Marbled Vanilla & Chocolate Cake
my quick go to birthday cake - just cover it in sprinkles
this week was my sisters 18th birthday and she requested a Fortnight themed cake and hinted towards maybe decorating it with the Fortnight llama. luckily I have actually played Fortnight before so I had some visual inspiration. the game itself has a lime green, purple and blue theme throughout so I thought doing a sprinkle cake with those colors would be really cute. for the flavor she requested a vegan marble swirl cake and I made a cake batter flavored buttercream.
i’ve never made a swirl cake before so this was a first but its really not anything different just a little bit extra steps to make 2 batters, vanilla and chocolate. swirling the two batters with a stick to get the swirly effect was also pretty fun.
Marbled Vanilla & Chocolate Cake
makes a 3 tired 6 inch cake / serves 6 - 8 / prep + bake time is about 2 hours.
Ingredients for chocolate cake
3/4 cup - AP flour
1/4 cup - cocoa
1/2 cup - sugar
1/2 tsp - baking soda
1/4 tsp - salt
1/4 cup - unsweetened apple sauce
1/2 cup - almond milk
1 tsp - vanilla extract
1/4 cup - coconut oil or vegetable oil
1/2 tbsp - apple cider vinegar
Ingredients for vanilla cake
3/4 cup - AP flour
1/2 cup - sugar
1/2 tsp - baking soda
1/4 tsp - sea salt
1/2 cup - almond milk
1 tbsp - vanilla extract
1/4 cup - coconut oil or vegetable oil
1 tbsp - lemon juice or apple cider vinegar
Ingredients for vanilla buttercream
1/2 cup - vegan butter
1/2 cup - vegetable shortening ( I used spectrum )
3 1/4 cups - sifted powdered sugar
1 tbsp - vanilla extract
1/4 tsp - salt
2 tbsp - oat milk
Instructions
Step 1 - Prep + measuring everything out
There is nothing worse than going to make something and realizing you don’t have the stuff ! Take this moment to gather everything and mise an place the ingredients to make the baking process more smooth and seamless.
To make this easier I got out 2 large bowls for the dry mix and then 2 large measuring pitchers for the liquid ingredients. One set being for the vanilla batter and the other set for the chocolate batter. This is also a good time to pre-heat the oven. I always like to make a sort of plant-based “buttermilk” so start out, measure out all your wet ingredients that way the almond milk has time to mingle with the acid.
Measure out all the dry ingredients for both the vanilla and chocolate batter keeping them separate. Once you have all your liquid componets measured out and you dry mix. Pour the liquid into your dry mix doing this twice for the vanilla and chocolate batter.
Step 2 - Portion out the batter into the cake pans
Using a portion scoop or measuring cup alternate between vanilla and chocolate batters, plopping one spoonful at a time layering the batters. With a tooth pick swirl the batters to make a marbled swirly design. Then bake for 30 minutes and set out to cool at room temp.
Step 3 - Making the buttercream
For the buttercream I use a stand up mixer and use the whip attachment to whip together the butter and shortening for about 3-5 min on low to medium speed. I take turns between adding one cup of powdered sugar at a time making sure to scrape down the sides of the bowl each time and allowing each cup to mix thoroughly with the butter.
Continue this till all the powdered sugar is used up, then add in your vanilla, salt and milk and allow to mix for another 2-3 min till all is combined and fluffed well.
Step 4 - Assembling the cake + covering in buttercream
To start assembling your cake cut the rounded tops of the cakes off and put a dollop of frosting on your cake board and secure your base layer of cake to the board. Make a light layer of frosting and then pipe a little fence around the perimeter of the cake.
Place your next layer of cake on top and cover the top in butter cream. Pipe butter cream all around the cake and then use a cake spatula to smoothen it all out covering all of the cake. Using a bench scraper, remove all the excess buttercream and smoothen the sides.
Typically I always do a base coat on the cake in white and allow it to set in the fridge but because this is a sprinkle cake - we gotta move fast. Otherwise the buttercream starts to dry then the sprinkles dont stick and its no fun. My hack for minimal mess when doing a sprinkle cake is putting the cake in a large sheet pan or baking dish and sort of scoop and pat on the sprinkles with your hand.
Step 5 - Decorating + serving
Pipe some puffs or decorate your cake till your hearts content. Sprinkle cakes are so cute for color themed parties like Christmas, Halloween and Valentine’s Day. I could not find any Fortnight cake toppers that I liked so I was clever enough to find a Christmas ornament that did the job.
Save any left over cake in a food safe, air tight container and pop it in the fridge for up to 5 days.
If you make it, please tag me on Pinterest or Instagram so I can see! It’s my favorite thing to scroll through stories and see what you all are making.
And of course feel free to leave any questions, comments or reviews! This is the best place to reach me, and I’d love to hear from you <3