This Red Velvet Marble Cake doesn’t ask to be the centre of attention, and then quietly becomes exactly that. There’s something about it that makes people pause before cutting in — maybe it’s the swirl, maybe it’s the simplicity of it sitting there in its bundt shape, waiting.

I baked this for the first time on a Valentine’s Day — not because I’m someone who plans elaborate things for the fourteenth of February, but because I wanted something on the table that looked like effort without actually demanding a whole day in the kitchen. Red velvet has always felt a little indulgent to me, a little dressed-up, and pairing it with a simple vanilla pound cake batter felt like the right kind of balance — rich, but not over the top.