Today I’m sharing the BEST Marble Cake recipe from scratch that belongs in your recipe box! It’s so moist and has wonderful flavor (not to mention beautiful swirls). Everybody needs a go-to marble cake recipe, don’t they? (YES they do!)
Why choose between a delicious chocolate and a delicious yellow cake when a marble cake can give you the best of both worlds? This is a dessert that never disappoints. Mmmmmm…..
It is the perfect balance of yellow cake with swirls of chocolate, makes beautiful cake layers as well as cupcakes, and it is sturdy enough to hold up well to fondant too.
I LOVE to fill and frost marble layer cakes with our rich Chocolate Buttercream! (You can find it linked at the bottom of this post!)
What is Marble Cake?
- Marble cake is a type of cake that has contrasting swirls of batter, giving a fun marbled or swirled pattern to your slices. The contrasting swirls may be from a different flavor of batter, or simply batter that has been tinted. Once the two types of batter are in the pan, you can lightly drag a knife through the batter to create the marbled effect.
Years ago, when making marble cake, I used to prepare a chocolate cake recipe and a yellow cake recipe separately and then combined them. That’s just too much work and too much batter. Other recipes call for melted chocolate.
With this Marble Cake technique, simply choose your favorite yellow or white cake recipe, and reserve a little to combine with cocoa powder for your swirls- what could be easier?
I just LOVE the combination of yellow cake with chocolate and so this recipe is based on our favorite scratch Yellow Cake.
However, no matter what recipe you are using (whether yellow or white cake), you can follow the same technique!
When you take a closer look at our Marble Cake Recipe, you’ll notice that the method of mixing is a little different than the traditional method (which involves creaming the butter and sugar and adding wet & dry ingredients alternately).
The mixing method for this marble cake is most similar to the Reverse Creaming Method of Mixing that we have used in several of our recipes, in that the dry ingredients are combined before the butter is mixed in. However, it is unique in that the eggs are then added one at a time before the reminder of the wet ingredients are slowly poured in.
We find this mixing method to be very easy to follow, and the result is a slightly finer crumb, yet it has a soft texture and is very moist. We love it!
How to Make a Marble Cake
- To create a marbled effect with your cake batter you first need to make your white or yellow cake batter.
- Next, dissolve cocoa powder into hot water.
- Scoop some of your cake batter into a small bowl (see recipe for details) and combine with the chocolate mixture to create chocolate batter.
- Next, scoop spoonfuls of batter into the pans, alternating between the yellow and chocolate batter. You can see how we did this in our video tutorial. For me, I added yellow cake batter to each pan first, then added spoonfuls of chocolate batter, gave it a swirl, then added additional yellow and chocolate batter and gave it another swirl.
- It’s up to you how marbled you make it, although you have to stop yourself from having too much fun or you’ll loose your beautiful swirls!
That’s all there is to it! Bake, fill, frost, and enjoy! We hope that you love this recipe as much as we have. It’s guaranteed to please any crowd.
You can find our Classic Chocolate Buttercream recipe here! It has a wonderful chocolate flavor, is simple to make, and pipes beautifully!:Classic Chocolate Buttercream.
If you love Marble Cake, you should try changing things up a bit sometime with Zebra cake! The same idea as marble cake, only with a zebra print pattern! You can find our free step by step tutorial here: Zebra Cake Tutorial.
Our checkerboard cake is another fun alternative to marble cake, but with the same wonderful combination of flavors! How to Make a Checkerboard Cake
Don’t miss our Yellow Cake from scratch recipe! This is the delicious recipe that we based our marble cake recipe on. You can find it here!: Yellow Cake Recipe from Scratch.
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**5/10/19- We have updated this Marble Cake recipe! It is now suitable for a three layer cake. When we adjusted our yellow cake recipe, we updated this marble cake as well (since it was based on our yellow cake). We think that you will love the new recipe! It makes more batter, has contains more butter, and uses buttermilk for a softer crumb. Although we really liked our older version of yellow cake, we find the updated version to be more moist. If you are attached to our OLDER yellow cake recipe, you can still find it here!
Learn how to make this Marble Cake in our video tutorial!:
This moist and delicious Marble Cake recipe is always a crowd pleaser! Frost with your favorite chocolate frosting (we love it with our Classic Chocolate Buttercream)! Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Grease and flour three 8x2 inch round cake pans. Place a piece of parchment in the bottom of each pan. (Note that we used three layers- this recipe has been updated since our photos were taken. We will update the photos soon!) ** Buttermilk Substitute: In a 1 cup measuring cup add 2 Tablespoons white vinegar or lemon juice. Fill the cup with milk, stir and let sit for 5 minutes. Marble Cake from Scratch
Ingredients
Instructions
MARBLING INSTRUCTIONS..
Notes
Hi Cindy, I’m happy you gave the recipe a try! Your cake looks good, the most important thing is the taste. I’m glad you enjoyed it.
Thanks for the recipe! I love all that I have tried. The cake came out good but was a little dry…could I increase the oil or add mayo or sour cream to help with that? I also used your freezing method.
Can I do this cake in two 9 inch pans? If yes, for how long would I bake it.
Hi Jessica, You can bake in two 9″ pans. Check at 25 minutes, it should be done in 25 to 30 minutes. When a toothpick comes out clean or with just a few crumbs attached.
Hi, would this recipe work for a half sheet pan or should I double the recipe?
Hi Sandra, This recipe makes 8 cups batter. Below are links to Karen’s Kitchen and Wilton for pan sizes and batter amounts plus baking time. You will find them helpful .
link to fromkarenskitchen.com
link to wilton.com
Hi Melissa. I truly love your tutorials and expertise. The vanilla cake is beautiful. I tried it now so many times and it is always a success. Beautifully moist. I’m not sure whether it’s a problem or not, but my mixtures are only slightly curdled ( not as much as when you sometimes put egg into a butter/sugar mixture) but it’s not as velvety as yours. The cake is always beautiful in the end. Nice, good height, nice texture, moist but I would like to know as to why it happens. All ingredients are at room temperature…also, sometimes it starts dripping from the bottom of the pans ( when in oven) – I have pans with removable bottoms. Again not a big deal but why does it happen? I always make sure they are properly sitting on. I just love how baking works, the science behind it and it’s truly amazing. Thank you.
Hi Stania, Thank you for your nice comment on Melissa’s tutorials. Yes, the cake batter is very slightly curdled when mixing. This is because the butter and eggs are not the same temperature, making it more difficult for the fats in the yolks and butter to blend with the water in the egg whites. It does not affect the outcome of the cake, so all is good. We don’t have experience using pans with removable bottoms. Below is a website I found that I think you will find helpful for your leaky pans.
link to cakeflix.com
Hi BeBe, thank you so much for your speedy reply!! I really appreciate it. I just wanted to share another issue. When I bake my buttermilk cakes they are, in my eyes, the ideal texture the day the cake is baked. Moist but fluffy at the same time. The next day and the day after the cake texture becomes ever so slightly dense though.It still tastes great and feels light. It’s as if the moisture seeped over time into the cake slightly affecting the texture. ( In some recipes so much so that customer asked whether it’s cooked. It’s all perfectly cooked but some parts develops what is quite similar to “gluten streaks”.) It bothers me slightly and wondering if it’s something I can prevent or whether it naturally happens to all moist cakes. Would a standard creinv method prevent it? I’m attaching a picture of my marble cake baked yesterday so you know what I’m talking about. Basically I don’t know whether it’s in my head or it’s normal Thank you so much. You’ve been very helpful do far.
Hi BeBe, thank you so much for your speedy reply!! I really appreciate it. I just wanted to share another issue. When I bake my buttermilk cakes they are, in my eyes, the ideal texture the day they are baked. Moist but fluffy at the same time. The next day and the day after the cake texture becomes ever so slightly dense though.It still tastes great and feels light but it’s as if the moisture seeps over time into the cake and slightly affecting the texture. ( In some recipes so much so that customer asked whether it’s raw. It’s all perfectly cooked but some parts develops what is quite similar to “gluten streaks”. On day 1 it’s perfect but on day 2 there is only so slightly slightly rubbery texture, mainly at the bottom of the layers ) It bothers me slightly and wondering if it’s something I can prevent or whether it naturally happens to all moist cakes. Would a standard creaming method prevent it? Basically I don’t know whether it’s in my head or if it’s normal. Thank you so much. You’ve been very helpful so far.
How do you get your cake layers so flat? Mine always have a dome top. Please answer thank you
Hi Jean, Cake mix cakes always seem to have a higher dome than scratch cake recipes. Baking at 325 degrees rather than 350 will help to bake more even layers. You could also use bake even strips around the sides of the pan, many bakers have success with the strips. Another option is using a rose nail or heating core in the center of the cake pan. You might want to buy a oven thermometer to see if your oven is heating to the correct temperature. If your oven is running hot, that can also lead to doming problems. Using a serrated knife to slice off the dome is also fine.
Just made this cake. Upon making the batter decided to only make two (instead of 3) 8” pans. Each cake was only 1” high ( after baking) and appears to be quite dense. Weighed, instead of measured my ingredients, instead of measuring, & followed instructions to a tee. Very disappointed.
Hi Laura, I am sorry there was a problem, that is so disappointing. Did you “zero out ” the bowl when weighing the ingredients? I think there must have been a mistake in weighing or the reverse creaming method caused a problem for you. Did you watch Melissa’s video (link below)
link to youtube.com
Yes, I did “zero out” 5e bowl before weighing my ingredients. I have never done the reverse creaming method but I followed the video. I used cake flour as well instead of all-purpose flour. I live in Canada so not sure if the cake flour may be different here from the country you are.
any reason why I couldn’t use the standard mixing method rather than the reverse creaming method? I’ve not used it before so am somewhat reluctant to attempt since the cake is for Christmas. Thanks
How many batches would I need for 3 12 inch cakes and will it be sturdy enough for a few fondant pieces such as headphones?
Hi Cheryl, The recipe makes 6 1/2 to 7 cups batter for a 2 layer cake in 8 inch pans. This amount is just a guideline. We put the batter in three 8 inch pans filling them about 1/2 full because we wanted more filling per slice. For one 12 inch round pan 2 inches deep you will need 7 1/2 cups batter. Below is a chart that will help you with batter amounts and baking times for various size pans.
link to fromkarenskitchen.com
If your fondant topper has any weight and just to be on the safe side, you should push a bubble T straw or a regular drinking or dowel under the fondant piece. If not supported, the headphone could begin to sink into the cake.
Hi Nancy, I am sorry I missed your question. Yes, you can use the standard mixing method for this recipe.
Did you even out the cake before putting frosting on the inside?
Hi Natalie, Do you mean cutting off the dome of the cake layers? Yes, when needed we do level the cake layers.