Moist pumpkin spice cake with a swirl of chocolate! Learn the easiest way to make marble cake with this Pumpkin Marble Cake recipe!
I love marble cakes because they're two cakes in one!
This pumpkin marble cake has a base of moist pumpkin spice cake with a swirl of rich chocolate cake throughout. And I have the secret to perfectly marbled cakes!
Before I figured out how to swirl the batter, I used to either over or under-marble my cake batters. Instead of pretty marble cake, I would end up with muddied cake from the mixed batters or two separate batters in one cake. Neither was what I wanted.
But this simple marbling technique makes perfectly marbled cake every time. It makes nice patterns in the batter with very little effort. So you get moist pumpkin spice cake with ribbons of chocolate cake throughout.
How to make pumpkin marble cake
In a large bowl, whisk sugars, vegetable oil, and buttermilk together until well-combined. Add eggs, and whisk well after each addition.
Stir in the pumpkin puree and vanilla extract. Add flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Whisk in just until combined.
Scoop out 1 ½ cups of batter into a separate bowl. Whisk in cocoa powder, sugar, and buttermilk until just combined. Stir pumpkin spice into pumpkin cake batter.
Add 1 cup of pumpkin batter to the bundt pan.
Top the pumpkin batter with ¼ cup chocolate batter. Add ½ cup pumpkin batter over the top of the chocolate batter.
Continue repeating layers to use up the remaining batter. Bake until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean, about 50-60 minutes.
Let the cake cool in the pan for 10 minutes before inverting onto the wire cooling rack.
Tips
- Generously grease the pan! Bundt cakes are notorious for sticking. I like to use a nonstick baking spray with flour, but greasing and flouring will also work.
- Don't stir! Don't stir the batter. If the batter is uneven in the pan, don't spread the batter. Simply give the pan a couple taps on the counter to help it settle.
- Wire cooling rack: If you're worried about the cake sticking to the wire cooling rack, give it a quick spritz with nonstick baking spray before using.
How to store
Store the cake, covered, at room temperature. The cake will keep for up to 4 days.
More marble cake recipes!
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Pumpkin Marble Cake
Ingredients
Pumpkin Cake
- 1 ¼ cup granulated sugar
- 1 cup brown sugar packed
- ½ cup vegetable oil
- ½ cup buttermilk lowfat ok
- 3 large eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 15 ounce can pumpkin puree1
- 3 cups all-purpose flour properly measured2
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 tablespoon pumpkin pie spice
- ½ teaspoon salt
Chocolate Swirl
- ⅓ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
- ¼ cup granulated sugar
- 2 tablespoons buttermilk
Topping
- Powdered sugar
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 F. Grease and flour a 10-12 cup bundt pan. Set aside.
- In a large bowl, combine sugars, oil, and buttermilk until blended.
- Add eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition.
- Stir in vanilla extract and pumpkin puree.
- Add flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.
- Stir into batter until combined.
- Scoop out 1 ½ cups of batter into a separate bowl.
- Add cocoa powder, granulated sugar, and buttermilk to the batter you just scooped out.
- Stir to combine.
- Add pumpkin spice to pumpkin batter, and mix in.
- Add one cup of pumpkin batter to bundt pan.
- Top batter with ¼ cup chocolate batter.
- Repeat with ½ cup pumpkin batter on top of chocolate batter.
- Continue repeating layers with remaining batter.
- Bake 50-65 minutes, or until toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean.
- Cool in pan 10 minutes before inverting onto a wire rack.
- Remove pan, and cool completely.
- Dust with powdered sugar just before serving, if desired.
Notes
- Be sure to use pumpkin puree, not pumpkin pie mix.
- To properly measure the flour, stir, lightly spoon into the measuring cup, and level.
- Nutrition values are estimates.
Nutrition
Originally published 9/2/16. Updated with new photos and tips 11/21/19.
doris
could you put a glaze on top of it instead of powder sugar
Brenda
First try, it was great. I only had 2 large eggs and that worked. SHared it with neighbors.
Kate
Thank you! So glad you liked it!
Kathy Secor
Definitely a hit! Tastes great, looks great.
Kate
Thank you! So glad that it was a hit! Thanks for commenting. =)
Linda
Great cake recipe. Very moist.