Red Velvet Marble Cake Recipe is holiday perfection! Vanilla and red velvet flavors get swirled in a perfectly tender, moist and absolutely decadent pound cake!! If you love red velvet cake or even classic cream cheese pound cake, you will adore this twist on a Marble Cake classic! Also try my Red Velvet Lava Cakes or Marble Cakelettes for a classic marble cake!
Disclosure: I partnered with Land O’ Lakes for this Red Velvet Marble Pound Cake recipe post, but all opinions expressed here are my own. I am grateful for authentic partnerships like this.
Perfect Red Velvet Marble Cake Recipe! Amazing for the Holidays!
It’s the most wonderful time of the year!!! My Christmas music is on full blast with my fave Christmas cds on repeat, and my house is feeling so festive and holiday ready. My baking is also in full throttle. Tis’ the season to holiday bake for your loved ones. Whether you are baking homemade gifts for family or getting treats ready to place under the tree for Santa, there is no better time to bake than during this time of year.
This Christmas, I am all about honoring classic flavors in new ways. Red velvet is such a quintessential holiday flavor. The color is just as festive as the taste. I’ve made the traditional layer red velvet cake for years and decided an update was needed.
This red velvet marble cake is the perfect twist on the classic. In fact, I think it is easier to make even though the stunning swirls throughout make it seem like a true revelation.
Marble Cake Ingredients
The key ingredients for the base of this Red Velvet Marble Pound Cake are the following:
- Butter
- Cream Cheese
- Granulated Sugar
- Oil
- Eggs
- Cake Flour
The base of the cake is Land O’ Lakes European Style Super Premium unsalted butter along with cream cheese. The butter really creates the most sensational rich flavor because of its higher fat content. It is incredible. I use this butter on everything from my morning toast to pie crusts, and it is even better in this cake.
Because I am coupling this with high fat cream cheese, it adds a lot of richness and flavor.
The oil also adds amazing moistness to the cake as well. The oil coated the crumbs making this super delicious.
Eggs add stability to cake as well and are essential. Lastly the cake flour is used in this cake instead of all purpose because I didn’t want as much gluten to develop creating a tougher cake texture.
How to Make Marble Cake Recipe
The most important part of making a marble cake is the separate of the cake batter into two distinctly different flavored (and colored) batters.
For this cake, we start with a moist and rich vanilla pound cake base and we separate out half of the batter and flavor with cocoa powder and red food coloring to create a red velvet cake batter.
To create perfect swirls for your cake so it is absolutely gorgeous, here are a few tips.
Tips for Making Red Velvet Marble Pound Cake Recipe
Tip 1: Carefully alternate your batters using two different utensils. You don’t want to mix the batters using the same utensils and have the colors bleed into each other.
Tip 2: Use a Skewer or Toothpick to carefully create swirls. You don’t want to use a tooth that is too big because you won’t be able to carefully create the swirls you would prefer. I like to begin with big swirls and then go back in to make smaller adjustments if I want to after looking at the big picture. Remember that whatever you create with your batter before it goes in the oven is basically what it will look like when it comes out of the oven.
The blending of both vanilla cake and red velvet flavored cake in a Bundt® pan is quite beautiful, and the taste is unreal. I can’t imagine how many compliments you will receive once you place this cake in front of people for the holidays.
Marble Cake Icing
This Red Velvet Marble Pound Cake has a lovely and simple icing that really takes the flavors over the top. Because red velvet flavors go really well with cream cheese, I created a basic cream cheese glaze.
Tip: Make sure your cream cheese is completely at room temperature when creating this icing.
Adding the cream cheese with powdered sugar, vanilla and milk creates a thick and gorgeous glaze that sets quickly and pours perfectly. It has incredible flavor and only takes a few ingredients. It will create the perfect compliment to your wonderful Marble Cake.
Red Velvet Marble Cake Recipe
Ingredients
For the Cake:
- 1 1/2 cups Land O Lakes® European Style Super Premium Unsalted Butter, room temperature 3 sticks
- 8 ounces cream cheese, room temperature 1 block
- 3 cups granulated sugar
- 1 tablespoon vegetable or canola oil
- 6 large eggs room temperature
- 3 cups cake flour
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
For the Swirl:
- 2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1 tablespoon red food coloring
- 1 tablespoon hot water
For the Icing:
- 4 oz cream cheese room temperature
- 2 cups powdered sugar
- 4 tablespoons milk
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Instructions
For the Cake:
- Start by preheating your oven to 325°F then liberally spray a 12-cup Bundt® pan with non-stick baking spray.
- In your mixer bowl, add butter and cream cheese and beat for two minutes on high speed. Next, slowly add in sugar and oil then continue beating on high speed for an additional five minutes until it’s a very pale yellow and fluffy.
- Next, add eggs, one at a time, combining well after each addition and scraping down the sides as needed.
- Turn your mixer down to its lowest speed, and slowly add flour into batter in two increments then add salt. Be careful not to overbeat.
- Lastly, add in vanilla extract, scrape down sides and mix until just combined and turn off mixer.
- Pour 1/2 of cake batter into a separate bowl and set aside. Whisk in cocoa powder, red food coloring and hot water until completely well mixed.
- Alternate dollops of vanilla and red velvet cake batter into Bundt® pan using a skewer to swirl batter.
- Bake for 1 hour and 15 -20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean.
- Cool in pan on a wire rack for 10 minutes, then invert cake on serving plate for at least an hour or until the cake is cool to the touch.
For the Cream Cheese Icing:
- Mix cream cheese, powdered sugar, milk and vanilla extract until smooth then pour over top of cooled cake and serve.
Video
Notes
Nutrition
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I was trying to find a recipe that copycats the Starbucks Red Velvet Loaf cake. This cake was more like a true cake. I think I need a red velvet pound cake. I don’t see that on your website. Thanks for the recipe though!
I baked this cake for a coworker’s birthday. In hindsight I should have put a wax paper liner in the pan. The cake stuck, but I was able to salvage it and put it together. She loved it tho! Definitely will be making this again!
I made this cake on Saturday, December 29, 2018 for my hair stylist and her customers. They loved it. It was delicious as well as beautiful. I added holly berry sprinkles on top. Is there a way to post the picture of my cake on your site? I tried on Facebook, but it did not work. I’m making it again on January 5, 2019 for a church Christmas party. I can’t wait to hear the oohs and aahs again!
You can post the photo on instagram with the #grandbabycakes hashtag or you can email me a photo to feature in my newsletter. I’m so so glad you enjoyed it.
I was wondering what baking agent you used: baking soda or powder? Its not listed in the ingredients. If you can let me know which one and how much you used that would be great.
Hi Tiffany, no baking agent is necessary for the cake.
This cake looks absolutely delicious and I cannot wait to try it. I do have a quick question- can I make the cake, two days in advance ? I would like to make it on Friday for our Sunday night Christmas party. I will not have time on Saturday or Sunday morning to make it. Any tips or suggestions ?
Thank you!
Yes you can definitely make it two days in advance however I would make the cream cheese frosting the day of.
This cake was AWESOME! I made it for a friend of mine to take to an orphanage along with your Chocolate layer cake. Yesterday was the first time for this marble cake. Only thing I did different was sprinkle some Christmas sprinkles on it to make it look festive for the kids. I made my husband and I a small bundt from the batch as well. We both LOVED it…we love good cake. I also used my convection oven which worked perfect. The texture and moisture was wonderful. I’m trying not to have another piece before bed!
Oh fantastic! Thank you for the beautiful review!
Hi their cake looks delicious, but I have a question does this mean no need for baking powder or soda?
Where do I begin? This cake was fantabulous! Made it for Christmas dinner & my family LOVED it. I used the Land O Lakes European Style butter & I think I’m in love. The cake was moist & the marbiling held beautifully. Thank you for sharing this recipe!
Awww wonderful!!!! I’m so so glad you enjoyed it.
Hello!!!
I just made a cranberry walnut pound cake at 2 AM just one day ago, and it’s addictive. The recipe called for a simple powdered sugar glaze, but I instinctively added some Orange juice to the glaze. However, after reading your recipe, I will add Orange extract and grated orange peel to the batter, as your recipe calls for. Lastly, I will also exchange the AP flour I used for my recipe to cake flour, a lighter version. Thank you for sharing this recipe. I will make it exactly as you do, but will include 1/2 cup of chopped walnuts (or pecans).
May you and your family have a very Merry Christmas and an amazing 2018, beyond your expectations!
Thanks so much! I hope you enjoy!
These look incredibly delicious!
I want to try this, but I have 2 questions:
1. What is the reason for adding the vanilla at the end instead of with the butter and cream cheese?
2. Are you using a Kitchen aid mixer or regular hand held mixer? Five minutes is a long time to beat with a Kitchen aid mixer. Thanks.
Hi Barb, I prefer adding the vanilla at the end of the process so it gets into all of the ingredients. Just my personal preference. Also I use both hand and stand mixer and I prefer a longer creaming period to add as much air to the cake as possible since it isn’t a leavened cake. It will help it to rise.