Easy red, white, and blue marble bundt cake recipe! This moist vanilla bundt cake makes a perfect 4th of July dessert!
I've been making homemade marble cake for years. I've tried lots of ways to get the swirls just right, but several years ago I started making swirl cakes with this technique, and I've never looked back!
This red, white, and blue marble cake looks like it's much more complicated than it is. It's actually just a sweet vanilla cake batter that's dyed and then layered. Easy peasy!
And you end up with a vanilla bundt cake that reminds me of a cross between a butter layer cake and a pound cake. It's great served as-is, dusted with powdered sugar, or with a dollop of whipped cream on top.
How to make a red, white, and blue marble cake
Grease and flour a 12-cup Bundt pan. Set aside. Be sure to grease the pan well to keep the cake from sticking.
In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment (or with an electric mixer), beat together butter and sugar until well-combined.
Add eggs and egg whites one at time, mixing well after each addition. Stir in vanilla until combined.
Mix in buttermilk until well-combined.
Add cake flour, baking powder, and salt. Stir in on low just until incorporated.
For the red swirl, scoop out 1 ½ cups of the batter and place it into a separate bowl. For the blue swirl, scoop out an additional 1 ½ cups of batter and place it into a third bowl.
Mix in the red food coloring into plain batter that you scooped out. Mix the blue food coloring into the other bowl of plain batter that you scooped out
Using a ¼-cup measuring cup, drop one scoop of plain batter into prepared bundt pan. Using a separate scoop, drop ¼ cup of red batter on top of plain batter.
Using a third scoop, drop ¼ cup of blue batter on top of the red batter. Continue to alternate between plain and colored batters until all three batters are gone.
Give the pan a couple of taps to level out the batter, if necessary. Do not stir.
Bake until a wooden toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Cool cake in the pan on a wire rack for 15 minutes.
Tips
- Greasing the pan: I use a baking spray with flour in it to coat the bundt pan. You can also grease and flour the pan. Either way, generously grease the pan to keep the cake from sticking.
- Cake flour: Cake flour helps to make this cake tender. To make a cake flour substitute, you can use this recipe.
- Buttermilk: You can use regular or low-fat buttermilk in this recipe. If you would like to make a substitute, you can use this recipe.
- Food coloring: I used a 0.25 ounce bottle of liquid red food coloring and half of a 0.25 ounce bottle of blue food coloring. Depending on the type of food coloring you use, you may find that you need to use more or less to achieve your desired colors.
- If you’d like to make mini bundt cakes instead of a regular bundt cake, this cake will make 12 1-cup bundt cakes. Reduce the baking time to about 20-25 minutes.
More bundt cake recipes!
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Red, White, and Blue Marble Cake
Equipment
- Bundt Pan
Ingredients
- 1 cup butter at room temperature
- 2 ½ cups granulated sugar
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- 2 large eggs at room temperature
- 4 large egg whites at room temperature
- 1 cup buttermilk1 at room temperature
- 3 cups cake flour2
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- Red food coloring3
- Blue food coloring
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 F. Grease and flour a 12-cup Bundt pan. Set aside.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment (or with an electric mixer), beat together butter and sugar until well-combined.
- Add eggs and egg whites one at time, mixing well after each addition.
- Stir in vanilla until combined.
- Mix in buttermilk until well-combined.
- Add cake flour, baking powder, and salt.
- Stir in on low just until incorporated.
- For the red swirl, scoop out 1 ½ cups of the batter and place it into a separate bowl.
- For the blue swirl, scoop out an additional 1 ½ cups of batter and place it into a third bowl.
- Mix in the red food coloring into plain batter that you scooped out.
- Mix the blue food coloring into the other bowl of plain batter that you scooped out.
- Using a ¼-cup measuring cup, drop one scoop of plain batter into prepared bundt pan.
- Using a separate scoop, drop ¼ cup of red batter on top of plain batter.
- Using a third scoop, drop ¼ cup of blue batter on top of the red batter.
- Continue to alternate between plain and colored batters until all three batters are gone.
- Give the pan a couple of taps to level out the batter, if necessary. Do not stir.
- Bake for 50-70 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
- Regular or low-fat ok. You can make your own buttermilk substitute with this recipe.
- It's best to use cake flour. However, you can make your own cake flour substitute with this recipe.
- I used a 0.25 ounce bottle of liquid red food coloring and half of a 0.25 ounce bottle of blue food coloring. Depending on the type of food coloring you use, you may find that you need to use more or less to achieve your desired colors.
- Nutrition values are estimates.
Candi
Happy 4th!!!! Follow the recipe and you won't be disappointed!!!
Kate
Thank you!
Carrie
In your video for the recipe you show 4 sticks of butter (1#) going in the bowl but in the recipe you show 1c (2 sticks), can you please clarify which is the proper amount for the recipe?
Kate
Hi! Sorry for the confusion! The sticks of butter were cut in half to better fit on the plate. The recipe is correct as-written.
Rose
Just made this and it was delicious! The cake was so moist, will definitely make it again!
Kate
Thank you so much!!
Sheila
My kids love this cake. They think it’s the prettiest cake they’ve helped make.
Sarah
Just made a test cake for our July 4th get-together and the cake came out perfect. It is moist, delicious and has a great red, white and blue marbling. Thank you!
Kate
Thank you for commenting! I'm so glad that it turned out well!
Lisa
Hi Kate, do you have a recommendation for a different flavor extract for this recipe? Thank you.
Kate
Hi! The cake is a butter cake, so you could use just about any flavor of extract with it. Almond extract is nice. You could also flavor an individual batter. For example, you could use a strawberry flavor with the red batter.
Jen
Oh no, Kate! I hope it wasn’t this virus! Whatever it was, I hope you’re feeling better. We missed you and your delicious recipes! Your posts are like a ray of sunshine that we can all use right now. This cake looks beautiful! Thank you for sharing.
Kate
Thank you so much!! No, I happened to have something else happen. I really appreciate your kind words!! I can't tell you how much that means to hear!!
Barbara
So glad to see you posting again. Was worried about you and your family during these crazy times.
Kate
Thank you so much!! I was sick for about two months, and I'm grateful to be able to be posting again! =)