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German Pastry Chef, home

Basic Recipes, Cakes

Marble Cake

by Lisa

Trained pastry chef

Marble cake baked in a Bundt pan, with swirls of vanilla and chocolate batter in the slice

4.9 (9)out of 5, 9 ratings

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Prep
5 min
Bake
30 min
Total
35 min
Makes
12

The perfect marble cake: a classic everyone loves

Sometimes it simply has to be a marble cake! This classic butter cake is more than just a bake. It's a piece of childhood, the smell of a cozy afternoon coffee table and the very essence of Sunday coffee and cake. My easy marble cake recipe is sure to succeed and brings that unmistakable, moist baking experience into your kitchen.

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This foolproof recipe stands out for its light, fluffy batter, which gets its beautiful marbling from the perfect balance of pale vanilla batter and dark cocoa batter. Whether you bake it as a marble loaf cake or as a marble Bundt cake, it wins you over with its fine crumb and the lovely harmony of flavors. It's the perfect cake for any occasion, whether friends drop by, it's a birthday, or you just want to treat yourself.

Baking a marble cake is pure joy, and the result speaks for itself: a treat fresh from the oven. Whether you keep it classic with a dusting of powdered sugar (UK: icing sugar) or finish it with a chocolate coating is up to you. Both taste simply heavenly! My tip for a perfect coating: put the melted couverture chocolate (chocolate with a high cocoa butter content; in the US use good-quality baking chocolate bars or couverture wafers, not chocolate chips; in the UK, couverture or a good-quality cooking chocolate bar) into your silicone pan and then set the cake back into it. That way the chocolate on the cake sets smooth and glossy. This quick cake is the answer when you need to bake something fast that still feels special. An easy cake with a big effect that truly everyone likes. So grab your mixing bowl and let's bake!

Why my marble cake is so special A marble cake for every occasion!

Ingredients

Makes 12

  • 2 sticks plus 7 tbsp320 gunsalted buttersoftened. German butter is unsalted and has about 82 percent fat. In the US use unsalted butter (European-style unsalted butter is closest); in the UK, unsalted butter.
  • 1 ½ cups300 ggranulated sugar
  • 1 pinchsalt
  • 4 tspvanilla sugar or the seeds of 1 vanilla bean2 packets = 4 tsp (16 g). Vanilla sugar is sugar flavored with vanillin, sold in small packets of about 8 g. In the US use 1 tsp vanilla extract plus 2 tsp sugar for each 8 g packet; in the UK, vanilla sugar sachets, or 1 tsp vanilla extract plus 2 tsp sugar per sachet. A vanilla bean is a whole vanilla pod; the seeds are scraped out and used. In the US use a vanilla bean or 1 tsp vanilla bean paste per bean; in the UK, a vanilla pod or 1 tsp vanilla bean paste per pod.
  • 6large eggs
  • ½ cup120 gplain yogurtpreferably whole milk yogurt with 3.8% fat
  • 2 ⅔ cups330 gall-purpose flourIn German recipes plain flour means soft wheat flour Type 405 unless stated otherwise. In the US use all-purpose flour; in the UK, plain flour.
  • 2 tsp8 gbaking powderGerman baking powder is sold in 15 g packets, each meant for about 500 g (4 cups) of flour. In the US and the UK, a 15 g packet equals 1 tbsp plus ¾ tsp of baking powder.
  • ⅓ cup30 gunsweetened cocoa powderPure unsweetened cocoa powder for baking. In the US use unsweetened cocoa powder (not hot cocoa mix); in the UK, cocoa powder (not drinking chocolate).
  • 2 tbsp30 gmilk
  • splash of rum or a few drops of rum flavoringoptional, to taste. Rum flavoring is a concentrated rum flavor without alcohol. In the US use rum extract; in the UK, rum flavouring.
  • 10 ½ oz300 gchocolateoptional

Method

  1. Preheat the oven to 325°F (160°C) convection (fan). Rinse a silicone Bundt pan with cold water. If you're using a regular Bundt pan, grease it thoroughly and dust it with flour.

  2. Beat the butter, sugar, salt & vanilla until light and fluffy.

  3. Beat in the eggs one at a time.

  4. Mix the flour & baking powder in briefly on low speed. Briefly mix in the rum or rum flavoring as well. Pour two thirds of the batter into the pan.

  5. For the dark batter, stir the cocoa powder together with the milk and mix it into the remaining third of the batter until everything is smooth and even. Spread the dark batter over the light batter in the pan and swirl roughly with a fork.

  6. Bake for 40 to 55 minutes. Please do the toothpick test: it should come out clean! After baking, let the cake cool in the pan for 15 minutes, and only then turn it out of the pan.

Step for silicone pans

  1. Chop the chocolate and put it into the still warm pan, then place the pan in the still warm oven. Don't turn the oven back on or heat it up again; just use the residual heat to melt the chocolate. If the oven has already cooled down too much, you can simply hold the pan over a water bath until everything has melted! As soon as everything has melted, "turn" the cake back into the pan and put everything in the fridge for several hours, until both the cake and the chocolate are completely cold again.