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This Marble Cake may look fancy, but it’s incredibly easy to make! Learn how to make an old-fashioned marble cake with swirls of vanilla and chocolate cake, all covered in chocolate icing. This moist and fluffy cake is always a hit!
Moist Homemade Marble Cake
After many, many versions of this Marble Cake, I’m so excited to share the final one with you. I’ve gotten lots of requests for a Marble Cake lately, so I knew I needed to share this recipe as soon as I had it right. I even went to my Instagram Stories to ask what makes a good Marble Cake, so that I could be sure to incorporate everything.
I have to say this cake is all that we want it to be! It’s moist with distinctly chocolate and vanilla flavored swirls of fluffy cake. Plus, both the chocolate and vanilla cake come from the same batter, making this marble cake super quick and easy to put together. Love it!
What You’ll Need
Here is a quick overview of what you’ll need to make this cake. Be sure to scroll down to the recipe card below for specific amounts.
For the Cake
- All purpose flour
- Baking powder
- Salt
- Unsalted butter – A combination of butter and vegetable oil are used to add both flavor and moisture to the cake. Butter adds the flavor you really love in a vanilla cake, while oil adds the ever important moisture.
- Vegetable oil
- Sugar
- Eggs
- Vanilla extract
- Buttermilk – I use powdered buttermilk. Regular milk would work fine as a substitute.
- Bittersweet chocolate (60% cacao) – I strongly recommend sticking with bittersweet chocolate for this cake. I find it gives the best flavor and texture to the chocolate cake portion.
For the Chocolate Icing
- Butter
- Shortening
- Powdered sugar
- Vanilla extract
- Unsweetened cocoa powder
- Water or milk
What Kind of Chocolate to Use?
The kind of chocolate was the first thing I played with. The chocolate you use actually makes a significant difference in the final texture and taste of the chocolate cake.
I knew I wanted to use melted chocolate, so I initially started out using pure 100% chocolate. It ended up not being my favorite option because it made the chocolate cake noticeably different in texture from the vanilla and was more dense and dry. Not to mention that it was a little more bitter tasting.
I then tried semi-sweet chocolate, which is a favorite of mine in baking. While it improved the texture of the cake, I found the chocolate flavor to not really be enough. It was fine, but just a bit lost.
Next up was bittersweet chocolate, which is kind of a middle point between the 100% cocoa and semi-sweet, since it’s 60% cocoa. The bittersweet chocolate was perfect! Great chocolate flavor, but not overpowering or bitter.
I also messed around with the amount of melted chocolate used and decided that a little less melted chocolate went a long way. It added plenty of flavor and did a better job of maintaining the same cake texture between the chocolate and vanilla batters. Too much chocolate still messed with the texture more than I wanted it to.
How to Make Marble Cake
Now that you know what you’ll need ingredients-wise, it’s time to get down to making this cake. To get started making this Marble Cake, you’ll make the vanilla cake batter. This batter will later be flavored with chocolate, and then you’ll swirl the two together.
Prep your tools. Prepare two 9 inch cake pans with parchment paper circles in the bottom and grease the sides. Preheat oven to 350°F (176°C).
Mix dry ingredients. Combine the flour, baking powder and salt in a medium-sized bowl and set aside.
Cream the butter. Add the butter, vegetable oil, and sugar to a large mixer bowl and beat together until light in color and fluffy, about 3-4 minutes. Do not skimp on the creaming time.
Add the eggs two at a time, mixing until well combined after each. Scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed to be sure all ingredients are well incorporated.
Add half of the dry ingredients to the batter and mix until combined.
Add the milk and vanilla extract and mix until well combined.
Add the remaining dry ingredients and mix until well combined and smooth. Scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed to be sure all ingredients are well incorporated. Do not over mix the batter.
Set aside 1 1/4 cups of batter. Then divide the remaining batter between the two cake pans and set them aside.
Melt the chopped chocolate. Add it to the batter that was set aside and gently fold together to combine.
Swirl the two batters together. Drop spoonfuls of batter over the top of the vanilla batter that is already in the cake pans. Use a knife to swirl the chocolate and vanilla batters together, being careful not to over combine them. I ran a knife in a swirl through the cake in one direction once, then the opposite direction once and that was it.
Bake for 18-22 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.
Cool. Remove the cakes from the oven and allow to cool for about 2-3 minutes, then remove to cooling racks to cool completely.
Icing Your Cake
The final step is covering your marble cake in homemade chocolate buttercream frosting! It finished it off perfectly! However, you could totally use vanilla frosting as well. You can also make your frosting in advance! Frosting will keep in the fridge for 1 month and in the freezer for up to 3 months. Just give it a good stir to get the consistency nice and smooth again if you do make it ahead.
The great thing about Marble Cake is that there are many ways to go about it and this recipe is pretty flexible. The cake is moist, flavorful and easy to put together too, which are all winners in my book. I hope you enjoy it!
How to Store a Frosted Cake
You can store this cake on the counter for 2-3 days or in the fridge for up to 1 week. In either case, I recommend covering the cake with saran wrap or placing it in an airtight container to prevent it from drying out.
Can I Freeze This?
Yes, you can definitely freeze marble cake! It is easiest to freeze the cake before it is frosted. Let it come to room temperature, then wrap it in 3-4 layers of saran wrap and place it in an airtight freezer-safe container or Ziploc bag. It will keep in the freezer for up to 3 months.
When you’re ready to eat it just let it thaw on the counter for a few hours or in the fridge overnight.
Print
Easy Marble Cake Recipe
- Prep Time: 1 hour 30 minutes
- Cooling Time: 1 hour
- Cook Time: 22 minutes
- Total Time: 1 hour 52 minutes
- Yield: 12-14 slices
- Category: Dessert
- Method: Oven
- Cuisine: American
Description
This Marble Cake is wonderfully moist and made with a swirls of vanilla and chocolate cake! It’s covered in chocolate frosting for a classic cake!
Ingredients
MARBLE CAKE
- 2 1/4 cups (293g) all purpose flour
- 2 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 cup (112g) unsalted butter, room temperature
- 1/2 cup vegetable oil
- 1 1/2 cups (310g) sugar
- 4 large eggs
- 1 tbsp vanilla extract
- 1 cup (240ml) buttermilk*
- 2.5 oz bittersweet chocolate (60% cacao), chopped**
CHOCOLATE BUTTERCREAM FROSTING
- 1 1/4 cups (280g) butter
- 1 cups (189g) shortening
- 8 cups (920g) powdered sugar
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 cup (114g) natural unsweetened cocoa powder
- 6–8 tbsp (90-120ml) water/milk
Instructions
Make the Marble Cake
- Prepare two 9 inch cake pans with parchment paper circles in the bottom and grease the sides. Preheat oven to 350°F (176°C).
- Combine the flour, baking powder and salt in a medium sized bowl and set aside.
- Add the butter, vegetable oil and sugar to a large mixer bowl and beat together until light in color and fluffy, about 3-4 minutes. Do not skimp on the creaming time.
- Add the eggs two at a time, mixing until well combined after each. Scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed to be sure all ingredients are well incorporated.
- Add half of the dry ingredients to the batter and mix until combined.
- Add the milk and vanilla extract and mix until well combined.
- Add the remaining dry ingredients and mix until well combined and smooth. Scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed to be sure all ingredients are well incorporated. Do not over mix the batter.
- Set aside 1 1/4 cups of batter, then divide the remaining batter between the two cake pans and set them aside.
- Melt the chopped chocolate, then add it to the batter that was set aside and gently fold together to combine.
- Drop spoonfuls of batter over the top of the vanilla batter that is already in the cake pans. Use a knife to swirl the chocolate and vanilla batters together, being careful not to over combine them. I ran a knife in a swirl through the cake in one direction once, then the opposite direction once and that was it.
- Bake for 18-22 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.
- Remove the cakes from the oven and allow to cool for about 2-3 minutes, then remove to cooling racks to cool completely.
Make the Frosting
- To make the frosting, beat the butter and shortening together until smooth.
- Add half of the powdered sugar and mix until smooth.
- Add the vanilla extract, cocoa powder and 4-5 tablespoons of water or milk and mix until smooth.
- Slowly add the remaining powdered sugar and mix until smooth. Add additional water or milk, as needed to get the right consistency of frosting.
- To put the cake together, use a large serrated knife to remove the domes from the top of the cakes so that they’re flat. These cakes don’t have a large dome, but I like to make sure they’re completely flat.
- Place the first cake on a serving plate or a cardboard cake round.
- Spread about 1 cup of frosting evenly on top of the cake.
- Add the second layer of cake on top, then frost the outside of the cake.
Notes
- Store in an air-tight container. Cake is best when eaten within 3-4 days.
*I use powdered buttermilk. Regular milk would work fine as a substitute.
**I strongly recommend sticking with bittersweet chocolate for this cake. I find it gives the best flavor and texture to the chocolate cake portion.
NOTE: If you’d like to use a vanilla frosting on this cake, replace the cocoa powder with an equal amount of additional powdered sugar and increase the vanilla extract to 3 teaspoons (1 tablespoon).
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 Slice
- Calories: 786
- Sugar: 80.4 g
- Sodium: 285.7 mg
- Fat: 41.9 g
- Carbohydrates: 102.2 g
- Protein: 6.2 g
- Cholesterol: 72.8 mg
Categories
More Cakes to Try
Enjoy!
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Hi can you make this recipe in a 9×13 pan? Will it be tall enough?
Yes, it should be fine. I’d just bake it at 325 degrees F.
All your recipes are amazing, this cake was amazing with fudgefrosting chocolate Imbc, you are fantastic
So glad you enjoyed it! Thank you!
Would this recipe also work as cupcakes??
I would expect it to work fine as cupcakes.
I love this cake and am trying to make it into a sheet cake (half sheet). Do you know if one recipe is enough for a half sheet (1 inch sides) or how many cups it makes?
I think it should be enough. I’m not sure how many cups it makes, I’m sorry. Glad to hear you enjoy it!
I am planning on making this cake tomorrow, if I do not have powdered buttermilk, do I use regular milk or can I use liquid buttermilk?
You can definitely use regular buttermilk. If you don’t have any buttermilk at all, you can use regular milk, but the buttermilk does help make the cake more tender.
Hi Lindsay,
Please help me would like to make this in a square tin as a birthday cake.
Can I do it in 3 – 7 inch square tins or 2 – 9 inch square tins.
What do you recommend? Please let me know.
Thanks,
Mayanka
Either should be fine. It just depends on how tall you want the cake to be.
Hi! I am wanting to bake this recipe in 3 8in. pans. Would you recommend I do 1 full recipe and then halve it to have enough batter or would 1 full recipe be enough?
Thank you
I’m not sure I totally understand, but I think one full recipe would work.
This recipe looks great! Could this be used for cupcakes? If so, how should I go about dividing the batter? Thank you!
I’m sure it could be used for cupcakes, but I haven’t tried it to be able to advise. I’m guessing you’d need 3-4 tablespoons of batter per cupcake, so you could try to use a couple tablespoons of each layer.
Can a simple syrup be used in the cakes to keep moisture or will that make it over moist?
I don’t typically use that because I don’t feel my cakes need it, but you certainly could.
I’m only able to get 70% cacao or higher for the chocolate. Will that change the flavour of the recipe too much?
70% should be fine.
Hi Lindsay:
Would this work in 3 8 in pans instead of 2 9 in, or not enough batter?
Thanks!
Jan
You could do it. I just found the marble to look better with taller layers.
This is the best marble cake I have made! I have tried 3 other recipes with disappointing results. This was easy and I can’t stop eating it! The chocolate cake part is seamless, there is no difference in texture and it tastes very chocolatey which doesn’t happen much with marble. Thank you so much for this recipe! Any chance you have it figured out for a smaller batch, like 3 6″ pans?
Can i use this recipe to make cupcakes?
I would think it’d be fine.