Marble cake recipe – a simple cake with no frosting needed, perfect for kids and adults alike.
I grew up eating marble cake. It’s almost a comfort food for me – warm, spongy marble cake fresh out of the oven served with cold milk or “Boost” when I get back from school. Ah, bliss. While a good chocolate cake is always on top of my favourite cakes list, marble cake was a very close second as a child.
Amma baked pretty often when I was a kid so I don’t remember us buying this from outside during the early years of my childhood. When baking a cake was in the plans, she would take out her cream pot and churn it make soft cloudy butter. I don’t think we ever bought butter during those days. Any butter that was in the fridge for a few days was made into golden ghee.
When I started college, a family friend opened up a bakery called Johns and Pauls. They sold the best marble cake in Kottayam at the time. Since they opened shop, I don’t think we’ve made this cake at home.
For other fabulous tried and tested cake recipes check out apple streusel cake, chocolate cake in microwave (in 7 minutes), tutti frutti cake, and also this pressure cooker cake recipe.
Marble Cake Recipe
Ingredients
- 2 cups plain flour
- 2 tsp baking powder
- A pinch of salt omit if using salted butter
- 1 1/4 cup powdered sugar
- 100 gm unsalted butter softened to room temperature
- 2 eggs
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 cup milk
- 2 tbsp cocoa powder
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 180C / 350F
- Grease a cake tin of choice with some butter. I used my silicone bundt pan which needs no greasing.
- Place the flour, baking powder, salt, sugar, butter, eggs, vanilla essence and milk in a bowl.
- Beat slowly with a whisk to moisten, then beat with an electric mixer (or vigorously by hand) at medium speed for about two minutes until the batter is smooth.
- Reserve three-fourth cup batter and pour the remainder into the cake pan.
- Stir cocoa into the three-fourth cup reserved batter. You can add cocoa to more of the batter depending on which flavour you want dominating.
- Drop the chocolate batter by the spoonfuls on top of the white batter.
- Using a knife, swirl the cocoa batter into the white batter to give it a marbled effect.
- Bake for 35-40 minutes in the preheated oven. Check with a skewer to see if the cake is done.
- Remove and transfer to a wire rack to cool.
- Marble cake is delicious without any frosting but a light dusting of icing sugar won’t hurt.
Notes
Few images of baking marble cake
Drop white and chocolate batters into the cake pan by the spoonfuls, alternating as you go
Swirl gently with a pointed knife or skewer
Bake until the crust is golden brown
Hi Nags,
I love all your recipes. It would be really great if you could post videos of the recipes as well because i am just a beginner in cooking and sometimes i get it wrong. It would make it a little easier to follow instructions of you could post videos.
Thanks and keep cooking 🙂
Just finished making this cake and it was just awesome….never come across such an easy recipe anywhere…..even a beginner can make it with ease as there is no chance of committing a mistake if u follow the steps right…
hi nags, the pics in ur blog are really grt.. tempting.. so i went ahead and tried the marble cake( posted it on my blog… am a beginner.. started teh blog before but now am actually hooked to blogging)..
the cake came out very well… i felt it could be a little more sweet.. thanks for the recipe..
i have backlinked the recipe on my blog… i hope that's fine..
thank u nags!!:)
The cake is very dense which i like, but it is not sweet at all. You need frosting on it or else theres no flavor. Other than no flavor which is because theres no sugar i feel its good.
Hi Nag! I came across your blog looking for marble cake recipes and yours stood out among the rest. Tried the above recipe and it came out really nice. The cake is moist, soft and just the right density for me. The pix provided are also awesome and helps me approximate the required consistency/color etc. to ensure i'm on the right path while attempting it first time. This is also the first cake I did with 1 cup milk, which I find likable. I'll make this some more for sure – am keeping the recipe 🙂
Here, if you don't mind me sharing an easy cake recipe that I always make as a token of thanks for the recipe above. Its moist but eggless and butterless – suitable for vegetarians:
Dry Ingredients:
1.5 Cup flour (normal/cake flour)
1.0 Cup castor sugar
3.0 Tablespoons cocoa powder
0.5 teaspoon bicarbonate soda
0.5 teaspoon salt
5.0 Tablespoon vege oil (any vege cooking oil)
1.0 Tablespoon vinegar (normal kitchen white vinegar)
1.0 teaspoon vanilla essence
1.0 Cup cold water
Method: Mix all dry ingredients proper. Make three separate holes in the mix – one to put the oil, one for the vinegar and one for vanilla. Lastly, pour the cold water over all the set up in the bowl, creating a big mess. Mix well. Sit for 1 or 2 minutes for it to infuse and do a final stir before pouring into cake pan. Oven temp ard 180 deg C. Bake for about 30 minutes.
There, hope you like it. It really is very simple cake. It wouldn't have the buttery cake taste, but moist nevertheless and not too sweet. Perfect for any ganache / topping. Hope you like it! – HS
Thank you so much HS! It's pretty amazing you took the time out for this. I have seen similar recipes before but hesitated only because of the vinegar. I have white rice vinegar and don't want to go out and buy a bottle of another vinegar. In singapore, i don't know what "regular vinegar" means. Maybe I should take the plunge and try it out!
hi, your cake looks tasty. I am either blind or i just dont see where u have it for how long to cook. I would like to try it but i dont know how long to cook for.
It's in the post 🙂 "Bake for thirty to forty minutes". Just test with a skewer and make sure it comes out dry or with dry crumbs to test if your cake is done. The exact time will depend on type of pan used, oven, etc.
Hi, nice cake will definitely give a try.
you can try substituting with yogurt (1 egg = approx 1/4 cup yogurt) but i haven't tried it in this recipe. or you can try flax seed powder. just look online for the conversion measurement.
Hi, I plan to gift this cake to someone tomorrow. I have made this several times, and it has always turned out great. But I need to make this without eggs now. How can I do that? Please let me know urgently.