I love marble cake because it is basically two cakes in one. It is pumpkin season and therefore a pumpkin marble cake sounds perfect to me. Alternate spoonfuls of pumpkin and chocolate batter in a bundt pan to get the marbled look. This simple marbling technique creates beautiful patterns in the batter with little effort.
This marble cake is moist, soft and fluffy, topped with a delicious cream cheese frosting and sprinkled with a pumpkin-spice-sugar mix. The fall flavors are fully enhanced by spices like cinnamon, ginger, cloves and nutmeg.
Tools & Equipment
- 10-12 cup bundt pan
- Medium bowl
- Pastry brush
- Silicone spatula
- Small bowl
- Small saucepan
- Stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment
- Wire rack
Recipe Tips
Generously grease the Pan: bundt cakes are notorious for their stickiness. Use a non-stick baking spray with flour or grease the pan with butter and dust with cocoa powder instead of flour. Turn the pan upside-down to discard excess cocoa powder.
Do not stir the Batter: the batter is thick and when you fill it into the pan, it can happen that it is not evenly distributed. Do not stir the batter. Just give the pan a few taps on the counter to help the batter settle.
Topping: if you want the frosting to be more liquid, just use more buttermilk or less if you want it to be firmer. Alternatively, you can leave out the frosting and just dust a little powdered sugar on top.
Directions – How to Make Pumpkin Marble Cake
Preheat oven to 170 °C / 340°F and generously grease and dust the bundt pan. Weigh your ingredients. To make the pumpkin spice mix together cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, cloves and allspice.
Melt butter in a small saucepan and let it brown over medium heat while stirring constantly, this takes about 10 minutes. Remove from heat and let it cool down a little.
In the bowl of a stand mixer beat eggs and both sugars on medium speed until creamy. Then add buttermilk and pumpkin puree and mix on medium speed.
Reduce the mixer to medium-low speed, add the browned butter gradually until well mixed. Add pumpkin spice, vanilla, flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt and mix on medium speed until just combined.
Pour ⅓ of the batter into a medium bowl, add cocoa powder, sugar and buttermilk and stir well.
Place 6 tablespoons of the pumpkin batter in the pan with 4 tablespoons of chocolate batter on top and repeat the layering with the remaining batter. Bake for about 55-65 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Let the cake cool in the pan for 20 minutes, then flip it over onto a wire rack and let it cool completely.
In a small bowl mix together cream cheese, powdered sugar, vanilla extract and buttermilk. Mix together pumpkin spice and brown sugar in a second bowl.
Pour the frosting over the cake and sprinkle the pumpkin spice-sugar mixture on top.
Storage: cover the cake and keep it at room temperature for up to 4 days. You can freeze the frosted cake, wrapped in plastic, for up to 2 months. Thaw in the fridge overnight and bring to room temperature before serving.
My Summary for Pumpkin Marble Cake
Difficulty: simple.
Taste: this bundt cake tastes sweet, buttery and chocolaty. With all its spices like cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg and ginger this cake tastes like fall to me.
Texture: the pumpkin puree makes this cake juicy, soft and smooth and the creamy frosting fits perfectly.
PROS: a simple but yet impressive dessert.
CONS: the baking time is quite long and it takes a while for the cake to cool completely. So a lot of waiting time, but that’s it.
More “Bundt Cake” Recipes
- Angel Food Cake
- Chocolate Cranberry Walnut Bundt Cake
- Kentucky Butter Cake
- Lemon Pound Cake
- Vanilla Bean Malt Cake
