Marmorkuchen

A marble cake , or Marmor ( German: [ˈmaʁmoːɐ̯] ⓘlit. 'marble')) is a cake with a streaked or mottled appearance (like marble) achieved by very lightly blending light and dark batter. Due to its zebra-striped pattern, it is also called zebra cake. It can be a mixture of vanilla and chocolate cake, in which case it is mainly vanilla, with streaks of chocolate. Other possibilities are strawberry or other fruit flavors, or (particularly in marbled coffee cakes) cinnamon or other spices. Marmor is the German word for marble. The idea of marble cake seems to have originated in early nineteenth century Germany. The earliest version of marble cake consisted of a kugelhopf (sweet yeast bread), one half of which was colored with molasses and spices to achieve a dark colored batter. Bakers next began to do the same thing with sponge cake batter. The usage of chocolate in the Rhein-Ruhr area in the twentieth century has now made this a common version of marble cake across Germany and Austria. The cake was brought to America shortly before the Civil War, and the term marble cake was first recorded in English in September 29, 1859 issue of Illinois State Chronicle (Decatur). One popular variation of this recipe during Victorian times was “Harlequin cake,” which was baked with checkerboard patterns.

Source: Wikipedia