Marble Pound Cake

We've never had a go-to Marble Pound Cake recipe until now- this is the one.

This pound cake has it all- an incredibly soft texture, delicious buttery flavor with just the right amount of chocolate, and it is SO easy to make!

How to Make Marble Pound Cake

This ultra moist marbled pound cake is based in part on our whipping cream pound cake recipe. I actually used heavy cream in today's recipe but the two can be used interchangeably.

The cream adds richness to the cake and enhances the texture, making it even more moist. This is one of those melt-in-your-mouth kind of cakes- you are going to love it!

*You can find our full, printable pound cake recipe further down in this post, but here is a quick rundown of our steps:

1. Prepare the Pan: Grease and flour a bundt or tube pan. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F

2. Flour Mixture: In a separate bowl whisk the cake flour, salt, and baking powder for 30 seconds combine. Set aside for later.

3. Butter & Sugar: Cream the butter with the paddle attachment in your mixer until smooth. Gradually add the sugar and mix until lightened in color and fluffy -about 3 to 5 minutes.
4. Add Eggs: Add the room temperature eggs one at a time blending after each.
5. Vanilla: Add Vanilla Extract to the Cup of Heavy Cream.
6. Adding Dry and Wet Ingredients: With the mixer on low speed, add the flour mixture alternately with the heavy cream. Begin and end with the dry ingredients. (We do three additions of the flour mixture alternately with two additions of the heavy cream). After the last addition of the flour mixture, mix just until batter is well incorporated and smooth.

Preparing the Chocolate Batter

Now it's time to turn a portion of our vanilla pound cake batter into chocolate which we will be using for our marbled effect.

• Remove two cups of cake batter and put in a bowl. (This is about ¼ of your cake batter).
• In a separate bowl, dissolve 3 tablespoons of unsweetened cocoa powder with 3 tablespoons of very hot water. Stir until the cocoa dissolved, allow to sit for 3 minutes.

Dissolving the cocoa in hot water and waiting a few minutes before using is important as it allows the cocoa to bloom, releasing more intense chocolate flavor. It also replaces the moisture that can be lost when adding cocoa to cake batter.

Marbling the Cake Batter

Now it's time for the fun part- adding layers of chocolate and vanilla pound cake batter so that we can marble it!

There is more than one way to marble a cake, and the process is very forgiving- just be careful not to over-mix the two colors.

First, we spread about three cups of the vanilla cake batter in the bottom of the prepared bundt cake pan.

Next, we added the chocolate cake batter on top of that and lightly spread (it doesn't have to look perfect).

Then, we added the remaining vanilla batter to the pan.

We lightly marbled the chocolate and vanilla pound cake batter with a knife by holding it vertically and moving it through the batter a few times.

Be careful not to over-marble the batter or you will have a light brown cake instead of swirls ;0)

Time to Bake! Bake at 325 degrees for 1 hour- 1 hour, 10 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean or with just a few crumbs attached.

Baking times can vary and so peek in as the timer approaches the 1 hour mark. If the top of the cake begins to get too dark, cover loosely with a piece of aluminum foil.

Allow the pound cake to cool in the pan for about 10 minutes before turning out onto serving plate or pedestal.

Decorating the Pound Cake

This Marble Pound cake is so delicious, you don't need the chocolate glaze, but we love the bit of drama that it adds. Plus, a boost of rich chocolate flavor is always a good thing!

Whether you decide to top your chocolate marbled pound cake slices with ice cream, whipped cream, a simple chocolate drip, or nothing at all- you really can't go wrong!

Easy Chocolate Glaze

Our simple chocolate glaze is a quick ganache that can be prepared in the microwave.

I combined 4 oz. of semi-sweet chocolate with 3 oz. heavy cream in a microwavable bowl and melted it in small increments (30 seconds or less) in the microwave until the chocolate was almost entirely melted.

Stir gently to melt the few remaining bits of chocolate and then cool until it reaches a good consistency for dripping.

For the most control, I prefer to pipe the ganache drip onto the cake through a disposable piping bag with the tip snipped away. (You can do the same thing with a ziplock bag with a corner snipped away).

The warmer the ganache, the faster it will flow down the side of the cake. I like to cool my ganache so that it easily flows from the bag but stops before reaching the bottom.

Ganache consistency all comes down to personal preference- you can even spoon the ganache over the cake if you'd like!

Can Marble Pound Cake be Frozen?

Yes it can! You can bake this pound cake and freeze it up to three months in advance and once thawed, it will taste as fresh as the day that it was made.

We freeze our cakes all the time, from pistachio pound cake to our classic pound cake, layered lemon velvet cake and more. It makes life easier when you can bake well in advance, and we find that freezing cakes while they are still a bit warm adds even more moisture!

When baking in advance, we allow our freshly baked pound cake to cool in the cake pan for about 10 minutes before flipping it out onto a foil-wrapped cake board.

Allow the cake to cool a few minutes more before wrapping with plastic wrap and then aluminum foil. The cake is a bit warm when we wrap it. Then, into the freezer it goes!

To Thaw: Pound cakes and bundt take much longer to thaw than cake layers. For this reason, we prefer to move them from the freezer to the refrigerator the day before we need them. Then, move the cake to the kitchen counter the next morning and continue to warm to room temperature.

More Pound Cakes to Try

In addition to today's recipe for marble pound cake, We have many more pound cake recipes for you to try! We love the taste and convenience of pound cakes, and there are so many amazing flavor options.

Here are just a few favorite pound cakes for your must-bake list!:

• Strawberry Pound Cake
• Lemon Blueberry Sour Cream Pound Cake
• 7 Up Pound Cake
• Sour Cream Pound Cake

Thanks so much for stopping by! We hope that you enjoy this moist Marble Pound Cake recipe as much as we have. Keep it in mind the next time you need a birthday cake recipe, potluck dessert, or just because!

Don't miss our full collection of cake recipes and free cake decorating tutorials! We have so many cakes to share with you.

Marble Pound Cake

BY Melissa and Bebe

This scratch marble pound cake has a wonderfully rich flavor with just the right amount of chocolate. It is ultra moist, incredibly soft, and surprisingly easy to make!

Course: Dessert

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Ingredients

• ▢ 3 sticks unsalted butter, softened (339g)
• ▢ 3 cups sugar (600g)
• ▢ 5 large eggs, room temperature (place in a bowl of warm water to speed up the process if needed)
• ▢ 3 cups cake flour (342g) (not self-rising)- we used Swan's Down- See Notes for substitution
• ▢ ½ teaspoon baking powder (2g)
• ▢ ½ teaspoon salt
• ▢ 1 cup heavy cream (or whipping cream) - Do not whip (232g)
• ▢ 3 teaspoons vanilla extract (12g)

For the Marbling

• ▢ To be added to the 2 cups of reserved cake batter
• ▢ 3 Tablespoons Unsweetened Cocoa Powder (21g)
• ▢ 3 Tablespoons very hot water (44g)

For the Ganache Drip (optional)

• ▢ 4 oz Semi-Sweet or Dark Chocolate
• ▢ 3 oz Heavy Cream or Whipping Cream

Instructions

• Grease and flour a tube pan. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F
• In a separate bowl whisk the cake flour, salt, and baking powder to combine. Set aside for later.
• Cream the butter with the paddle attachment in your mixer, gradually add the sugar and mix until lighten in color and fluffy 3 to 5 minutes.
• Add the eggs one at a time blending after each addition.
• Add the vanilla extract to the one cup of heavy cream.
• With the mixer on low speed, add the flour mixture alternately with the heavy cream. Begin and end with the dry ingredients. (We added the dry ingredients three times and the milk twice.) After the last addition of the flour mixture, mix just until batter is well incorporated and smooth.

For the Chocolate Marbling

• Remove two cups of cake batter and put in a bowl. (This is about ¼ of your cake batter).
• In a separate bowl, dissolve 3 tablespoons of cocoa powder for 3 tablespoons of very hot water. Stir until dissolved, allow to sit for 3 minutes- this allows cocoa to bloom.
• Then, stir chocolate mixture into the reserved cake batter until the color is uniform.

Filling the Pan

• Add about three cups of the vanilla cake batter to the pan and spread.
• Next, add the chocolate batter on top of that and lightly spread (it doesn't have to look perfect).
• Add the remaining vanilla batter to the pan. Lightly marble the batter with a knife by holding it vertically and moving it through the batter a few times. Be careful not to over-marble the batter.
  
• Bake at 325 degrees for 1 hour- 1 hour, 10 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean or with just a few crumbs attached. Baking times can vary and so peek in as it approaches the 1 hour mark. If the top of the cake begins to get too dark, cover loosely with a piece of aluminum foil.
• This recipe makes approximately 8 cups of batter.
• Allow to cool in the pan for about 10 minutes before turning out onto serving plate.

For the Chocolate Ganache Drip

• Combine the 4 oz. semi-sweet or dark chocolate and 3 oz. heavy cream in a microwave safe bowl. Heat in the microwave in small increments (30 seconds or less), stirring occasionally in between, until the chocolate is almost completely melted.
• Then, allow to sit a minute or two and gently stir to melt any remaining pieces of chocolate. Cool the ganache to desired consistency for dripping.

Decorating the Cake

• You can apply the ganache drip to the cooled pound cake either through a disposable piping bag (or ziplock bag) with the tip or corner snipped away, or simply by spooning it over the cake. The ganache will thicken a bit as it cools.
• Cool ganache to your liking. If it is too hot, it will run all the way down the side of the cake. You can test the drip on the inside of a bowl to see if you are happy with the consistency/temperature.
  

Notes

Substitution for Cake Flour: If you have no cake flour, here is a substitution: For each cup of flour in a recipe, remove 2 Tablespoons of flour and replace with 2 Tablespoons cornstarch (cornflour in the UK). This recipe has 3 cups of flour so you will measure out 3 cups of all purpose flour, remove 6 Tablespoons and replace with 6 Tablespoons cornstarch, whisk to blend.

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