Marble Loaf Pound Cake

Sorry I've been gone quite awhile, we've had some crazy weeks around here.  Anyway, I thought it was high time there was another cake recipe to share (for those of you still keeping your New Year's resolutions, I'll post a salad recipe soon).  Back when I worked for Starbucks, there was a very popular pastry, the Marble Loaf Cake.  To be honest, I didn't really care for it that much.  No offense, Starbucks-affiliated Bakeries, but I never thought it was worth the calories (and I'm sure it had plenty!) and it was so delicate, it was really difficult to keep the pieces intact.  Here is a Marble loaf cake I can buy in to.  For a "pound" cake, it is actually pretty tame in the indulgence scale and the pudding and extra egg added to the cake mix make for sturdy slices (perfect for furtively eating out of hand while your four year old who you told "did not need a second piece of cake for the day" isn't looking...not that I would ever, ever do that). 

Marble Loaf Pound Cake
1 box yellow cake mix
1 small box (3.4 oz) instant vanilla pudding mix
4 eggs
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 cup water
4 ounces semi sweet chocolate chips (about 1/2 cup)

Directions:
Grease and flour two 9x5x3 loaf pans.  Set aside.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
In a large mixing bowl, combine cake mix, pudding mix, eggs, oil and water.  Blend on low speed with an electric mixer, just until combined (about 30 seconds).  Scrape down bowl and raise speed to medium, blending another two minutes.  Set aside.
In a small, microwave-safe bowl, melt chocolate chips in microwave at 50% power, stopping stirring in 30 second increments until chips are almost smooth.  Continue to stir until all the chips are melted.  Remove 1 cup of yellow cake batter and stir into melted chocolate until thoroughly combined. Set aside.
Divide yellow cake batter evenly into both loaf pans.  Drop the chocolate batter in large blobs (you don't have to be scientific about it) on top of the yellow batter in both pans.  Run a knife through the batter in each pan a few times (you can make some circles and drag the knife in all directions, if you want, have fun).  Just make sure you don't mix the batters together too much or it won't be "marble" anymore.
Bake at 350 degrees for 45-50 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean and the top springs back when touched.  Remove from oven and allow to cool in the pans for about 15 minutes.  Run a knife around the edges of the pan to carefully loosen them and invert onto cooling racks.  Flip them back over and allow to cool completely.  Use a serrated knife for easy slicing.  

p.s. this is fun recipe to make with kids...wouldn't they love to do some (supervised) swirling???