This article from The Kitchn presents a from-scratch marble cake recipe baked in a 9x5-inch loaf pan, serving 8 to 12 people with 30 minutes of prep and 55 to 65 minutes of baking at 350°F. The vanilla batter—made with flour, buttermilk, butter, vegetable oil, eggs, and vanilla—is layered with a chocolate batter created by blooming Dutch-processed cocoa powder and dark brown sugar in hot brewed coffee, then swirled once with a chopstick or knife before baking. An optional ganache icing, made by pouring heated heavy cream over chopped dark chocolate, can be spread over the cooled cake. The recipe's author, whose cookbook Marbled, Swirled, and Layered was named a best baking cookbook of 2016 by the New York Times, developed the recipe based on her childhood memory of her mother's boxed-mix marble Bundt cake. The finished cake keeps at room temperature for up to 4 days or can be frozen (without ganache) for up to 2 months.
Marble Cake
This buttery cake swirled with vanilla and chocolate is way easier to make than you'd think.
Serves8 to 12
Prep30 minutes
Cook55 minutes to 1 hour 5 minutes
Why You’ll Love Our Marble Cake
Two desserts in one. Combining vanilla cake and chocolate cake means you never have to choose.
Rich chocolate flavor. Making a paste from cocoa powder, coffee, and dark brown sugar for the chocolate cake batter ensures deep flavor throughout.
One of my favorite desserts that my mom made for dinner guests was marble cake. She made it in a Bundt pan using a boxed yellow cake mix and just added some cocoa powder to half the batter. It was always a crowd-pleaser. Everyone would slice into the cake and exclaim “ooh, marble cake!” before diving right in. This core memory was what inspired me to pitch and eventually write my cookbook, Marbled, Swirled, and Layered.
And although I do have a recipe for a marble cake made from scratch in my cookbook, as well as a marble Bundt cake on my blog, this loaf pan version is an easier, more streamlined version. It’s ideal for smaller dinner parties or to make for your household for a coffee break snack. I paired it with a simple ganache icing to give a little extra chocolate touch, but feel free to omit it if you want a true balance between vanilla and chocolate cake.
Straight from Our Recipe Tester
“Lovely marble cake with a pretty, deep chocolate swirl. It looks especially great in its cloak of ganache. Perfect for breakfast, with an espresso in the afternoon, or topped with a scoop of vanilla malt ice cream in the evening.” —Tina, July 2026
Why You Should Trust Me
I’m a cookbook author, freelance writer, and recipe developer with over 15 years of experience. My cookbook, Marbled, Swirled, and Layered, which featured desserts with multiple flavors, colors, and textures like this marble cake, was picked by the New York Times as one of the best baking cookbooks of 2016. It was also featured in O Magazine, Entertainment Weekly, and the Washington Post. I’ve written and contributed to various outlets including The Kitchn, Serious Eats, Real Simple, Food & Wine, Fine Cooking, and The Spruce Eats. I take a methodical approach to all my recipe developing and specialize in desserts and baking. I’ve won numerous blue-ribbon awards for various baked goods I’ve created. Marble cake was one of the first desserts I created because I wanted to replicate my childhood favorite, but completely from scratch.
Key Ingredients in Marble Cake
Flour: All-purpose flour lends structure to the cake while keeping the cake tender.
Butter: Adds richness and flavor to the cake.
Oil: A little bit of vegetable oil lends moisture to the cake that just using butter won’t.
Sugar: Regular granulated sugar gives both sweetness and tenderness to the cake crumb.
Buttermilk: Gives a bit of tang and dimension to the cake that regular milk doesn’t, and also reacts with the baking soda to give the cake more lift.
Vanilla: A generous dose of vanilla extract ensures the yellow cake has a distinct vanilla flavor.
Cocoa powder:Dutch-processed cocoa contributes a mellow chocolate flavor and a deep contrasting color.
Coffee: Hot brewed coffee in the chocolate batter helps boost the flavor, but you won’t taste the coffee in the final cake. If you brew coffee in the morning, reserve a small amount for this purpose, reheating it for this recipe.
How to Make Marble Cake
Prepare the dry and wet ingredients. Whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl. Whisk together buttermilk, melted butter, eggs, vegetable oil, and vanilla in a separate bowl. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and stir to combine.
Make the chocolate paste. Bloom cocoa powder and dark brown sugar with hot brewed coffee in a medium bowl. This seems like an extra step, but blooming the cocoa intensifies the chocolate flavor and ensures that all the cocoa powder is dissolved completely in the batter.
Make the chocolate batter. Add about 1 cup of the cake batter to the chocolate paste and stir to combine.
Layer and bake. Pour about 1/3 of the vanilla batter into the bottom of a greased loaf pan. Add the 1/2 of the chocolate batter, then repeat the process, ending with vanilla batter. Take a chopstick or butter knife and swirl it through the batter once. Bake until a skewer inserted into the pan comes out clean. Set aside to cool in the pan for 10 to 15 minutes, then unmold and let cool completely.
Make the chocolate ganache icing (optional). Place the dark chocolate in a glass measuring cup. Heat the cream on the stovetop until bubbles form on the side of the pan. Pour the hot cream over the chocolate and let sit for 2 minutes, then stir until the chocolate has melted and is smooth. Pour the ganache over the top of the cake while it’s still warm.
Helpful Swaps
Coffee: If you don’t have any brewed coffee, you can just stir in 1/2 teaspoon of instant coffee to the hot water. If you don’t drink coffee or have any coffee in the house, you can use boiling hot water instead. The cake will still taste great.
Storage and Make-Ahead Tips
The cake can be made up to one day ahead and allowed to cool overnight. You can also make the ganache a day ahead, storing it in the fridge overnight. The ganache will stiffen and harden in the fridge, so soften it by microwaving it in 10-second bursts, stirring in between. Once the ganache is fluid, pour it over the cake.
Leftovers can be covered under a cake dome or loosely with plastic wrap and stored at room temperature for up to 4 days. I don’t recommend refrigerating it, which can dry the cake out faster.
This buttery cake swirled with vanilla and chocolate is way easier to make than you'd think.
3 tablespoons hot brewed coffee or boiling water, plus more as needed
1 tablespoon packed dark brown sugar
For the ganache (optional):
4 ounces dark chocolate (not chocolate chips), coarsely chopped
1/2 cup heavy cream
Instructions
Make the cake:
Heat the oven to 350°F. Brush a 9x5-inch loaf pan with 1 tablespoon of the melted unsalted butter.
Whisk 2 cups all-purpose flour, 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons granulated sugar, 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder, 1/4 teaspoon baking soda, and 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt together in a large bowl.
Whisk 1 cup buttermilk, the remaining 1 stick melted unsalted butter, 2 large eggs, 1/4 cup vegetable oil, and 2 teaspoons vanilla extract together in a medium bowl. Add to the flour mixture (reserve the wet ingredient bowl) and stir together until just combined.
Whisk 1/4 cup Dutch-processed cocoa powder, 3 tablespoons hot brewed coffee, and 1 tablespoon packed dark brown sugar together in the reserved bowl (no need to clean) until a paste with the consistency of peanut butter forms and all the dry ingredients have dissolved. If the mixture seems too dry, whisk in more coffee 1 teaspoon at a time until the right consistency.
Add about 1 cup of the cake batter and fold together until all the paste is incorporated and you have a dark chocolate batter.
Transfer about 1/3 of the vanilla batter (1 cup) into the loaf pan. Add about half of the chocolate batter (heaping 1/2 cup) over the vanilla batter. Repeat layering half of the remaining vanilla batter, all of the remaining chocolate batter, and then all of the remaining vanilla batter. Don’t worry if the layers don’t completely cover each other. Take a chopstick or butter knife and swirl it through the cake batter in an “S” pattern. Don’t over-mix — just one swirl is enough.
Bake until a tester inserted into the center comes out clean, 55 to 65 minutes. Let cool for 10 minutes. Flip the cake out onto a wire rack and let cool completely, about 2 1/2 hours.
Make the ganache:
Place 4 ounces coarsely chopped dark chocolate in a small bowl or medium liquid measuring cup. Heat 1/2 cup heavy cream in a small saucepan over medium heat until the edges of the cream start to form bubbles. (Alternatively, heat in the microwave in 15-second increments, stirring in between each.) Pour over the chocolate and let sit for 5 minutes.
Stir until the chocolate is completely melted and the ganache is smooth. Pour over the top of the marble cake, spreading it out so it runs down the sides a bit. Let sit until the ganache is set, 1 to 2 hours. If the ganache is still tacky, refrigerate for 15 minutes to firm up before slicing.
Recipe Notes
Storage
Store this cake under a cake dome or in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 4 days. I don’t recommend refrigerating it, which can dry the cake out faster.
The cake can be frozen whole, without the chocolate ganache, wrapped tightly in plastic wrap and placed in a resealable bag for up to 2 months. Alternatively, slice the cake and freeze the pieces in an airtight container for up to 2 months. Keep in mind that if you frost the cake with the ganache and then freeze it, thawing the cake might cause condensation on the ganache, melting it a bit.