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
Did You Make This Recipe?
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Originally published 1/15/2016.
Reader Interactions
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Comments & Reviews
Salha hassan says
Hlww..pls tell me what kind of cup you used in this recipe..such as mgs..mls
Kate says
I use a 120 gram equivalent for a cup of cake flour. Hope that helps!
Kelly says
Made this cake and it turned out great. Needed to cook it a little longer and didn’t use a full tablespoon of red food coloring but still a rich red color. Also used all purpose flour and turned out fine. I also put a cream cheese frosting on it for fun. Yum! ??
Kate says
I’m glad you liked it! Thanks for the tip about subbing ap flour and for taking the time to come back to comment! =)
Kimberley says
This marble cake was pretty, delicious and moist! I made one recipe and my family finished it immediately. Will definitely make it again…
Kate says
Thank you! I’m so glad that you enjoyed it! Thank you for coming back to comment. =)
loida says
I like your Red Velved Marble Cake recipe.thank you
Kate says
I’m so glad! Thanks!
Diane says
Are you able to provide Nutrition Information for this recipe?
Thanks.
Kate says
Unfortunately, I don’t have a way to provide the nutrition facts.
Najat says
Hi Kate
Thank you for the lovely recipe, a quistion please, can I use like normal yogurt instead of Greek one??
Kate says
I haven’t tried substituting regular yogurt in this recipe. I’ve tried subbing regular yogurt for Greek yogurt in muffin recipes and other cake recipes, and it worked well. So, I can’t say for sure, but I think it will work out. Good luck! =)
A.Allam says
Can I substitute buttermilk fir the greek yoghurt?
Kate says
I haven’t tried substituting the full amount of Greek yogurt with buttermilk in this recipe, so I can’t so for sure how well it will work. If you don’t have Greek yogurt, sour cream would be the closest substitute.
Katie says
I did everything your instructions say and mine was not clumpy at all. It’s very runny.
Kate says
Could you give me more info? I’m not sure what you mean by it wasn’t clumpy. This isn’t a runny cake batter, so I’m not sure what went wrong for you. There are a couple things I can think of. One would be using regular yogurt in place of Greek yogurt, and a second would be having your butter too soft to being with. When butter is room temperature, you should be able to dent it when you press it, but it shouldn’t be so warm that it’s even close to melting.
Also, I have a video showing the process on this page. Maybe that would help?
Heather says
I substitute it with sour cream and Apple cherry sauce and it was amazing
Kate says
Glad you liked it! =)
Antonia says
Can you substitute the cake flour with all purpose flour?
Kate says
You can, but cake flour and all-purpose flour come out to be slightly different both by weight and by volume, so it’s not a nice 1:1 ratio. Also, cake flour gives you a softer, more tender cake. If you don’t keep cake flour, you can make your own. Here’s the formula: 1 cup AP flour – 2 Tablespoons AP flour + 2 Tablespoons cornstarch (sift together) = 1 cup cake flour.
Um Talal says
I made this today…it came out so delish and moist…my kids and hubby are loving this…thank you for sharing this great recipe…lots of love from♡ Kingdom of Bahrain??
Kate says
So glad you liked it! It’s so fun to hear from people around the world who have made my recipes! Thank you for taking the time to come back and leave a comment. =)
Dewi says
Hi Kate. I want to make this, but I don’t have any kind of yoghurt. What can i use as substitute and how much? Will butter or oil or homemade buttermilk do? Thanks. ?
Kate says
Hi! The easiest substitute for the Greek yogurt in the recipe would be an additional cup of butter. You could also substitute sour cream (low-fat or full-fat) at a 1:1 ratio.
Mallika says
I tried this…. it is yum… family loved it … thanks a lot for sharing the recipe
Kate says
I’m so glad that you and your family enjoyed it! Thanks for taking the time to come back and comment! I always like to hear things like this. =)
Kourtney says
Hi Kate!
Would you mind me sharing this recipe on the company I work for’s blog? I would link back to your page specifically of course!
Please let me know!
Thanks!
Kourtney
Kate says
Hi, Kourtney! I emailed you. =)
Rochelle says
Making this today far my job Christmas party!
Kate says
Yay!! Hope you all enjoy it! =)
donna says
Trying this today
Kate says
Great! Hope you enjoy it as much as we do! =)
Carolyn says
I made this cake! it was amazing! Very moist! I didn’t and won’t change a think!!
Kate says
I’m so glad you like the cake! Thanks for taking the time to come back and leave a comment!
Celeste @The Whole Serving says
Love the combination, such a pretty cake. Love the rich red color of the red velvet.
Kate says
Thank you so much!! =)
Athena says
Hi! I’m gonna try this also!! I have two questions. In my country we have no such thing as cake flour, do I use a plain one and do I have to change any of the proportions? And T stands for tablespoons I guess?
Kate says
I haven’t made this recipe with all-purpose flour, but I would guess that it’s different. You can make cake flour using all-purpose flour and cornstarch. Is cornstarch available? Yes, T = tablespoon and tsp = teaspoon.
Athena says
Yes cornstarch is available but what proportions should I use?
Kate says
1 cup all-purpose flour – 2 Tablespoons all-purpose flour + 2 Tablespoons cornstarch = 1 cup cake flour. Sift the flour a few times or whisk to fully incorporate the cornstarch into the flour.
Sarah says
This looks fabulous, and so simple! Sounds like a great choice for a Valentine’s Day treat. I’ll definitely be trying it!
Kate says
Thank you! Hope you enjoy it as much as we do! =)