My youngest son has been away to Guatemala on a school missions trip for 12 days! He has been managing fine with his food allergies while away (I may have packed half a suitcase of non-perishable food for him to take). He is the one with egg and peanut allergies. I am pretty sure he hasn’t had a baked food item in 12 days so I wanted to make him a cake for his return like a good food allergy Mama! I have been wanting to make a marshmallowy cake topping  for a while and this marble cake is a good base for it!

Marble Cake

Cream together:

• 1/2 cup softened butter
• 1 and 1/2 cups sugar

Then add in and mix well:

• 1/2 cup vegetable or canola oil

Then mix in:

• 3/4 cup yogurt (equal to 3 eggs)
• 3 tsp vanilla

In a separate bowl, sift together dry ingredients:

• 3 cups flour
• 1/3 cup cornstarch
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp salt

Alternate mixing in dry ingredients and the milk mixture into the batter:

• 1 and 1/4 cups milk with 1 tbsp vinegar

Divide the batter between two parchment-lined 9 inch cake pans. In a saucepan, melt:

• 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Add half the melted chocolate to each pan. Swirl with a knife to create a marble pattern. Bake at 350 degrees F for approximately 35 minutes. Let cool before frosting. These cakes bake nice and level for layering.

Marshmallow Topping

In a stand mixer sprinkle gelatin over water:

• 1 pkg gelation (7.2 g)
• 1/2 cup cold water

In a medium saucepan, bring to a boil over medium heat:

• 1 and 1/2 cups white sugar
• 6 tbsp water

Boil until the water is gone and has formed a sugar syrup at the soft crack stage or 140 degrees F on a candy thermometer.

When the sugar syrup is ready, turn the stand mixer on low and slowly pour the hot sugar syrup into the gelation mixture. When all the syrup is added, turn the mixer on medium high and whip for about 10 minutes until the mixture turns shiny and marshmellow-y.

Frosting

• 1 and 1/2 cups icing sugar
• 2 tbsp cocoa powder
• 1/2 tsp vanilla
• 2 tbsp softened butter
• 1 tbsp milk

Beat all the ingredients together until fluffy.

Layer one cake, then spread the chocolate frosting. Place the other cake layer on top. Gently spread out the marshmallow topping over the top layer.