Our Aunt Honey had a laugh that was like no other; big, unabashed, and absolutely infectious.  It brought a smile to every face as quickly as did a bite of her fabulous marble cake.  We drove to Richmond each holiday season eagerly discussing and anticipating both the laugh and the cake.  On the off year we didn’t make the trip, you could bet we’d receive a very heavy box in the mail delivering a fresh and beautiful marble cake wrapped securely in loads of foil.  She knew we just couldn’t do Christmas without it.  As alluded to, this cake is oh-so moist, absolutely delicious, and just perfectly Christmas.  It’s the first time I’ve made it myself, and I’m thrilled it turned out so well.  I miss Aunt Honey, we lost her this year, but I’m so grateful my little guys got to experience her laugh first hand (Elijah actually does a pretty good impression) and I plan to make sure we all get a piece of her marble cake each and every Christmas.

Servings: 24 slices (Calorie estimate: 290/slice)

Ingredients

1 cup margarine

1/2 cup crisco

3 cups sugar

Cream together.  Add all of the following EXCEPT the chocolate and sugar mixture.

1/2 t salt

5 eggs, beating well after each one

3 cups flour

1 cup milk (alternate with flour)

1/2 t vanilla

1/2 t almond extract

two 1 ounce blocks of unsweetened bakers chocolate, melted + 1/4 cup sugar

Directions

Divide batter into 3 parts in separate bowls.  Keep one portion as is.  (This is the plain portion of batter, you may want to have this a bit larger proportionally than the red or chocolate portions, this will keep the colors from looking muddled.)  Add red food coloring to the second bowl.  Finally, melt two 1 ounce blocks of unsweetened bakers chocolate and add this and an extra 1/4 cup sugar to the third portion of batter.

Interspersing globs of the plain, red, and chocolate, drop batter into a greased and floured bundt pan.  About three globes of each, as evenly dispersed as possible.  Using your spatula, twirl the batter together using a figure-eight motion to mix the batter up to get that nice pretty marble design. DON’T OVERMIX lest you get a muddy, light brown cake. The more practice you get doing this, the better your marble cakes begin to look.  Put into a cold oven.  Bake at 300F for 80 minutes or until done.  Remove from oven and cover with foil until cool.