Lemon-Molasses Marble Cake

Marble cake is among the most enduring of American cakes. In early recipes, the batter isn’t made with chocolate, but with a spiced molasses batter offset by a pale lemon batter.

Marble cake begins to turn up in American cookbooks in the late 1800s. This one is adapted from an old recipe from Mary Leize Simons of Charleston, South Carolina. It’s extraordinary—a big, dramatic-looking cake baked in a Bundt or tube pan—moist and full of flavor.