Last Updated on March 11, 2022 by Chenée Lewis
This is the best marble loaf cake recipe - Starbucks has nothing on this one! It’s a chocolate marble loaf cake with swirls of vanilla and chocolate cake batter. We’re using sour cream to make our marble loaf cake moist and the results are amazing!
For more loaf pan recipes, try my Pineapple Banana Bread, my Vegan Gingerbread Loaf Cake, or my Sour Cream Pumpkin Bread with Maple Brown Butter Glaze!
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Marble Loaf Cake - Starbucks Copycat Recipe
If you're a fan of the marble loaf cake from Starbucks, you'll love this one! It's a buttery, moist pound cake made in a loaf pan, swirled with vanilla and chocolate. The best of both worlds! We'll start with an easy pound cake batter and your cake will be done in no time! And don't worry -- it's so simple to make that pretty marbling effect. This easy marble loaf cake recipe is perfect for an easy snack, or to take to a potluck or gathering. And it stores so well so it's a great make-ahead treat!
Why do they call it marble cake?
Because the mix of chocolate and vanilla cake batter creates an effect that looks similar to marble! And it's so simple and fun to create the marbling effect! And then when you cut into the loaf it looks so cool! The best thing about this cake is that no two loaves look alike -- because you're creating the marble design, you can make it unique. You'll love making this -- it's the best marble loaf cake recipe!
How do you get the marble cake effect?
Creating the marble effect on this cake is SO easy! We'll start by dividing our vanilla cake batter, and adding ingredients to some of it to make chocolate cake batter. Then, we'll alternate adding our vanilla and chocolate cake batter to our loaf pan, finally ending up with a swirled top to our loaf to finish off the marbling effect! The weight of the cake batter as it is spooned into the pan creates that swirly effect, and makes the finished result so pretty!
Chocolate Marble Loaf Cake Ingredients
- granulated sugar - adds a nice sweetness to this cake! Granulated sugar also creams with the butter nicely to create a fluffy cake crumb!
- salted butter - I like to use salted butter, but if you prefer unsalted, just add in ½ teaspoon of salt with your dry ingredients.
- eggs - make sure your eggs are room temperature. See below for a tip to get them to room temperature quickly!
- vanilla - be sure to use a high-quality pure vanilla extract. Or better yet, check out my post on how to make vanilla extract at home with just 2 ingredients!
- sour cream - using sour cream instead of milk makes this marble loaf cake moist and delicious!
- cake flour - we'll use cake flour to make this cake soft and fluffy! If you don't have any cake flour, see below for a quick tip to make a cake flour substitute! Your flour should be measured by weight using a kitchen scale or with the spoon and level method.
- baking soda - adds a bit of lift to this cake recipe!
- unsweetened cocoa powder - the added cocoa powder is what makes part of our batter nice and chocolatey and turns this into a chocolate marble loaf cake recipe!
- boiling water - helps to "bloom" the cocoa powder, bringing out the chocolate flavor!
Equipment
First, you'll need an electric mixer to whip up the batter. Then you'll want a loaf pan to bake it up! Here are some more of the tools I recommend:
Tips and F.A.Q.
If you don’t have cake flour, you can make a substitute to use for this recipe! All you need is all-purpose flour and corn starch. Just measure out 2 cups of all-purpose flour and replace 4 tablespoons of it with cornstarch. In grams, it’ll be 250 grams of all-purpose flour sifted with 30 grams of cornstarch.
If you don’t have any full-fat sour cream on hand, the closest substitute would be an equivalent amount of full-fat greek yogurt.
It’s important to use room temperature eggs in most baking so that the cold egg doesn’t affect the rise or even baking of your result. If you didn’t have a chance to leave your eggs out to get to room temperature, try this tip. Just submerge the eggs in a bowl of lukewarm water for about 15 minutes. That will allow them to get to room temperature more quickly and ensure the best chocolate marble loaf cake!
You can store this cake in an airtight container for up to 4 days at room temperature -- if you would like to store it longer, you can freeze it, well wrapped, for up to 2 months.
Some bakers have mentioned to me that they ended up with too much batter for an 8.5 x 4.5 in. loaf pan. This may come from an excess of flour in the batter, which can happen if you measuring flour by volume instead of weight. To prevent this, I always recommend measuring dry ingredients by weight using a kitchen scale or with the spoon and level method. To be on the safe side, you can definitely use a 9x5 inch loaf pan for this recipe as well -- just begin checking the cake after 55 minutes of baking.
If you try this recipe, I would love it if you could leave a rating and comment below! It’s so wonderful hearing your feedback! And don’t forget to share your creations with me by tagging @chenee_today on Instagram!
More Pound Cake Recipes You'll Love
Equipment you may need
- 9 x 5 in. loaf pan
Ingredients
- baking spray
- 1 ⅔ cups (333 g) granulated sugar
- ¾ cup (170 g) salted butter - room temperature (1 ½ sticks)
- 4 large eggs - room temperature
- 1 tablespoon (15 ml) pure vanilla extract
- ⅔ cup (153 g) full-fat sour cream - room temperature
- 2 cups (250 g) cake flour - measured by weight using a kitchen scale or with the spoon and level method
- ½ teaspoon (2 g) baking soda
- ⅓ cup (29 g) unsweetened cocoa powder
- ¼ cup (59 ml) boiling water
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 325°F. Spray a loaf pan with baking spray and line with parchment paper, leaving an overhang for easy removal.baking spray
- In a large bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer, cream butter and sugar 3 minutes until light and fluffy.1 ⅔ cups granulated sugar, ¾ cup salted butter
- Add eggs one at a time, followed by vanilla and sour cream, mixing well after each addition.4 large eggs, 1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract, ⅔ cup full-fat sour cream
- Sift in flour and baking soda and mix gently until just combined.2 cups cake flour, ½ teaspoon baking soda
- Spoon ⅓ of the batter into a separate bowl and add cocoa and hot water. Mix until just combined and smooth.¼ cup boiling water, ⅓ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
- Alternate ⅓ cup scoops of vanilla and chocolate batter into the center of prepared loaf pan until all batter is added. Tap loaf pan onto the counter a few times to minimize air bubbles, then gently swirl with a butter knife or toothpick to marble the top of the loaf.
- Bake in preheated oven for 65-70 minutes or until a toothpick in the center of the cake comes out clean. Allow to cool in pan for 15 minutes, then remove to a wire rack to cool completely.
Video
Notes
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Pixie
Great basic loaf cake recipe; the cake flour is SUPER important for texture and flavour balancing, folks. This is a traditional moist cake in the shape of a loaf, not a pound cake. The first time I made it I made it exactly as written, scale measured, and we liked it a lot, I don't think it was bland at all! The vanilla portion is beautifully buttery, the cocoa flavour is well proportioned, and the crumb is so soft and bakery style from the cake flour. I think anyone would love this recipe, especially with a simple glaze! The second time I modified a few small things to make it perfect to my tastes, simply subsitituting the extra 1/2 stick (1/4 c) of butter for 1/4 c of vegetable oil to increase the moistness even more while still maintaining the butter flavour, adding 1/2 tsp of salt with the cake flour to account for the salt lost with the butter, and adding a tablespoon of espresso powder to the cocoa and boiling water mixture to intensify the chocolate flavour. This is my PERFECT cake, no frosting needed, I simply coated the top with a pat of butter when warm as if it's banana bread. Agree on sizing, a 9x5" loaf pan is ideal, but I made it in a 12x4x3" loaf to be safe (near equivalent to a 9x5, just reproportioned) and it did fine and cooked to done faster, right around 45 minutes, which I think helped maintain the overall moisture. Either way you choose makes for a lovely final cake, I highly recommend this recipe, especially for beginners to loaf cakes!
Chenée Lewis
Thank you so much for the feedback and for your experience with the modifications! I appreciate it!!
Sharon
Hi,
Pls give me a substitute for cornstarch and sour cream. Thanks.
Chenée Lewis
Hi Sharon! You should be able to use full-fat greek yogurt or buttermilk in place of the sour cream. If you don't have cake flour or cornstarch, regular all-purpose flour is fine as well. Hope this helps 🙂
NickiDE
After reading other comments regarding volume, I decided to try this in a bundt pan. It turned out fine, but it was a disappointment to me. I thought the flavor was kind of bland so I went ahead and topped it with some ganache. With all the butter and sour cream as well as 4 eggs I thought it would have a better taste. I always do like trying out new recipes, so thank you for the post.
Chenée Lewis
Thanks for the feedback!
Sue K.
Definitely too much batter for pan size! Mine is leaking over the pan as I write this. A larger loaf pan would be more appropriate or a bundt pan.
Chenée Lewis
Thanks for the feedback! An 8.5 x 4.5 inch loaf pan has always worked for me, so you may have a little extra flour from variations in flour measurements. Either way, I'll make a note in the recipe card that a larger loaf pan might be necessary 😊
Sus
This is not for a loaf, is way to much batter.
Chenée Lewis
Hi Sus! I'm sorry the amount of batter didn't work for you -- the batter always works for me as listed when baked in an 8 1/2 x 4 1/2 inch pan. One reason you may have ended up with more batter could be the way you measure your flour -- I always use a kitchen scale to measure by weight so that I get an accurate amount, but measuring in a measuring cup could result in too much flour ended up in the batter. Either way, I hope you get a chance to try it again. 🙂
S.Allen
This turned out A M A Z I N G! I did swap the regular unsweetened cocoa for black cocoa (@ King Arthur Flour) which made it ultra dark chocolatey. I also used your tip for not having cake flour, I sifted the flour/cornstarch/baking soda together. Only thing I had to adjust was time…at 70min it was still super gooey with skewer check, so another 20 min got to the sweet spot for me. This went fantastic with our Bailey’s Irish Dark Chocolate Fondue. It also went perfect with afternoon tea time. Thanks so much for sharing.
Chenée Lewis
So glad that it worked out with your adjustments!! Thank you so much!
Jazz
This cake is SO moist. I actually prefer it to the Starbucks version so you're saving me money! Thank you.
Chenée Lewis
Wonderful! Thank you!
Crystal DaCruz
I knew I had to try this recipe when I saw how moist and airy the close-up photos looked! My attempt at this recipe was a huge success! Thank you for sharing!
Chenée Lewis
Wonderful! I'm so glad you liked it!
Lilly
I did a test run and made this loaf cake and it turned out perfect!! I plan on making it again for Thanksgiving! I know everyone is going to lobe it -- I sure did!
Chenée Lewis
I hope it was a hit!
cynthia.baking
Love this recipe. It is flavourful, moist and absolutely delicious. The batter quantity was perfect for a standard sized loaf pan. Thank you for sharing this great recipe. We will enjoy it many times in the future again 💕💕💕
Chenée Lewis
So wonderful to hear that you enjoyed it! Thanks for the feedback!
Erique
I love a good copycat recipe and this recipe is perfect. Love the marbling in the cake and can't wait to make it again!
Chenée Lewis
So glad you liked it!
Katrina
This marble loaf cake is so good and moist!!
Chenée Lewis
Thank you! It's a favorite of mine!
Robin
This cake is as gorgeous as it is scrumptious. Went well with my afternoon cup of tea.
Chenée Lewis
Wonderful! Thanks for giving it a try!
Kate
My marble cake turned out so moist and delicious! Way better than the one at Starbucks and more pocket-friendly!
Chenée Lewis
Absolutely! I'm all about saving those coins!
Linda kraner
Can this be made in. 8 or 10 inch cake?
Chenée Lewis
I haven't tried either, but it should work in an 8-inch round pan -- it would most likely cook more quickly, so I'd start checking it after 30 minutes. I think a 10-inch cake pan would make the cake too thin. Let me know how it works for you!
Marta
You weren't lying when you said Starbucks has nothing on this marble loaf! It's moist, actually tasted like chocolate and vanilla and was easy to make. I'll definitely bookmark this to make again.
Chenée Lewis
Thank you so much! I love how easy it is to make!
Jessica
Working from home these days I don't get to Starbucks much anymore but I still crave their treats! This marble cake tasted EXACTLY like Starbucks but better. Now I just have to be careful not to eat the whole loaf myself!
Chenée Lewis
I know the feeling! Glad you liked it!
Stephanie
This was amazing! Thank you so much!
Chenée Lewis
So glad you enjoyed it! 🙂