Easy Chocolate Glazed Marble Cake
This Marble Cake recipe combines a vanilla batter and chocolate batter, swirled to make a soft and tender cake. It’s topped with a simple chocolate glaze and so easy to make.
If you can’t decide between chocolate or vanilla cake, this marble cake is the answer. Two cake flavors in one, swirled together for a pretty presentation.
This from-scratch glazed cake is so easy but it looks fancy when you slice into it. It starts as a basic vanilla cake recipe but then the batter is split to create two different flavors. Adding some chocolate on top makes it even more special.
Table of Contents
Ingredients
- Softened butter
- Large eggs at room temperature
- Granulated sugar
- Cake flour (pastry flour)
- Salt
- Baking powder
- Milk at room temperature
- Unsweetened chocolate
- Cold butter
- Vanilla extract
- Good-quality chocolate bars, broken into pieces for the glaze
How to make cake flour
For every cup of all purpose flour, remove two tablespoons and replace with two tablespoons of corn starch. Be sure to sift the flour and cornstarch together a couple of times, this way it is sure to be properly combined and lump free. Cake flour in cakes will give you a very tender texture and fine crumb, it will also help the cake to rise.
Recipe Steps
For this cake, you can use an 8″ springform pan or an 8″ round cake pan. Grease and flour the pan and line it with parchment paper
Melt the unsweetened chocolate with the cold butter and stir until smooth. Let the chocolate cool.
In a medium-sized bowl whisk the flour, salt, and baking powder.
In a separate bowl, beat the softened butter and sugar with an electric mixer for two to three minutes or until the mixture is creamy. Add the eggs one at a time, mixing thoroughly between each addition.
Add the dry ingredients alternately with the milk and beat the batter until smooth. Scrape the sides of the bowl, if needed, to ensure the batter is well mixed.
Chocolate Cake Batter: Transfer 1/3 of the batter to a small mixing bowl and add the melted chocolate-butter mixture. Stir well to combine.
Vanilla Cake Batter: Add the vanilla to the leftover batter and mix well.
To make a swirled cake, drop the two different batters by the spoonful into the prepared pan, alternating between each. Use a skewer or dinner knife to swirl the batters together.
Bake the cake for 30 to 35 minutes at 350°F (180°C) or until a toothpick comes out dry or with a few crumbs attached.
Run a knife around the edge of the pan to loosen the cake so it doesn’t stick. If you use a springform pan, release the latch to remove the cake. If you use a regular pan, lift the parchment paper to remove the cake. Place it on a wire rack.
While the cake is hot, place the chocolate bar pieces on top of the cake so they can melt. You can leave them as is, or smooth the melted chocolate to look more like a glaze or chocolate frosting.
Cool the cake before slicing and serving.
Recipe Tips
When you swirl the two cake batters together, don’t overdo it. If you swirl too much they will combine and the marbling won’t be as obvious.
For the chocolate topping, you can use your favorite chocolate. Milk and dark chocolate are great or try white chocolate.
Instead of the chocolate glaze, you can frost the cake. Vanilla buttercream or chocolate buttercream frosting would work well. Or try my easy Swiss meringue frosting.
Cake flour vs. all-purpose flour: This marble cake gets its light and airy crumb from the cake flour, so I don’t recommend using all-purpose flour.
FAQs
Store the cooled baked cake at room temperate either wrapped in plastic or in a covered cake container. It will keep for up to 3 days at room temperature. You can also store the cake in the fridge, just be sure to make it airtight or it will dry out, it will keep for up to 5 days in the fridge, bring it to room temperature before serving.
Once the cake is completely cooled, double wrap it with either foil or plastic wrap and then place in a freezer safe bag. It will keep in the freezer for up to 3 months. Let the cake thaw overnight on the counter before serving.
The best thing about this marble cake is the flavor – the combination of vanilla and chocolate is delicious! The second best thing is the presentation – a marbled cake is always impressive. No one will guess how easy it was to make. Enjoy!
More Easy Recipes
- Lemon Layer Cake
- Strawberry Cream Cheese Frosting
- Chocolate Chip Banana Bundt
- Simple Chocolate Water Cake
Easy Chocolate Glazed Marble Cake
Ingredients
- â…“ cup butter (softened)
- 2 large eggs (room temperature)
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1½ cups pasty/cake flour*
- 1 pinch salt**
- 1½ teaspoons baking powder
- ½ cup milk (room temperature)
- 1 ounce unsweetened chocolate
- 1 tablespoon butter
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
*To make cake/pastry flour, for every cup of all purpose flour remove 2 tablespoons and substitute with 2 tablespoons of cornstarch, sift the ingredients together to remove lumps.
**If using unsalted butter then add ¼ teaspoon of salt.
EXTRAS
- 4 ounces good quality milk/dark/white chocolate bar (break into pieces or squares)
Instructions
- Pre-heat oven to 350F (180C). Grease and flour an 8 inch springform cake pan or line a regular 8 inch with parchment paper.
- Melt the chocolate and 1 tablespoon butter together let cool.
- In a medium bowl whisk the flour, salt and baking powder together, set aside.
- Beat on speed 2 the butter and sugar until creamy 2-3 minutes, then add the eggs one at a time beating between each addition until combined. Add the flour alternately with the milk, beat until smooth.
- Transfer 1/3 of the batter to a small bowl and add the chocolate mixture, combine well.
- Add the vanilla to the remaining batter.
- Drop by spoonfuls the batter in the prepared pan, and with a skewer swirl to combine the two. Bake for about 30-35 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out dry or with a few crumbs attached. Remove from the oven and if you have a springform pan, run the knife around the edge and remove the outside ring, or lift the cake with the parchment paper, flatten the paper around the cake. Immediately place the broken pieces of chocolate bar on top (while the cake is hot) and let it melt, watch that the pieces don't slide off, smooth the chocolate if you want. Let cool completely then serve. Enjoy!
Beautiful cake it had such an amazing taste that I can never forget thanka a lot you took so much effort in making this post for us to try it out. We all enjoyed this cake lot.
Thank you so much! We’re so happy to hear you loved this cake! 😀
Hi, I loved the taste but my cake was very dry any ideas to fix that?
Hi McKayla, if it was very dry it is because it was baked for too long. Cut back on the baking time by about 5-10 minutes.