Calico Marble Cake looks like a fun party on the outside
With moist swirls of pumpkin, vanilla and chocolate cake on the inside!
My vanilla cake is the only recipe you need because it easily transforms into the calico
By swirling pumpkin and chocolate into the vanilla batter!
Whip up your favorite buttercream recipe for the fun calico shag decor!
I have several buttercream recipes for you to choose from here on my website
But I usually keep it simple with my favorite American Style recipe in chocolate, vanilla and pumpkin flavors!
Or just leave this cake as a simple bundt cake with no icing at all!
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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 also 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 it comes out of the pan every time!
Store bought canned pumpkin is usually my choice, but I have made homemade pumpkin puree many times
For the chocolate batter portion be sure to use Natural Cocoa powder and not using Dutch Process Cocoa
Ateco piping tips are my preference 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
Gluten free flour works perfectly here with no other changes to the recipe!
CLICK HERE FOR THE YOUTUBE VIDEO TUTORIAL FOR HOW TO MAKE THIS CAKE
Calico Marble Cake
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
for the icing
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
- Preheat the oven to 375°F
- Grease your bundt pan or cake pan(s) of choice *see notes above
- 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
- Add the vinegar to the plant milk and let it stand to thicken *soy milk is the only milk that will thicken like buttermilk
- Melt the vegan butter and then add the oil and vanilla extract
- Add all the liquids to the dry ingredients in the mixing bowl and whisk to a smooth batter *about 50 strokes
- 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"
- Since I am adding chocolate marble to one bowl & pumpkin to another I left the vanilla batter slightly more
- 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
- Next combine the cocoa powder with the oil and whisk smooth, then add that to the one bowl for the chocolate batter, whisk smooth
- Now add the pumpkin and spice to the other bowl and whisk smooth
- 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!
- Bake in the preheated 375°F oven but immediately turn the temperature down to 350°F after loading
- 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.
- While the cake is baking prepare the buttercream recipe of your choice
- You will then divide the buttercream into 3 bowls to make 1 chocolate & 1 pumpkin and the rest will be vanilla.
- You only need about 1½ cups of each flavor to ice the cake
- Combine the cocoa powder & hot water and whisk smooth but only add it to the portion of buttercream when it is COLD! Whisk smooth
- Add the pumpkin & spice to the other 1½ cups of buttercream and whisk smooth
- 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
- 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
Made this delightful cake. I did not use the above frosting, however I used my homemade citrus marmalade (lime,orange,lemon and grapefruit) whipping it with glaze over the top and served with whipped cream that had a bit of marmalade in it as well. Wonderful and so refreshing!! Will make again for Thanksgiving.
Sounds amazing! Thankyou for the comment!
Hi Gretchen
This marble cake looks terrific. If I didn’t want the pumpkin part, could I use a vanilla or yellow cake recipe for that instead? Do you have recipes that I could swap out?
Best to you!
Sorry,
I didn’t read the details. Can I omit the pumpkin part and just make it with the two batters? Chocolate and regular cake batter? Or is the pumpkin flavor, subtle? Sorry to bother.
Hi Deb, so the base of this cake starts out with my yellow cake recipe, which I then divide & convert to pumpkin & chocolate
So YES to your question, just divide it in half and make 1 chocolate- although the pumpkin is very subtle & works great altogether, however I understand not wanting to open a whole can of pumpkin for this!
I usually make this one in the height of “pumpkin everything” season! So i got pumpkin coming out the wazoo!