Best Marble Cake (With Chocolate Swirl)
Best, classic, old fashioned, easy marble cake recipe, homemade with simple ingredients from scratch. This soft, moist, tender pound loaf has chocolate swirls and a beautiful design that you can see in each slice. It has a combination of vanilla and cocoa batter.
Servings: 9 Slices
Calories: 451kcal
Ingredients
Cake
- ½ cup Butter Unsalted, Room temperature
- 1 cup Granulated sugar
- 3 Eggs Large, Room temperature
- 2 teaspoon Vanilla extract
- 1 ¾ cups Cake flour
- 1.5 teaspoon Baking powder
- ⅔ cup Buttermilk
- ¼ cup Cocoa powder
- 2 tablespoon Water Hot
Chocolate Ganache
- 1 cup Chocolate chips Semisweet
- ½ cup Heavy cream
Instructions
- In a large mixing bowl, cream together butter and sugar until light and fluffy. This takes about 5 minutes.
- Add eggs and vanilla extract and mix until smooth.
- In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour and baking powder.
- Add the dry flour mixture into the wet mixture, alternating with buttermilk and mix until just combined.
- Remove ⅓ of the batter into a separate bowl. Keep aside.
- In another small bowl, add cocoa powder and water and mix until smooth.
- Pour this chocolate mixture to the bowl of reserved batter and mix until smooth.
- To assemble this cake, pour half the vanilla cake batter in a greased and floured loaf pan (Dimensions: 9x5).
- Drop spoonfuls of the chocolate batter on top. Don't spread it.
- Then, pour the remaining vanilla batter on top of the chocolate layer.
- Drop spoonfuls of the remaining chocolate batter on top.
- Use a skewer or knife to swirl the two batters together.
- Bake at 350 degrees F for 45-50 minutes or until an inserted toothpick in the center comes out clean. Rotate the pan halfway through for more even baking.
- Allow the cake to cool for 10 minutes. Then, remove it from the pan and place it on a cooling rack and let it cool completely.
- While the cake is cooling, prepare the ganache icing: Add chocolate chips and heavy cream in a microwave-safe bowl. Heat in 20 second increments and mixing often until icing is silky smooth.
- Drizzle this on top of the cooled cake. Enjoy!
Video
Notes
- Don't drizzle ganache on a warm cake. It will melt off the sides of the cake and make a mess. Let cake cool completely before pouring ganache.
- Make a homemade buttermilk substitute by mixing together 1 cup whole milk with 1 tablespoon vinegar or lemon juice. Let it sit for 5 minutes. Mix and then use in this recipe.
- Please note that you have to use cake flour in this recipe for best texture. I have linked to that in the recipe card above so you can make it at home if you don't have it on hand.
- Try other extracts such as almond for a different flavor profile. For chocolate orange combination, I recommend mixing in some orange zest in the chocolate cake batter.
- Don't over-bake cake because that will make it dry and crumbly. Cake is ready when an inserted toothpick in the center comes out clean.
- Use room temperature ingredients so that they blend together smoothly and evenly.
- You must grease and flour your pan or use parchment paper to prevent the cake from sticking to the pan.
- Read additional tips and variations above.
- Leftovers can be stored in a sealed container in the fridge for up to 3 days.
Nutrition
Calories: 451kcal | Carbohydrates: 56g | Protein: 7g | Fat: 22g | Saturated Fat: 13g | Cholesterol: 104mg | Sodium: 150mg | Potassium: 199mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 35g | Vitamin A: 665IU | Vitamin C: 0.1mg | Calcium: 106mg | Iron: 1.1mg