Marble cake redemption

I baked a cake this weekend in order to redeem myself for a dessert I made last month.  About once or twice a month we have dinner with our friend and his family.  We usually do some sort of theme, and I think for November it was salad.  

Anyway.  I decided to bring a macaroni salad AND brownies.  I go to make them and discover that we don't quite have enough eggs to make the brownies and for breakfast the next day.  Now, usually you would just say, okay, quick run to the store for some eggs, no prob.  Well, we've been working really hard at budgeting, and I knew I'd be going grocery shopping the next day at Winco and would pay less for eggs there.

As part of our budgeting, we've been using some of our food storage, which includes gelatin.  Andy had made pancakes with gelatin instead of eggs when he was a Boy Scout, and had read that you can bake with gelatin, too.

Don't.  Just don't do it.  Technically you can, but no.  Don't.  Listen to me on this one.

I looked online for how to mix the gelatin with water to make egg substitute, and followed the direction.  Since I wanted to make marble brownies, I had to make the chocolate brownie part first.  I did and poured it into the pan, and went on my merry way making the cream cheese part.

I kind of knew something was up  when I went to pour the cream cheese mixture on top of the brownie sludge and it just kinda rested there on top.  I was able to swirl the cream cheese stuff through the brownie, but there was, um, resistance.

I baked it according to the directions in the recipe, and was a little concerned when it didn't really rise as much as normal brownies do.

Discouraged, we decided we would still bring the brownies over there anyway.  Luckily our friend's mom had also made some sort of apple spice cake, so dessert wasn't completely shot.

Patrick decided to try the brownie first, and he said it tasted good, but had an interesting texture, I think is what he said.

Then his dad and Andy tried the brownie, and that's when the Goodyear tire jokes started.  At one point we all agreed that the brownies could be used to patch a tire and get to a service station, if need be.

They really did taste like brownies, all chocolatey and such, but I now know what a chocolate flavored tire tastes like, if there is such a thing!  

To make up for the Goodyear brownies, I made a marble cake this weekend (we had plenty of eggs!).  It turned out fairly well.  I used this recipe and frosted it with a basic vanilla buttercream.

To make one eight-inch round marble cake, all you really need to do is make a basic vanilla cake batter, reserve 3/4 of a cup of the batter, and put the rest into a greased and floured pan.  After that, mix one tablespoon of cocoa powder into the reserved batter, and drop that by spoonfuls over the batter in the pan.  Swirl with a knife and then bake according to your cake recipe's directions.

And never use gelatin to bake unless it's the apocalypse and you want brownies.