Eggless Marble Cake

We always prefer simple tea cakes over celebration cakes at home.I usually prepare marble cake following my sponge cake recipe and adding the cocoa powder to half the batter.When I saw this recipe in Divya's space I made a mental note that I should try her recipe soon.I had made this for a small get together at my place and it was perfect for the tea time snack and everybody loved it.The cake is very soft,moist and also got a nice crumb which is perfect for an eggless recipe.Today is my parent's marriage Anniversary and I would like to wish them with this eggless cake recipe.Hope they like it.
Eggless Marble Cake Recipe:
(yields one 7" cake)
Recipe Source : Easy Cooking

Ingredients:
1 1/4 cups Maida/All purpose flour
3 tbsp Milk powder(I substituted with 3 tbsp condensed milk)
1/2 cup Butter
3/4 cup Powdered sugar
3/4 cup Milk
2 tbsp Cocoa powder
2 tsp Baking powder
1/2 tsp Baking soda
1 tsp Vanilla essence
2 tbsp Hot water
Method:

• Preheat oven to 170 deg Centigrade.Grease a regular 7' round/square or ring tin.
• Sift together flour with milk powder,baking powder and baking soda a couple of times until everything is well incorporated.keep it aside.If you are using condensed milk,do not add milk powder at this stage.
• Pour hot water on cocoa powder and mix well to form a paste and let it come to the room temperature.
• Cream the butter and sugar using a hand blender until light and fluffy .
• Add half the flour mix and half the quantity of milk to the butter mixture and beat well.
• Add the remaining milk and condensed milk(if using instead of milk powder) and beat well and finally add the flour and beat to a smooth batter.
• Take one third of the batter into another bowl and add the cocoa paste to it and mix well.
• Add vanilla essence to the remaining white batter.
• Pour all of the white batter into the prepared greased tin.Now top it with the cocoa flavored batter in patches.
• Swirl the batter using a clean table knife or spoon.Do not mix it long otherwise you will end up not getting that beautiful marble effect.
• Bake for 40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.Cool in the pan for 10 minutes.
• Run the knife around the cake and then un mould the cake on to a cooling rack.
• Cool the completely over night or at least for 4-5 hrs.As the cake is extremely moist it will break up while cutting it,so handle it with care.

Cut into thick slices and serve it warm or at room temperature.
Notes:

1. The original recipe used orange zest in the cocoa batter which gives a nice orange hint to the cake.I skipped it as I did not have it at the moment.
2. I used condensed milk instead of milk powder as I usually do not stock it.The texture was not affected and it was very soft and fluffy.