Moist Red Velvet Marble Cake recipe makes a marble cake that looks as good as it tastes. Plus, get tips for making the perfect marble cake swirls.
Red velvet is one of those cakes that I have trouble passing up. This cake, though, is a bit different than the normal red velvet layer cake.
It’s a red velvet cake meets a pound cake, and the resulting marble cake is dense, rich, and delicious!
The marbling technique for making the swirls is easy, and it gives you a great effect without the risk of blending the batters together.
It’s a perfect Valentine’s Day or Christmas dessert. However, this cake would be just as at home any other time of the year.
Ingredients and substitutions
- Cake flour – Cake flour helps to give the cake its tender crumb. If you don’t have cake flour, you can make a substitute with this recipe.
- Butter – I use salted butter. If using unsalted butter, increase the salt by 1/2 teaspoon.
- Sour cream – Full-fat sour cream, whole milk Greek yogurt, 2% Greek yogurt, or plain nonfat Greek yogurt will all work.
- Milk – I recommend using 2% or whole milk. The fat helps to make the cake moist.
- Unsweetened cocoa powder – I suggest using unsweetened cocoa powder rather than Dutch-processed because it lets more of the red color come through on the swirl.
- Red food color – Or red food coloring paste.
How to make red velvet marble cake
Step 1: Preheat oven to 350 F. Grease and flour a 10-15-cup bundt pan.
Step 2: In a medium bowl, whisk together cake flour, baking powder, and salt.
Step 3: In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat together butter, sugar, and sour cream until well-combined. Stir in vanilla until combined.
Step 4: Add eggs one at time, mixing well after each addition.
Step 5: On low, stir in flour mixture until just incorporated. Stir in milk until combined.
Step 6: In a separate large bowl, stir together 2 ½ cups of the batter, cocoa powder, milk, and red food coloring until well-combined.
Step 7: Using a ¼-cup measuring cup, drop two scoops of plain batter into prepared bundt pan. Drop one scoop of red velvet swirl batter on top of plain batter.
Step 8: Continue to alternate between plain and red velvet swirl batters until both batters are gone.
Step 9: Bake for 50-60 minutes, or until a wooden toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
Step 10: Cool cake in the pan on a wire rack for 15 minutes. Invert the cake onto wire rack, and cool completely.
Step 11: Dust cooled cake with powdered sugar, if desired.
Recipe Tips!
- Moist cake: Fat helps to make cakes moist. I recommend using full-fat sour cream and whole milk for the moistest cake.
- Preparing the pan: It’s important to properly grease and flour the bundt pan so that the cake will come out of the pan easily. Pan release works well this.
- Freezing: This cake freezes well. You can either bake the cake, let it cool to room temperature, and then wrap tightly in plastic wrap and freeze, or you can cut slices of the baked and cooled cake and wrap them tightly in plastic wrap and freeze.
Recipe FAQs
A marble cake is a cake that has a light and a dark batter swirled together. Chocolate and vanilla are the most common pairing, but this cake swirls red velvet and vanilla cake batters together.
Traditionally, cake batters are swirled together with a knife. The trouble with that method is that it’s easy to over-swirl and end up with muddied swirls.
With this method, the different batters are layered on top of each other. This helps to preserve each batter and gives the cake its nicely defined swirls.
Storage
This cake should be stored in an airtight container. It will keep for 3-4 days at room temperature.
More red velvet recipes!
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Red Velvet Marble Cake Recipe
Equipment
- Bundt Pan
Ingredients
- 3 cups cake flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup butter at room temperature
- 2 ½ cups granulated sugar
- 1/2 cup sour cream
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- 5 large eggs
- 1/2 cup milk
Red Velvet Swirl
- 1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
- 5 tablespoons milk
- 1 tablespoons red food color
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 F. Grease and flour a 10-15-cup bundt pan.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together cake flour, baking powder, and salt.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat together butter, sugar, and sour cream until well-combined.
- Stir in vanilla until combined.
- Add eggs one at time, mixing well after each addition.
- On low, stir in flour mixture until just incorporated.
- Stir in milk until combined.
- In a separate large bowl, stir together 2 ½ cups of the batter, cocoa powder, milk, and red food coloring until well-combined.
- Using a 1/4-cup measuring cup, drop two scoops of plain batter into prepared bundt pan.
- Drop one scoop of red velvet swirl batter on top of plain batter.
- Continue to alternate between plain and red velvet swirl batters until both batters are gone.
- Bake for 50-60 minutes, or until a wooden toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
- Cool cake in the pan on a wire rack for 15 minutes.
- Invert the cake onto wire rack, and cool completely.
Video
Notes
- Cake flour – Cake flour helps to give the cake its tender crumb. If you don’t have cake flour, you can make a substitute with this recipe.
- Butter – I use salted butter. If using unsalted butter, increase the salt by 1/2 teaspoon.
- Sour cream – Full-fat sour cream, whole milk Greek yogurt, 2% yogurt, or plain nonfat Greek yogurt will all work.
- Milk – I recommend using 2% or whole milk. The fat helps to make the cake moist.
- Unsweetened cocoa powder – I suggest using unsweetened cocoa powder rather than Dutch-processed because it lets more of the red color come through on the swirl.
- Nutrition values are estimates.
Nutrition
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Originally published 1/15/2016.
Reader Interactions
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Comments & Reviews
Char says
The cake came out delicious! Easy to follow directions, thank you.
Kate says
Thanks!
Elena says
Omg! This is amazing
Brittney says
Can I use a sheet pan, if not would I have to double the ingredients? I also wanted to know how would make a red velvet, strawberry, and chocolate marble cake or a red velvet, vanilla, and chocolate marble cake.
Kate says
Hi! I haven’t made this cake as a sheet cake, but I have a red velvet sheet cake recipe. I haven’t tried any of these variations, but for the red velvet, vanilla, and chocolate, you should just be able to take part of the plain batter and add make it into a chocolate batter with a bit of cocoa powder and sugar.
Brittney says
Thank you
Chris says
I was looking for a Starbucks copycat, came across this and decided to try it. Glad I did! It is delicious and everyone in my family loved it. I used sour cream instead of yogurt and 2% milk. I somehow wound up with much more red batter than I think I was supposed to, but it came out looking great anyway. I also topped it off with a simple sugar glaze. Will make this again!
Kate says
Thank you! Glad you liked the cake!