cooking to me is worse than office work. With my clumsiness, i tend to have injuries whenever I cook up a decent meal. In order to prevent these minor accidents, I will take double the time compare to any normal person.

Sympathetic- I hardly cook, only once or twice in the year. The standard of my dishes always varies according to my mood and accuracy of measurement. Being sympathetic enough, I had chosen not to cook any of my "signature dishes" as I have no confidence in ensuring that it is edible. Worse still, to make everyone guinea pigs of my first attempt.


The degree of my reluctant to cook = 70% Laziness + 10% Clumsiness + 20% Sympathetic

From the above, it is clear that LAZINESS is the major culprit. So I have resorted to a quick fix - something that is simple and i have confidence on- Bake a cake!

But then again, I was in a dilemma, eventhough baking is not a difficult job for me, but then some cakes also involves a lot of work....So with much considerations, I took the shortcut again! That is to get a premix.

I have fixed my mind a day before the party and off i went early the following morning to LMC baking ingredients shop. The shop attendant have managed to convince me their best seller- moist American chocolate cake. Without second thought, I took a packet and paid immediately.

After reaching home. I was hit by my guilty conscious...coz i hate premix, it is always overbearingly sweet. So I decided to improve it with my own variation. Viola, with one pack of premix, I managed to bake 2 cakes in less than 2 hours ( My recipe below is for one cake)

Due to the variation, I have difficulty naming the cake. It looks like chocolate cheese brownie but it is softer than brownie. It tastes like moist American chocolate fudge cake but it has cream cheese filings in it. Well, finally, I decided to name it: Lazy Choc Cheese Marble Cake, since the invention was attributed to my laziness...Trust me, this is the type of recipe which you can choose to dump in all ingredients and blend together in a electric mixer. No manual mixing required.

Below is the recipe:

A. Cake Ingredients

250g butter (1 bar)
3 size-A eggs
1 packet 500g moist chocolate cake mix - for this recipe, only 250g is required.
50g self-raising flour (if dun have, just use plain flour and mix with 1 tsp of baking powder)
2 table spoon chocolate powder (optional, just to add more chocolaty flavour)
50g water
1 bar imported dark chocolate (Optional - you decide how much is needed)

B. Cream Cheese Filing Ingredients:
250g cream cheese
80 g icing sugar
1 size A egg
2 big table spoon strawberry yogurt

C. Steps

1. Cream butter till light and creamy.
2. Blend in egg one at a time.
3. Blend in flour, cake mix and water
4. Beat till well blended.
5. Chop the dark chocolate into small pieces, and blend into the mixture.
6. Divide the mixture into 2 portion.
7. Pour one portion into the lined cake tin and bake in bain marie/steam bath (a tray of water to be placed below the cake dish) for 10 min in a 180 degree preheated oven.
   
8. While waiting, prepare the cream cheese filing. In a separate mixing bowl, blend cream cheese, icing sugar, egg and strawberry yogurt together. Remember to thaw the cream cheese beforehand to soften it as this will cut short the mixing time. With the help of the electric mixer, you should be able finish it within 10 min. Anyway, even you are as slow as a snail, the first layer in the oven will be patient enough to wait for you. Standing time will not ruin the consistency.
   
9. Remove the first layer out and pour over it the cream cheese filling. Use a fork, prick the cake a little bit to allow the cream cheese filling penetrating to the first layer.
   
10. Next, pour in the 2nd portion of the chocolate cake mix.
    
11. Stir the cream cheese filing and chocolate mixture together to get the swirl marble effect.
12. Continue baking for another 25-30 min.
13. To test whether the cake is done, prick using a tooth pick and if it comes out clean, the cake is done. Normally a well baked cake will shrink a bit to the edge.

Trust me you will never fail with this recipe and anyone who is a chocolate or cheese lover will fall in love with it. Most importantly, this cake is just so easy to make. I can't but to say that this cake recipe is for the idiot who intend to bake like pro..hahahah...

Estimated total cost:

1. Chocolate cake mix - one pack is RM6.80 (RM3.40 for half pack)
2. Butter - RM5.40
3. Flour - RM?? One pack is RM3 for 1kg, 50g is RM0.15
4. Eggs- RM1.60 (Estimate)
5. Cheese - RM6.50 (Estimate)
   
6. Chocolate bar - RM6.50 (Estimate)
   
7. Yogurt - RM1.50 (Estimate)
   
8. Icing sugar - RM0.25 (Estimate)

The estimated cost is around RM25 to bake this cake. So it is 75% cheaper than buying it from the shop.

Some variations:

1. You may try baking the chocolate cake without the cream cheese filling but replace with cream cheese topping. Just cream the cheese and icing sugar but omit the egg. The icing sugar can be lesser by 10g, up to your taste. Add some lemon peels and 1 tsp lemon juice to flavour the topping. Spread the topping all over the cake which is already cooled down.
   
2. Skip the cream cheese if you are conscious about the calories. Just bake the cake on its own which will turn into a moist chocolate fudge cake. Make sure you choose good quality chocolate, preferably imported ones. You may also try using Hershey Chocolate nuggets but i prefer to use pure dark chocolate.
   
3. Try mixing some chopped walnuts to make the cake more chewy.
4. If budget is not an issue as you only go for premier quality, replace the 50g plain flour with 50g hazelnut powder. The end result is a classic royal chocolate cake.
5. An alchohol lover? Just soak some raisins overnight with rum and mix with the chocolate cake. You will be drunk with the sweetness.
6. Replace the yogurt with 1 tsp lemon juice and some shredded lemon peels for a more tangy taste. Lemon and any citrus fruit goes well with chocolate.
   

Happy baking!
The swirl is not so smooth due to the chunky chocolate pieces. Anyway, it is quite artistic right? (Ahem!)