Calico Marble Cake

Marble cake with shag buttercream decor makes this Calico Marble Cake a fun party on the outside with moist swirls of pumpkin, vanilla and chocolate cake on the inside!

Triple marble cake recipe is so easy you won’t believe it!

It’s just one easy recipe for my vanilla cake that transforms into pumpkin batter and chocolate batter in an instant!
Simply by dividing the batter into three bowls to make the marble cake batter

Add cocoa powder to one bowl and pumpkin spice to the other!

Instant Marble Cake with just one recipe!

Bundt cakes take the longest to bake since they are so deep, but this gives you time to whip up your favorite buttercream recipe

I have five or six recipes for you to choose from here on my website
But I usually keep it simple with my favorite American Style recipe

Once again dividing the buttercream recipe into three so you can make the calico shag decor!

Of course this buttercream shag decor is optional

You could keep it really simple and just serve this Calico Marble Cake all by itself!

A light sprinkle of powdered sugar or even a thin drizzle of ganache would be perfect!

This recipe bakes into fantastic high domed cupcakes and beautiful cake layers and even loaves!

Click the links below to see just how many spin off recipes I’ve used it for!

Bakery Recipe for Perfect Yellow Cake

Tres Leches Cake

Vegan Pineapple Upside Down Cake

Notes for Success:

I am using a 6 cup capacity bundt pan for this recipe for about 8-10 servings
For a larger 12 cup capacity bundt cake cake simply double the recipe below to serve 12-14 people
The recipe as listed below will make 3- 7″ cake layers or 2-8″ layers, 2 Standard Loaf Pans or 24 cupcakes

For bundt cakes I like to use my professional bakery pan grease recipe to ensure they come out of the pan every time!

I use store bought canned pumpkin for my cake recipes but have made homemade pumpkin puree many times
Homemade pumpkin puree is going to be much thinner consistency (almost liquid) compared to the solid packed pumpkin in a can

Be sure to read the notes I have included in the article for How to Make Your Own Pumpkin Puree before using it in recipes

For my chocolate batter, I am using Natural Cocoa powder

Since I am using baking soda in the main recipe be sure you are not using Dutch Process Cocoa

CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT NATURAL VS DUTCH COCOA POWDER

I use Ateco piping tips and they have a different numbering system than Wilton tips.
Any grass tip will do, but the one I am using specifically is Ateco #234

One last note about the ingredients listed below, I use a combination of cake flour and all purpose flour for this recipe
Many cannot get CAKE FLOUR so all purpose flour will be fine here, just take out ¼ cup from the total amount listed below

CLICK HERE FOR THE YOUTUBE VIDEO TUTORIAL FOR HOW TO MAKE THIS CAKE

For more pumpkin cake recipes click the links below!

The Best Pumpkin Cake Recipe

Pumpkin Turtle Cake

Pumpkin Velvet Cake with Pumpkin Spice Buttercream

Continue to Content

Yield: serves 8-10 ppl

Calico Marble Cake

Print

Prep Time 2 hours

Cook Time 50 minutes

Total Time 2 hours 50 minutes

Ingredients

For the Cake Batter:

• Plant Milk 1½ cups (355ml)
• White Vinegar 1½ Tablespoons
• Vegan Butter ½ cup (113g)
• Vegetable oil of your choice ½ cup (117ml)
• Granulated Sugar 1¾ cup (350g)
• Salt ½ teaspoon
• Vanilla Extract 3 teaspoons (15ml)
• All Purpose Flour 2 cups (250g)
• Cake Flour 1 cups (120g) *see notes in body of the text article for more info on cake flour
• Baking Soda 2 teaspoons

For the Chocolate Marble:

• Natural cocoa powder 4 Tablespoons (20g)
• Vegetable Oil 4 Tablespoons (56g)

For the Pumpkin Batter:

• Solid Canned Pumpkin ½ cup (125g)
• Pumpkin Pie Spices 1¼ teaspoon
• 1 Recipe Your Favorite Buttercream *I am using ABC

For the Chocolate Buttercream:

• Cocoa Powder 2 Tablespoons (10g)
• Hot Water 1½ Tablespoons (22g)

For the Pumpkin Buttercream:

• Solid Pumpkin ¼ cup (63g)
• Pumpkin Pie Spice ½ - 1 teaspoons

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 375°F
2. Grease your bundt pan (or pan(s) of choice)
3. First prepare the yellow cake batter recipe by combining both flours, sugar, baking soda and salt together in a large mixing bowl. Whisk or sift to combine evenly
4. Add the vinegar to the plant milk and let it stand to thicken *soy milk is the only milk that will thicken like buttermilk
5. Melt the vegan butter and then add the oil and vanilla extract
6. Add all the liquids to the dry ingredients in the mixing bowl and whisk to a smooth batter *about 50 strokes
7. Next divide the batter into 3 equal parts, using a scale is best to get the exact amount evenly, but you can simple "eye it"
8. Since I am adding chocolate marble to one bowl & pumpkin to another I left the vanilla batter slightly more
9. The total weight of the batter is 1260g, so the bowl that gets the chocolate marble should be 400g, the pumpkin marble will be 400g and the vanilla batter should be around 460g
10. Next combine the cocoa powder with the oil and whisk smooth, then add that to the one bowl for the chocolate batter, whisk smooth
11. Now add the pumpkin and spice to the other bowl and whisk smooth
12. Layer the 3 different batters into the greased bundt pan **if you are using a 6 cup capacity bundt pan you will not use all the batter! It will be too much & overflow in the oven! Leave out enough batter to make 4 cupcakes!
13. Bake in the preheated 375°F oven but immediately turn the temperature down to 350°F after loading
14. Bake for 40 minutes then turn the oven temperature down to 300°F for another 20 minutes or when a toothpick inserted into the center comes out with moist crumbs, not raw batter.
15. While the cake is baking prepare the buttercream recipe of your choice
16. You will then divide the buttercream into 3 bowls to make 1 chocolate & 1 pumpkin and the rest will be vanilla.
17. You only need about 1½ cups of each flavor to ice the cake
18. Combine the cocoa powder & hot water and whisk smooth but only add it to the portion of buttercream when it is COLD! Whisk smooth
19. Add the pumpkin & spice to the other 1½ cups of buttercream and whisk smooth
20. Once the cake is finished baking, cool it in the pan until you can touch it without burning your fingers and turn it out onto a cooling rack to cool to COLD
21. Decorate with the Calico Shag Decor as shown in the video tutorial

Notes

Marble Bundt Cake will stay fresh at room temperature for up to 3 days loosely wrapped

For longer storage keep refrigerated for up to 1 week

Freeze cake for up to 2 months wrapped well