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
Sarah B says
Can you reduce the sugar? 400+g seems like a lot? Thanks
Liz Marek says
I wouldn't reduce it, the sugar is part of the cake's structure. If you want less sugar, a substitute like Lakanto works. If you have more questions, come ask me in the Sugar Geeks community: https://community.raptive.com/sugargeeks
Afton says
Hi Liz, just curious, why the almond extract in a vanilla cake?
Liz Marek says
Almond is the classic signature flavor of New York bakery marble cakes. You can leave it out if you prefer. If you have more questions, come ask me in the Sugar Geeks community: https://community.raptive.com/sugargeeks
Sarah says
Hello Liz! I love your recipes and always have success and my family always asks me to make them again once they've tasted them so thank you! I'm going to make this marble cake for someone who is dairy free. I see that you have mentioned dairy free buttermilk in your buttermilk alternative section. Have you also tried dairy free butter or do you think it will/will not work in this for any reason?
Liz Marek says
I haven't used dairy free butter very often personally but a lot of my followers do and report that it works just as well as regular butter
Sarah says
Perfect! Thanks so much!
Tanya says
Hi.. love the recipes. I need to make 2-10” rods out of this can I double the recipe as it is.. is dbl.’ed enough for the size. T Y… I’ve made this many times. Your cakes are delicious.
Liz Marek says
Yes you can double this recipe no problem
Tanya says
Thank you so much.
Katie says
I made this for my son's birthday with your easy SMBC. I was asked if I had bought it because the crumb was perfect and it was so soft, fluffly and moist. This is easily the best marble cake recipe I've ever made. I was hoping to try cupcakes with it. Do you have any tips on oven temp and baking time?
Liz Marek says
So glad it was a hit! For cupcakes, bake at 350º F for about 15 minutes, until the center bounces back when you touch it. If you have more questions, come ask me in the Sugar Geeks community: https://community.raptive.com/sugargeeks
Olivia says
10/10 cake! Best recipe! However, I was making this with gluten free flour and all three cakes collapsed in the oven 🙁 Otherwise, delicious cake and making again and hoping for success. Would you recommend adding anything if I’m using Bobs Red Mill baking flour as opposed to cake flour? Thank you!
Liz Marek says
I usually have success with replacing with gluten free cup 4 cup, sometimes you need to just mix a little more
Karen Bryant says
Hello, can you freeze the cake and how does it turn out once defrosted?
It’s delicious by the way.
Liz Marek says
Yes you can! It doesnt change the cake at all.
Jay says
Wonderfull cake and best marble I’ve ever tried so far. I actually didn’t have cake flour so I subbed with AP and cornstarch. I know you say you don’t recommend it but it still turned out great. Moist, rich flavor with a nice crumb. The cocoa + hot water for me was the game changer. No doubt every marble cake recipe I tried in the past, where they’d stir it in the batter, was so dry. This is the second successful cake recipe I’ve tried from your blog. Thanks!!
Alexis says
I live outside of the USA and I am having a hard time finding cake flour. What will happen if I use all-purpose flour? Do you know if there is Dutch equivalent? Have you heard of Zeeland flour? Could this work instead of all purpose flour?
Thanks.
Liz Marek says
The cornstarch trick doesn't work for this recipe, it comes out like cornbread. If you can't find cake flour, use my white cake recipe as the base and follow the same marbling steps. If you have more questions, come ask me in the Sugar Geeks community: https://community.raptive.com/sugargeeks
afraley6 says
Could I make this into a 6 inch cake??
Liz Marek says
Yes! Use the batter calculator above the recipe card to see how much batter you need for 6-inch pans, then adjust the servings to match. If you have more questions, come ask me in the Sugar Geeks community: https://community.raptive.com/sugargeeks
Jo says
If I can’t use almond extract would I just leave it out or add the missing extract amount to the vanilla extract?
Looking forward to making this for an upcoming birthday cake.
I love every recipe I have tried from your site. Many have become family favourites (there is always some of your lemon curd in the freezer). Thank you for this wonderful site.
Liz Marek says
You can just leave it out, or add the same amount of extra vanilla. Either works! If you have more questions, come ask me in the Sugar Geeks community: https://community.raptive.com/sugargeeks
MLT19 says
Haven't made this yet but definitely want to try it. It looks amazing and the reviews are fantastic.
I do have a question. Have you ever tried making it with a sugar substitute? And, if so, which one did you use?
Elizabeth Marek says
you can use a sugar substitute, I like lakanto
Min says
Silly question but is the egg weighed with or without egg shell
Liz Marek says
Without the shell. If you have more questions, come ask me in the Sugar Geeks community: https://community.raptive.com/sugargeeks
Jo says
Finally, after trying SO MANY marble cake recipes, this is it! I have a small baking business and it is nice to have a recipe that results in a nicely risen, soft cake with lovely marbling. I made half a recipe for 2x6" cakes and based on how much it rose, you could even make three 6" layers. Thank you SO MUCH for a great marble cake recipe!
Liz Marek says
Thank you so much! So glad it's working for your business.
Rob Chlebicki says
Hi Liz,
I love your cake recipes! You're my "go to" baker whenever I need something delicious. This marble cake was fantastic!! I have a few questions:
1.) I want to decorate the cake the day after I make and frost it. So, after baking and frosting the cake, I plan on storing it in the fridge overnight in a covered cake carrier. Will this alter the cake taste/texture at all? Do you suggest a better way of storing the cake prior to decorating it?
2.) I'm not sure the recipient of the cake would like the slight almond flavor. Can I simply substitute that measurement with more vanilla extract rather than the almond extract?
Thanks for sharing your incredible talent (and taste...lol) with us!
Your devoted follower....Rob
Liz Marek says
Thank you! Storing it covered in the fridge overnight is fine, just take it out a few hours before serving so it softens up. And yes, you can swap the almond for more vanilla. If you have more questions, come ask me in the Sugar Geeks community: https://community.raptive.com/sugargeeks
Ronee says
Hi!
Can I use your white chocolate ganache recipe for the “frosting?” Or should I just sub the semisweet for white chocolate like in this recipe?
Liz Marek says
Yes! My white chocolate ganache works great as a frosting on this cake. If you have more questions, come ask me in the Sugar Geeks community: https://community.raptive.com/sugargeeks