Moist and fluffy marble cake made from scratch doesn't have to be complicated. Many times, you guys have asked me for an easy marble cake recipe that did not require two cake recipes. After a lot of testing, I finally have the PERFECT recipe for you based on my ever-popular vanilla cake recipe!
What makes this cake so amazing is all you have to do is make the vanilla cake and then flavor part of the cake with my chocolate mixture to make the chocolate batter then swirl it all together! Simple!
Pair it with chocolate frosting and ganache drip and you've got yourself a vanilla and chocolate lover's dream cake!
If you like a fun mix-in layer cake, my homemade Oreo cake folds chopped Oreos into a soft white cake the same easy way.
The light half of this marble cake is built on my white cake from scratch, swirled together with chocolate batter for that classic marbled look.
What's In This Blog Post
Marble Cake Ingredients
Buttermilk - Buttermilk adds moisture, delicate texture, and flavor to the cake. If you do not have buttermilk, you can make your own using my preferred buttermilk substitutes.
Cake flour - Cake flour has a lower protein content than all-purpose flour. What this means is that when you use cake flour in your cake recipe, your cake will be more tender and have a softer crumb.
PRO TIP: Do not fall for the "just add cornstarch to regular flour" trick. It does not work for this recipe. Your cake will look and taste like cornbread.
If you're in the UK search for Shipton mills soft cake and pastry flour or flour that has a protein level of 9% or less.
Cake Batter Instructions
- Prepare three 8"x2" cake pans with cake goop or another preferred pan spray. Preheat the oven to 335ºF (168ºC).
- Bring your butter, milk, and eggs to room temperature. It's really important when making a cake for the ingredients to all be slightly warm so they create an emulsion.
- Heat the water until it's simmering and then combine it with your cocoa powder.
- Stir it until the cocoa powder is moistened. It will look lumpy, but that is normal.
- Set it aside and let it cool while you prepare the cake batter.
- In a separate container, combine ¾ cup of the milk and the oil together and set it aside.
- In a separate container, combine the remaining milk, eggs, vanilla, and almond extract together. Whisk it to break up the eggs, and then set it aside.
- In the bowl of your stand mixer, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt with the paddle attachment. Mix for 10 seconds to combine everything.
- Add your softened butter to the flour mixture and mix on low until the mixture resembles coarse sand (this takes about 30 seconds). This style of mixing is called the reverse creaming method, and it will result in a very velvety, moist cake. A lot of my other cake recipes like brown butter cake and white velvet buttermilk cake use this method.
- Add in your milk/oil mixture and mix it on low until the dry ingredients are moistened.
- Increase the speed to medium (setting 2 on my Bosch Mixer, setting 4 on a KitchenAid) and let it mix for 2 minutes to develop the cake's structure. If you don't let your cake mix on this step, your cake could collapse.
- Scrape your bowl and then reduce the speed to low.
- Add in your egg mixture in three batches, letting the batter mix for 15 seconds between additions.
- Scrape down the sides again to make sure everything has incorporated.
Marbling the Cake Batter Step-by-Step
- Take out ⅓ of your batter and combine it with the cooled chocolate mixture and fold it gently until it's combined.
- Layer your batter into your pans, starting with vanilla, then chocolate, and ending with vanilla.
- Use a butter knife to swirl them together gently to create the marbling effect. Do not over-mix or your cake will not have a marbled interior.
- Bake the cakes for 35-40 minutes at 335ºF (168ºC) or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out cleanly (but the cake has not begun to shrink yet from the sides of the pan). IMMEDIATELY TAP THE PAN FIRMLY on the countertop once to release the steam from the cake. This stops the cake from shrinking. Your bake time may vary depending on your oven and the size of cake pans you use.
- Let the cakes cool for 10 minutes inside of the pan before flipping them out. The cake will shrink a bit and that is normal.
- Flip the cake onto a cooling rack and let it cool completely. I chill my cakes before handling them, or you can wrap them in plastic wrap and freeze them to trap moisture in the cake.
- Thaw the cake on the countertop while it's still wrapped before frosting.
How to Make Ganache Frosting
- Place your chocolate into a heatproof bowl.
- Heat your cream until it just begins to simmer. Do not boil it or your ganache will be grainy.
- Pour the hot cream over your chocolate.
- Let it sit for 5 minutes.
- Add your vanilla and salt to the chocolate mixture and whisk it until it's smooth and creamy.
- Pour your ganache into a shallow pan and let it cool to peanut butter consistency. Mine takes about 20 minutes to thicken up.
- Frost your cake with the ganache and then place it in the fridge for 20 minutes. This cake also pairs well with easy buttercream or chocolate Swiss meringue buttercream.
- Dust it with cocoa powder using a soft (new) makeup brush to make the velvet texture.
Ganache Drip Instructions
- Heat the cream until it's just steaming, and then pour it over chocolate.
- Let it sit for 5 minutes.
- Whisk it until it's smooth.
- Let it cool until it's slightly warm to the touch before piping it onto your CHILLED cake.
Decorating Step-by-Step
If you need to learn more or are new to cake decorating, check out my blog post on how to decorate your first cake step-by-step.
- Place your first cake layer onto your cake plate, and then spread on a layer of the ganache about ¼" thick. Repeat this step with the last two cake layers. I like using ganache because it's super stable and delicious, but chocolate buttercream or easy buttercream would also pair well.
- Cover the whole cake in a thin layer of ganache. This is called the crumb coat.
- Then, put the entire cake in the fridge for 20 minutes.
- Prepare your chocolate drip and let it cool to 90ºF (32ºC).
- Apply your final layer of ganache and smooth it out with your offset spatula and bench scraper.
- Using a soft (new) makeup brush, apply some cocoa powder to the outside of the ganache to make it look like it has a velvet texture.
- Put your drip ganache into a piping bag and snip off the tip.
- Drip the ganache all the way around the top of the cake and finish it off with sprinkles.
What is marble cake made of?
Marble cake is made when you add a small amount of dark-colored batter to light-colored batter, and then lightly mix it to give the cake a marbled appearance.
Why is it called a marble cake?
The idea of marbling two different colored batters into a cake originated in nineteenth-century Germany. Marble cake made its way to America with German immigrants before the Civil War. Originally, the cakes were marbled with molasses and spices.
In 1889, a recipe appeared in a popular cookbook that took advantage of Americans' obsession with chocolate and replaced molasses with chocolate. Thus, the popular marble cake that we know about today was born.
During the 50's all the way through the 70's, bakeries in New York were adding almond extract to their marble cake batter as a signature flavor and sometimes referred to it as German marble cake. This was originally more of a snacking cake meant to be sliced and served without frosting and eaten with tea or coffee.
FAQ
Surprisingly, I get this question a lot. This recipe is meant to be baked in three 8" x 2" cake pans so that you get three nice layers of cake in each slice. But you can definitely use other sizes of cake pans like a ¼ sheet pan or square pans.
You may need to increase or decrease the recipe to fit the size of your pan.
You can also use this recipe to make cupcakes, but it makes a lot! My cupcakes baked at 350ºF for 15 minutes but you should bake them until the center bounces back when you touch it.
Yes, you may use a bundt pan or a loaf pan. Just follow the same process of taking out ⅓ of the batter and adding in the bloomed cocoa powder to make the vanilla cake batter chocolate.
Yes, you can. But you will need to create a homemade buttermilk substitute first using regular milk along with other ingredients. There are several buttermilk substitutes I would recommend in place of buttermilk for this recipe.
Whenever you're introducing cocoa powder into a cake recipe, it can dry the cake out. You can avoid dry cake when you bloom your cocoa powder before mixing it with your vanilla cake batter.
Blooming is when you combine the cocoa powder with hot water, coffee or cold oil and let it sit for a few minutes until it starts to look spongy. Now that the cocoa powder is moistened, it won't suck up all the moisture from your vanilla cake batter.
Your oven temperature was most likely too high. Check your oven with an oven thermometer and reduce the temperature accordingly if it is running hotter than you need it to be.
More Cake Recipes You'll Love
Recipe
Equipment
- Stand Mixer
- Paddle Attachment
Ingredients
Marble Cake Ingredients
- 16 ounces cake flour
- 16 ounces granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 Tablespoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 4 large eggs room temperature
- 5 ounces vegetable oil
- 14 ounces buttermilk room temperature or slightly warm
- 8 ounces butter unsalted and softened
- 2 teaspoon vanilla
- ½ teaspoon almond extract
- 1 ounce cocoa powder dutch or natural
- 3 ounces hot water
- 1 Tablespoon cocoa powder for dusting
Ganache Frosting
- 16 ounces semi-sweet chocolate
- 16 ounces heavy whipping cream
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Ganache Drip
- 6 ounces semi-sweet chocolate
- 4 ounces heavy whipping cream
Instructions
Cake Batter Instructions
- Prepare three 8″x2″ cake pans with cake goop or another preferred pan spray. Preheat your oven to 335ºF (168ºC).
- Bring your butter, milk, and eggs to room temperature. It's really important when making a cake for the ingredients to all be slightly warm so they create an emulsion.
- Heat the water until it's simmering and then combine it with your cocoa powder.
- Stir it until the cocoa powder is moistened. It will look lumpy, but that is normal.
- Set it aside and let it cool while you prepare the cake batter.
- In a separate container, combine ¾ cup of the milk and the oil together and set it aside.
- In a separate container, combine the remaining milk, eggs, vanilla, and almond extract together. Whisk it to break up the eggs, and then set it aside.
- In the bowl of your stand mixer, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt with the paddle attachment. Mix for 10 seconds to combine everything.
- Add your softened butter to the flour mixture and mix on low until the mixture resembles coarse sand (this takes about 30 seconds). This style of mixing is called the reverse creaming method, and it will result in a very velvety, moist cake. A lot of my other cake recipes like brown butter cake and white velvet buttermilk cake use this method.
- Add in your milk/oil mixture and mix it on low until the dry ingredients are moistened.
- Increase the speed to medium (setting 2 on my Bosch Mixer, setting 4 on a KitchenAid) and let it mix for 2 minutes to develop the cake's structure. If you don't let your cake mix on this step, your cake could collapse.
- Scrape your bowl and then reduce the speed to low.
- Add in your egg mixture in three batches, letting the batter mix for 15 seconds between additions.
- Scrape down the sides again to make sure everything has incorporated.
Marbling the Cake Batter Instructions
- Take out ⅓ of your batter and combine it with the cooled chocolate mixture and fold it gently until it's combined.
- Layer your batter into your pans, starting with vanilla, then chocolate, and ending with vanilla.
- Use a butter knife to swirl them together gently. Do not over-mix or your cake will not have a marbled interior.
- Bake the cakes for 35-40 minutes at 335ºF (168ºC) or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out cleanly (but the cake has not begun to shrink yet from the sides of the pan). IMMEDIATELY TAP THE PAN FIRMLY on the countertop once to release the steam from the cake. This stops the cake from shrinking.
- Let the cakes cool for 10 minutes inside of the pan before flipping them out. The cake will shrink a bit and that is normal.
- Flip the cake onto a cooling rack and let it cool completely. I chill my cakes before handling them, or you can wrap them in plastic wrap and freeze them to trap moisture in the cake.
- Thaw the cake on the countertop while it's still wrapped before frosting.
Ganache Frosting Instructions
- Place your chocolate into a heatproof bowl.
- Heat your cream until it just begins to simmer. Do not boil it or your ganache will be grainy.
- Pour the hot cream over your chocolate.
- Let it sit for 5 minutes.
- Add in your vanilla and salt to the chocolate mixture and whisk it until it's smooth and creamy.
- Pour your ganache into a shallow pan and let it cool to peanut butter consistency. Mine takes about 20 minutes to thicken up.
- Frost your cake with the ganache and then place it into the fridge for 20 minutes. This cake also pairs well with easy buttercream or chocolate Swiss meringue buttercream.
- Dust it with cocoa powder using a soft (new) makeup brush to make the velvet texture.
Ganache Drip Instructions
- Heat the cream until it's just steaming, and then pour it over chocolate.
- Let it sit for 5 minutes.
- Whisk it until it's smooth.
- Let it cool until it's slightly warm to the touch before piping it onto your CHILLED cake.
Video
Notes
Cake flour sources: UK - Shipton Mills Cake & Pastry Flour
Laura Purvis says
This cake is super-delicious and beautiful. I would just like to note that it takes way more than ten minutes to prepare it for the oven, and it uses many many bowls. It’s worth it, but be prepared.
Liz Marek says
Thanks for the heads up for other bakers! So glad it was worth it.
Katie Bostrom says
What white frosting would you recommend to pair with the marble cake? I'd like a white frosting for the way my son wants it decorated for his birthday party!
Liz Marek says
My easy buttercream would be perfect for a white frosting. If you have more questions, come ask me in the Sugar Geeks community: https://community.raptive.com/sugargeeks
ubaTaeCJ says
1
Bluestone says
Hi Liz, what brand of cake flour do you use?
Liz Marek says
I use Swans Down cake flour. If you have more questions, come ask me in the Sugar Geeks community: https://community.raptive.com/sugargeeks
Fifi says
Is there a way I can use this cake recipe and leave it just as vanilla. (So don’t do any chocolate mixture) I want to make a smaller batch of vanilla cake but all of your other vanilla cake recipes use an odd number of eggs and this is the only one I can cut in half.
Liz Marek says
Yes! Just skip the chocolate step and you have a vanilla cake. With 4 eggs, it halves easily too. If you have more questions, come ask me in the Sugar Geeks community: https://community.raptive.com/sugargeeks
DollyDoodle01 says
Hello! I have not tried this recipe yet but I will be making this recipe next weekend for a little girls’s 5th birthday party. I plan on doing a 3 tiered square cake. I was wondering how many cups of batter does this recipe make?
Liz Marek says
Thank you! It makes about 9 cups of batter. If you have more questions, come ask me in the Sugar Geeks community: https://community.raptive.com/sugargeeks
Bobbi says
I have made those on several tomes and as wirh all Liz s recipes it was delicious. Everyone at our parties loved it.
Liz Marek says
Thank you so much, I'm so glad everyone loved it!
Anita says
Making this for a party and I baked the cakes and have frozen them. I am worried that they may be a little dry. Is there a way you would suggest for me to revive the cake?
Liz Marek says
Thank you! Freezing actually traps moisture in the cake. Thaw the layers on the counter while still wrapped, and they'll be soft again once they come to room temperature. If you have more questions, come ask me in the Sugar Geeks community: https://community.raptive.com/sugargeeks
Abby says
I really appreciated being able to watch the video where you taught us the correct way to marble. That made it easy to do, and worked really well! The cake is moist and fluffy, just like you said it would be. I doubled the recipe and made two 9x13 cakes. My stand mixer bowl would not accommodate all that batter, so I had to move it to a much larger bowl and use a handheld mixer. That worked out fine.
Liz Marek says
So glad the marbling video helped! Thank you for sharing how you doubled it.
Howard R says
This cake was outstanding. When I was a kid there was a bakery that made a marble cake. This is the closest in flavor to theirs. If only they were calorie free...;)
Liz Marek says
I love that it reminds you of your childhood bakery! Thank you so much.
Xylina M Shelton says
First off that was the best tasting batter that I have had since my momma and will be my go to vanilla cake recipe...
The cakes are in the oven now and I can't wait... I'm making your butter cream and chocolate Gamache (forgive spelling) and going to try to marble the outside 2. My daughter's 24 birthday ❤
Julie says
Can I use the same amount of egg whites than whole eggs in this recipe. I’d like to colour the cake.
Elizabeth Marek says
Yes you can do that
Julie says
I made this for my mothers birthday. This is the best marble cake I ever had!
Maya says
Hi Liz! I want to make this cake but i have an electric oven it doesn’t have a 335°F on the ticks. what do a i do?
Elizabeth Marek says
Bake at 350ºF and make sure you check the cake in the last 10 minutes to make sure you are not over-baking it.
Jaya P says
Hello Liz. I am a huge fan of all your recipes. I have to make a marble cake for a carved cake? I would like to only use your recipe? Can this be used for carving?
Sugar Geek Show says
Thank you! Yes I use it to carve all the time.
Katie says
Hi Liz 🙂
I was wondering if this recipe would work for a sheet cake and if so would the temp be the same, and then I’d just keep an eye on the time?
Thank you 🙂
Liz Marek says
Yes! You can bake it in a ¼ sheet pan at the same temperature. Just keep an eye on it and bake until a toothpick comes out clean. If you have more questions, come ask me in the Sugar Geeks community: https://community.raptive.com/sugargeeks
Brittanie Boulton says
I'm making this cake but the top got dark super quickly and now they're starting to burn and the middle is still raw batter. I put my oven 15 degrees lower than what's called for as well. How can I prevent this?
Liz Marek says
That usually means the pan is too close to the top of the oven or the oven is running hot. Check your oven with a thermometer and bake on a middle rack. If you have more questions, come ask me in the Sugar Geeks community: https://community.raptive.com/sugargeeks