Homemade Marble Cake

Chocolate Marble Cake: An easy marble cake recipe with chocolate frosting that’s perfect for any occasion. Marble cake may look fancy, but it’s simple and delicious!

Quick overview: This two-layer marble cake is made from scratch but you can speed things up by using vanilla and chocolate boxed cake mix. However, I wouldn’t skip on the homemade buttercream frosting!

 

Why You’ll Love This Recipe

I love bringing classic marble cakes to birthday parties so the kids get to enjoy a taste of vanilla AND chocolate cake! It always seems to be a crowd-pleaser, it’s a moist cake and is so easy to make! (Although it’s a hard toss-up between this marble cake and this cherry chip cake!)

If you’re a fan of the chocolate and vanilla combination, you would love this Ding Dong cake and this Milky Way Cake too! It’s a rich chocolate cake with a creamy filling that tastes just like a Hostess cupcake.

Jump to:

• Why You’ll Love This Recipe
• Ingredients
• Instructions
• Why do they call it “marble cake”?
• What is the difference between a boxed cake and a cake made from scratch?
• Can you use a bundt pan instead of a round pan?
• Topping and Serving Ideas
• How to Store Leftover Cake
• Related Recipes
• Recipe
• Comments

Ingredients

• 4 egg whites
• 1 ½ cups granulated sugar, divided (4 Tablespoons mixed with egg whites, the rest mixed with flour etc.)
• 2 ¼ cups flour
• 1 cup buttermilk
• ⅔ cup vegetable oil
• 1 Tablespoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon vanilla

Chocolate Cake additional ingredients:

• ¼ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 2 Tablespoons granulated sugar

Instructions

Step 1: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour 2 – 8 inch round cake pans.

Step 2: Beat the egg whites until soft peaks form. Add 2 Tablespoons of sugar to the egg whites and beat on high power. Add another 2 tablespoons of sugar and beat again until fully incorporated. Set this aside.

Step 3: In a large bowl at low speed, beat the remaining sugar with flour, buttermilk, vegetable oil, baking powder, salt, and vanilla extract.

Step 4: Divide this mixture into 2 separate bowls. In one bowl, beat in half of the egg white

Step 5: In the other bowl, beat in cocoa powder and 2 Tablespoons granulated sugar on low speed. Then, beat in the other half of the egg whites.

Step 6: Spoon half of the vanilla batter into each of the cake pans. (Here and there, spaces between are where we will be putting the chocolate cake batter.) Then spoon half of the chocolate batter into each cake pan.

Step 7: Drag a butter knife through the batter to swirl the chocolate mixture with the vanilla mixture, for the marble effect.

Step 8: Bake for 25 minutes. Let cool on wire rack.

Step 9: Place the first layer on a plate or cake stand and cover with chocolate buttercream frosting, then top with the second layer of cake and finish by frosting the top and edges of the cake. The cake layers will have that delicious buttercream in each bite!

Why do they call it “marble cake”?

It’s called marble cake because there are two different colored batters marbled together. This idea originated from German immigrants! Marble cakes are normally a mixture of chocolate and vanilla cake batter but you can also marble vanilla cake with red velvet cake!

What is the difference between a boxed cake and a cake made from scratch?

A cake made from scratch is simply going to taste better: rich, buttery, and moist with loads of sweet flavors. A boxed cake might taste flat, sugary, and slightly chemically. Boxed cake mix works great when you’re in a pinch, but cake from scratch is always a good idea.

Can you use a bundt pan instead of a round pan?

Yes you can use a bundt pan instead of round cake pans. For best results, do not overfill the bundt pan with the separate batters. It’s a good idea to leave ½″ to ¼″ at the top to allow the cake to rise. If you have remaining batter, you can make marbled cupcakes.

Topping and Serving Ideas

There are a few sweet ways to spice up this vanilla-marbled cake if you’re looking for something different!

• Add chocolate chips to the chocolate cake batter
• Frost with peanut butter frosting
• Top with crushed Oreos
• Top with melted dark chocolate
• Serve with vanilla or chocolate ice cream
• Serve with whipped cream
• Or if you love ganache, we used a chocolate ganache on these mini chocolate cakes.

How to Store Leftover Cake

This cake is ok to sit out at room temperature. However, if you do frost it with the chocolate buttercream recipe we recommend, it would be best to refrigerate it, as it contains milk and butter.

Store in an airtight container for 3-4 days.

Related Recipes

If you loved this easy cake recipe, then you’ll also love this easy pumpkin poke cake, this peppermint mocha cake, and this chocolate toffee caramel cake too! Or if chocolate cakes are your favorite, this Depression Cake is one to make for sure!

Recipe