Soft, fluffy, moist marble cake, made with vanilla and chocolate cake swirled together. This cake is easy to make with my step-by-step instructions, and is frosted with my favorite silky chocolate buttercream frosting.
It’s been a whirlwind of a weekend here, complete with plenty of baking fails (which you’ve seen if you’ve been following my Instagram stories… yikes, did you see that scary looking lemon loaf!?), and some exciting new things as well, but for now let’s talk cake.
Specifically this completely from scratch, very easy to make, vanilla and chocolate marble cake. It took a few tries to get right, but here we are and I am really excited to share the recipe with you today.
I’ve been wanting to make a marble cake for a while, but it required a really good vanilla cake recipe as its base. If you remember from my recent pineapple upside down cake recipe, I finally developed a vanilla cake recipe that worked perfectly for my upside down cake, but when I tried it in this marble cake I was a little disappointed that it came out drier than I’d hoped… the extra butter, brown sugar, and fruit juice in the original recipe made it perfect for that one, but some tweaks were definitely in order for a nice, moist marble cake.
In the end, a simple switch from regular milk to buttermilk worked perfectly, but it’s also very important to not over-mix the batter, and definitely to not over-bake your cakes!
I always use the toothpick test to check if my baked goods are done — for cakes that means looking for moist crumbs — you do not want the toothpick to come out completely dry or it’s already overdone, so watch it carefully!
The chocolate portion of the cake is very easy to make. I’d toyed with the idea of making two entirely separate batters at first, and then combining them, but ultimately decided that it would be way easier if I could just take a vanilla cake batter and make half of it chocolate.
Adding cocoa powder didn’t give me the true chocolate flavor that I was looking for, unfortunately (that’s because we weren’t adding any hot water or hot cocoa to bloom it, like we do in my favorite chocolate cake recipe), but adding real, melted semisweet chocolate did the trick just fine.
You’ll want to melt the chocolate first and then set it aside, stirring occasionally while you prepare your cake batter. You don’t want it to be too hot when you add it, but you also don’t want it to have re-solidified when you need it.
For the frosting, I used my favorite silky chocolate buttercream, which at this point just needs its own stand-alone post because I make it and refer to it so often. It’s that good, though, trust me.
Smooth, silky, and so chocolaty (made with real, melted chocolate and not cocoa powder — just like the chocolate part of our cake!). Unlike many buttercream frostings, it’s not overly sweet, and I could almost eat it by the spoonful. I could totally eat it by the spoonful. I had a few too many spoonfuls, honestly.
Enjoy!
Marble Cake
A soft, fluffy, moist vanilla and chocolate marble cake
Ingredients
- 4 oz semisweet chocolate finely chopped
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter softened (113g)
- 1/2 cup canola oil (120ml)
- 1 1/2 cup sugar (300g)
- 4 large eggs room temperature
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 3 cups all-purpose flour (390g)
- 1 Tablespoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 1/4 cup buttermilk room temperature (300ml)
Chocolate Buttercream Frosting
- 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips (170g)
- 1 cup unsalted butter softened to room temperature (226g)
- 2 cups powdered sugar (320g)
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 2 Tablespoons heavy cream
Instructions
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Preheat oven to 350F and generously grease and flour two 8" round cake pans. Set aside.
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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.
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Using an electric or stand mixer, cream together butter, oil, and sugar until light and fluffy (about 30 seconds on high speed).
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Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Pause as needed to scrape down sides and bottom of bowl.
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Stir in vanilla extract.
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In a separate, medium-sized bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt.
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Using a spatula and gently hand-mixing, alternate adding flour mixture and buttermilk, starting and ending with flour mixture and mixing until just combined after each addition. Do not overmix!
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Pour 1/3-1/2 of the batter into a separate bowl and add chocolate mixture. Stir until completely combined and batter is evenly chocolate.
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Alternate adding vanilla and chocolate batter to each pan, evenly distributing batter into each pan. Use a knife to swirl for marbled appearance.
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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).
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Allow cake to cool for 15 minutes before carefully inverting onto cooling rack to cool completely before frosting.
Chocolate Buttercream Frosting
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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).
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Cream room temperature butter with an electric mixer. Stir in slightly cooled chocolate and beat well.
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Gradually add sugar, scraping down the sides and bottom of bowl occasionally.
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Sprinkle in salt and vanilla extract, stir well.
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Gradually add heavy cream, increase speed to high and beat for 1 minute.
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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.
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Maddie says
Gorgeous and delicious, thank you!!
Sues says
Gah this cake looks seriously splendid!! So fluffy and delicious! My weekend was filled with baking/cooking fails, too, but sometimes you have to fail before you can come out on the other side with something perfect!
Rosie says
Made this cake for my boyfriend’s birthday. He loved it. We really liked the light, fluffy butter cream frosting. This recipe is a keeper for sure! Just wondered if you could use cake flour instead of all purpose? I know there is a big difference in protein levels of different kinds of flours. Just wondered what the outcome would be???
Sam says
So glad that you enjoyed! I haven’t tried it with cake flour so unfortunately I’m really not sure how it would come out if you used cake flour instead, I’ll have to do some experimenting!
Susan B says
I love marble cake but find it difficult to make one that is soft and lucsious. I found your recipe and gave it a try for my grandson’s birthday. I was found the batter to be very thick. And then hand stirring the flour and buttermilk in was different. I always use a stand mixer on a slower speed for that. I watched the cooking time very carefully. At 23 minutes, the cake did not look done and still had some gooey mix coming out on toothpick. I left it in for another 3-5 minutes and it looked perfect. Just a few crumbs on the toothpick. After a complete cooling, I found it hard and dry. I was so disappointed. I had ran out of time so just frosted it up and will now take it to my grandson. I’ll let you know how it taste.
Sam says
I hope it wasn’t disappointing when you cut into it, Susan!! Yes the hand stirring is important because it is very important to not overmix the batter (if you over-mix the cake may come out dry), and it is very easy to overdo it with an electric mixer even on slow speed. I hope it tasted good!
Jennifer Young says
Can you double the recipe?
Jennifer Young says
I am trying to make 3 9in cakes
Sam says
Hi Jennifer! I haven’t tried doubling this recipe but it should be find to be doubled, just take care when mixing the dry ingredients into the wet that you don’t over-mix the batter (while still making sure that the ingredients are well combined). This will make a lot of batter and thick layers, so you will probably need to increase the baking time as well. Don’t over-fill your cake pans, and if you have extra batter I would just discard it or use it to make a few cupcakes. I hope that helps!
Kelly says
I made this cake this weekend for a birthday.
Things I loved about it:
– It came out of the pan BEAUTIFULLY after cooling in the pan for fifteen minutes. Seriously, not a crumb left behind.
– It was easy.
– It held up well to my decorating techniques. I torted the 8” cakes to make four separate layers and they held up so nicely to my cutting. Then, after being filled, stacked, and iced with buttercream, I covered the cake with fondant and it stayed together. No crumbling or falling or anything under all the weight.
Things I didn’t like about it:
– The whole thing just tasted like vanilla. Cutting into it was pretty with the marbles effect, but if you’re looking for a buttery vanilla swirled with a deep chocolate flavor, this isn’t your cake.
– While the consistency was ideal for decorating and torting, it was a little crumbly and dry when eating.
All things considered, it’s a great go-to recipe for a marbled cake if you need a sure thing!
Morgan says
Hi I really want to make this cake but where’s the recipe for the vanilla cake?
Sam says
Hi Morgan, if you’re looking for just a vanilla cake recipe this is my favorite: https://sugarspunrun.com/vanilla-cake-recipe/
Mahjabeen says
Its looking delicious.
Julie says
So I made this cake today and removed it from the oven with a few moist crumbs on it. It came out of the pan easily. When going to torte it, I noticed it seemed a little dense and almost too moist—not raw dough but dense and somewhat damp. Is this a sign I overmixed, or is this the typical texture? It’s definitely not dry.
Sam says
Hi Julie! hmm, it sounds like it might have been not baked enough, maybe? There should be a few moist crumbs but they should definitively be crumbs and not wet batter, was that the case for you?
Tessa says
Oh my God! This was AMAZZINGG!!! Thank you so much for this recipe.
Allie says
I made this today for my husband’s cousin’s birthday. Turned out great. I read the directions wrong and instead of mixing the chocolate into half the batter, I mixed it in only a half cup of the batter. Whoops. But it turned out really great, especially with the mess up. And, surprisingly, it tasted like Reeses!!!!
Sam says
The Reese’s taste is definitely surprising, but I am so glad it turned out for you, Allie!! Thank you for commenting!! 🙂
Zukhraf says
Hi
I really want to try this recipe but I have two square 8″ pans not round ones. Can I use square pans?
Sam says
That should be fine! Enjoy! 🙂
mars says
can i use coco powder
Sam says
I recommend using the melted chocolate for the best flavor