The ultimate people pleaser, this soft, fluffy, moist Marble Cake is a swirled masterpiece of vanilla and chocolate. This cake is shockingly easy to make and tastes as good as it looks! Recipe includes a how-to video.
Marble Cake (AKA: The People Pleaser)
Some people like chocolate cake, some people like vanilla cake–but everyone loves this marble cake!
It’s a beautiful, swirled combination that’s perfectly chocolatey with just the right amount of vanilla. If you’ve tried and enjoyed my zebra cake, you’ll love this richer, more elegant take, minus the whipped egg whites and special ingredients. It’s simple, gorgeous, and designed to please!
This recipe is a close cousin to my popular vanilla cake; it’s wonderfully soft, moist, and so flavorful. When developing this recipe, I originally toyed with the idea of making two separate batters, but ultimately decided it was too much of a hassle. That technique produced many more dishes and a much larger mess, and the cakes didn’t bake as evenly together as I would’ve liked. After a dozen more rounds of testing, I finally figured out a way to keep things simple with one batter for both flavors.
You’ll love my recipe because it’s:
- Perfect for parties–everyone is happy!
- Soft, fluffy, and moist.
- Simple to make with just one batter.
- Cloaked with a thick and fudgy chocolate frosting (just one of many options–more below!)
What You Need
This marble cake uses basic ingredients you’ll already have on hand. Let’s go over a few of the key players:
- Butter and oil. Butter adds flavor that you would miss from using just oil, and oil adds moisture that you would miss if you only used butter.
- Flour. I use all-purpose, but cake flour may be substituted; see the notes below the recipe card.
- Baking powder. A tablespoon may seem like a lot. It’s not a typo, trust me on this one 😉.
- Buttermilk. Yes, even though we aren’t using baking soda (which is often used alongside buttermilk, if you recall my buttermilk substitute post), we are still using buttermilk. It adds flavor and moisture to the marble cake.
- Chocolate. Adding cocoa powder didn’t give me the deep, distinct chocolate flavor that I was looking for (largely because we aren’t adding any hot water to bloom it, like in my chocolate cake recipe), but adding melted semisweet chocolate did the trick. You can use semisweet or dark chocolate here depending on your preference.
SAM’S TIP: If you only have salted butter on hand, you can reduce the salt in the recipe to ½ teaspoon.
Remember, this is just an overview of the ingredients I used and why. For the full recipe please scroll down to the bottom of the post!
How to Make Marble Cake
- Heat your chopped chocolate in the microwave until it’s smooth and melted, then set aside.
- Cream the butter, oil, and sugar until fluffy, then stir in the eggs one at a time. Add the vanilla.
- Combine the dry ingredients in a separate bowl, then alternate adding this mixture and the buttermilk to the wet ingredients, starting and ending with the dry ingredients.
- Portion ⅓-½ of the batter into a separate bowl and add stir in the melted chocolate until uniform.
- Alternate adding the vanilla and chocolate batter into your pans, then swirl them with a knife for a marbled appearance.
- Bake your cakes for 30 minutes, let them cool in their pans for 15 minutes, then invert them onto a cooling rack to cool completely before frosting.
SAM’S TIP: You can also reverse-cream this marble cake (the technique I used in my caramel cake) for a plush, dense crumb. If you often accidentally over-mix your cakes, it’s almost impossible to do so with the reverse-creaming method.
Frequently Asked Questions
I like using my favorite chocolate frosting (though in the video I used my chocolate buttercream; either will work!). If you’re looking for a vanilla option, my classic buttercream frosting, cream cheese frosting, Swiss meringue buttercream, or German buttercream would work well.
There are a few causes for a dry cake, but the main reasons are over-measuring your flour, overmixing, or overbaking.
I use a kitchen scale to measure my ingredients to avoid over-measuring my flour, as this is a very common mistake. I suggest you do the same! Once you begin combining the dry and wet ingredients, you want to be very careful to mix until just combined–and don’t use a mixer. Finally, you want to bake your marble cake until a toothpick comes out clean, or preferably, with a few moist crumbs; many ovens run hot though, so you’ll want to start checking your cake a few minutes before it should be done.
Follow these tips and your marble cake should turn out perfectly moist every time!
Store your marble cake in an airtight container. I recommend keeping it at room temperature, where it will keep for 2-3 days (so long as it isn’t a particularly humid environment). This cake may be refrigerated (again, in an airtight container) and will keep for about 5-7 days in the fridge–BUT, keep in mind that the refrigerator will dry out your cake, even in a container.
It’s always exciting to see the beautiful swirls when you cut into a marble cake!
Enjoy!
Let’s bake together! I’ll be walking you through all the steps in my written recipe and video below! If you try this recipe, be sure to tag me on Instagram, and you can also find me on YouTube and Facebook
Marble Cake
Ingredients
- 4 oz semisweet chocolate bar finely chopped
- ½ cup (113 g) unsalted butter softened
- ½ cup (120 ml) avocado, vegetable, or canola oil
- 1 ¾ cup (350 g) granulated sugar
- 4 large eggs room temperature preferred
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 3 cups (375 g) all-purpose flour
- 1 Tablespoon baking powder
- ¾ teaspoon salt
- 1 ¼ cup (300 ml) buttermilk room temperature preferred
Chocolate Buttercream Frosting (see post for more frosting options)
- 1 cup (170 g) semisweet chocolate chips
- 1 cup (226 g) unsalted butter softened to room temperature
- 2 cups (320 g) powdered sugar
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 2 Tablespoons heavy cream
Recommended Equipment
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350F and generously grease and flour two 8" round cake pans (you may instead use 9" pans, just keep in mind you will need to bake the cake for about 5 minutes less than indicated). Set aside.
- Place chopped chocolate in a microwave-safe bowl and microwave for 30 seconds. Stir well, and then return to microwave and heat in 15-second increments, stirring well in between, until chocolate is completely melted and smooth. Set aside.4 oz semisweet chocolate bar
- Using an electric or stand mixer, cream together butter, oil, and sugar until light and fluffy (about 30 seconds on high speed).½ cup (113 g) unsalted butter, ½ cup (120 ml) avocado, vegetable, or canola oil, 1 ¾ cup (350 g) granulated sugar
- Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Pause as needed to scrape down sides and bottom of bowl.4 large eggs
- Stir in vanilla extract.2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- In a separate, medium-sized bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt.3 cups (375 g) all-purpose flour, 1 Tablespoon baking powder, ¾ teaspoon salt
- Using a spatula and gently hand-mixing, alternate adding flour mixture and buttermilk to the butter/oil batter, starting and ending with flour mixture and mixing until just combined after each addition. Do not overmix!1 ¼ cup (300 ml) buttermilk
- Pour ⅓-½ of the batter into a separate bowl and add chocolate mixture. Stir until completely combined and batter is evenly chocolate.
- Alternate adding vanilla and chocolate batter to each pan, evenly distributing batter into each pan. Use a knife to swirl for marbled appearance.
- Bake on 350F (175C) for 30 minutes, or until toothpick inserted in center comes out mostly clean but with a few moist crumbs (do not over-bake or the cake will be dry, you want there to be a few crumbs).
- Allow cake to cool for 15 minutes before carefully inverting onto cooling rack to cool completely before frosting.
Chocolate Frosting¹
- In a microwave-safe bowl, microwave chocolate chips at 15 second intervals, stirring between intervals, until chips are completely melted. Set aside and allow to cool slightly (about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally).1 cup (170 g) semisweet chocolate chips
- Cream room temperature butter with an electric mixer. Stir in slightly cooled chocolate and beat well.1 cup (226 g) unsalted butter
- Gradually add sugar, scraping down the sides and bottom of bowl occasionally.2 cups (320 g) powdered sugar
- Sprinkle in salt and vanilla extract, stir well.½ teaspoon vanilla extract, ½ teaspoon salt
- Gradually add heavy cream, increase speed to high and beat for 1 minute.2 Tablespoons heavy cream
- Spread a thick layer of frosting over the top of one cake round and sprinkle with mini chocolate chips. Top with second cake round and evenly frost cake. Slice and serve.
Notes
Cake Flour
Cake flour may be substituted. If using weights, use the same weight indicated in the recipe. If using cups you will need to use 3 cups + 6 Tablespoons of cake flour (cake flour is lighter than all purpose, which is why the weight is the same but the volume is different).Storing
Store cake in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 2 days or in the refrigerator for up to 5 days. Keep in mind the refrigerator tends to dry out cakes and make them a bit dry!Troubleshooting
A cake that turns out dense, dry, or crumbly (or tasting like cornbread) was most likely over-mixed, the flour was over-measured, or the cake was over-baked. When mixing wet and dry ingredients together, do not use an electric mixer, use a spatula and a gentle hand to stir ingredients together until combined. If you are not using a scale for this recipe, please see my tutorial on how to measure flour. When baking, always bake in the center rack. Make sure that your oven is not running hot, as many ovens run much hotter or cooler than indicated. Keep an oven thermometer near the center of your oven to monitor the temperature, as an oven that runs hot will cook a cake too fast and dry it out. Use the toothpick test to test if your cake is done. Ideally a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake should come out with a few moist crumbs (but not wet batter). If the toothpick comes out completely clean, the cake is definitely done baking and may be bordering on being over-baked.Nutrition
Nutritional information is based on third-party calculations and should be considered an estimate only. Actual nutritional content will vary based upon brands used, measuring methods, cooking method, portion sizes, and more.
Paula
Baked this recipe today. It really is a very good recipe. I opted to use 3 6″ round pans. I divided the batter evenly and filled each pan about 2/3 full. Because of the fullness, I did lower my oven temp to 335 and baked a bit longer (about 37 minutes). Each layer was fluffy and baked through and rose to about 1 1/2-1 3/4″ tall. There was virtually no dome. Very tasty. A keeper for sure!
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
We’re so happy you enjoyed the results, Paula! Thanks for the review 🩷
JC
What would be the bake time and temp for the 9×13?
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
We have not personally tried it in a 9 x 13, but other readers suggest it takes an additional 10-15 minutes to bake. The temperature will be the same 🙂
Teresa
Can this cake be kept in freezer before frosting it?
Sam
Sure thing! 🙂
DESIREE
This cake is DELICIOUS!! Very moist as well. Definitely going to be a staple in our house.
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
Thanks for giving our recipe a try, Desiree! We’re so happy you liked the cake 😊
Sarah E Poulin
Was wondering if you could use any yellow cake recipe and just add the chocolate like you had to this one?
Sam
Hi Sarah! Unfortunately it’s risky and depends on the specific recipe. I can’t say for certain how it would turn out.
Asta
I don’t typically like marble cakes because I’m not a huge chocolate fan. It’s too rich for me. However, I had a marble cake 3 weeks ago at an event where the chocolate portion was likely made with dark cocoa powder and resembled more an Oreo flavor which I loved and wasn’t as rich.
If I wanted to substitute the chocolate chips for dark cocoa powder, do you have a recommendation of how much I’d need to use?
Sam
Hi Asta! I’m so glad you enjoyed it so much! I haven’t tried using cocoa powder here so I can’t say for sure how to do it. You could try my zebra cake though, I use cocoa powder in that and it’s a similar idea. 🙂
Katy
I was wondering if I could infuse this cake with Kalhua and if so would I have to substitute it for something?
Sam
Hi Katy! I haven’t tried it so I can’t say for sure how it would go. I think I would try replacing some of the buttermilk with the Kahlua, but I’m not sure how much and I’m not sure how much the flavor will come through.
Michelle
Hello,
could I use coconut oil or avocado oil in place of canola?
Sam
Hi Michelle! Avocado oil works perfectly as a substitute, I’ll add that info to the recipe card. Enjoy! 🙂
Katie
thank you so much for this amazing recipe! simple, yet so good! I made it for my brother’s birthday and it was a huge hit! you have the best recipes in the world, thank you so so much!
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
We’re so happy it was a hit! Happy belated birthday to your brother 🥳
Fran
This amazing recipe always comes out wonderfully!! It’s a keeper!
Emma
Easily one of my now go-to recipes!! Absolutely divine!
Sam
I’m so happy to hear this, Emma, thank you so much for trying my recipe! I hope you find more around here that you love just as much!!
Amy
Hi!
I was wondering if this cake would work as a sheet cake ?
Thanks in advance.
Sam
Hi Amy! You could make this in a 9 x 13. 🙂
Lucy
I made this cake a month ago for a party and it was a hit. Wondering if anyone has tried it for cupcakes and how they turn out. I prefer fluffy cupcakes so not sure if this recipe would work!
Sam
Hi Lucy! I know others have baked this as cupcakes. It should come out with the same texture the cake did. 🙂
Jessica
I had to come back and comment because this cake was so delicious! The texture was perfect and it was still so moist on day 2 (I kept it out of the refrigerator). It was fully cooked, but the crumb was such that it melts in your mouth like pudding when you eat it. I doubled the recipe and substituted 1/4 cup of the milk for sour cream for extra moistness (I didn’t have buttermilk but put a little lemon in whole milk). Also, I love that you used chocolate instead of cocoa powder because that gave it a rich chocolate dessert flavor. That being said, I felt that it lacked flavor overall. I used vanilla extract but would have preferred vanilla paste. I also used vanilla Swiss meringue buttercream instead of the chocolate buttercream which may account for the flavor issue. But I was making it for a party and I didn’t want it to be too rich for those who may not have liked chocolate as much.
Sam
Thank you so much for the feedback, Jessica! I’m so glad it was such a hit! ☺️
R
thank you so much! I’ll give it a go 🙂
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
We hope you love it!
R
thank you so much, Emily. delicious recipe 😋 and pan sizes and scaling worked 💪