Yield: 1 bundt cake // Total Time: 1 hr. 30 min. // Disclaimer: This post includes affiliate links. // This post is sponsored by Scharffen Berger. All opinions are my own.

Light and fluffy vanilla cake marbled with chocolate and raspberry cake, topped with ganache.

Why you’ll love this chocolate raspberry marbled bundt cake

This is *the* perfect bundt cake for Valentine’s Day. It’s light, fluffy, and extremely delicious. It starts out with a light and fluffy vanilla cake batter. Part of the batter gets mixed with cocoa to create a rich and delicious chocolate batter, and another part gets mixed with freeze-dried raspberries to create a flavorful raspberry batter. One of the best parts about working with freeze-dried berries is that they naturally dye the batter – that pink is all-natural! The cake is topped off with a smooth chocolate ganache and fresh raspberries. But overall I think that the best part about this cake is that it’s equal parts fun to look at and fun to eat!

Scharffen Berger Chocolate Maker

I partnered with my favorite chocolate brand, Scharffen Berger Chocolate Maker, to develop this delicious chocolate raspberry marbled bundt cake! I love using Scharffen Berger chocolate in my recipes because it’s truly high quality chocolate that you can taste. They travel the world to source the best cacao beans and don’t mask their chocolate blends with additives or sweeteners, resulting in incredible chocolate flavors. For the rich chocolate ganache on top, I used their new 55% Cacao Dark Milk Chocolate Chunks with Maple Sugar, and for the rich, delicious chocolate cake, I used their classic 100% Unsweetened Dark Chocolate Cocoa Powder. This chocolate raspberry marbled bundt cake is the perfect gift for your sweetheart this Valentine’s Day, because nothing says “I love you” quite like chocolate!

Recipe tips

Weigh your ingredients

• Weighing your ingredients is important for getting the recipe perfect and getting consistent results. Not weighing your ingredients can lead to adding too much or too little of an ingredient and can easily throw off a recipe. If you haven’t already, I highly recommend purchasing a kitchen scale. This one is super cheap and worked well for me when I was starting out!

Mix the batter carefully

• It is super important to not overmix the cake batter or you end up with a tough and chewy cake rather than a light and moist cake. When alternating between adding the wet and dry ingredients, be sure to only mix just until the ingredient is fully combined and no more. You’ll also want to be extra careful when mixing in the cocoa and red food dye at the end!

Room temperature ingredients

• It is important for the ingredients to be at room temperature so that they properly incorporate with each other. Take out the egg, butter, and buttermilk at least 30 minutes and up to 1 hr 30 min. before starting the recipe. To bring an egg to room temperature quickly, you can place it under hot water for 1 minute. To bring butter to room temperature quickly, slice it, place it on a plate, and microwave it in 5-second intervals. For buttermilk, you can also microwave it in 5-second intervals until it’s no longer cold (but not hot!)

Keep an eye on that cake!

• Baked goods like to go from under-baked to over-baked super quickly so it is important to keep a close eye on them. Start checking at 40 minutes with a toothpick. If the toothpick comes out wet, check again after 5 minutes, then every 2-3 minutes until the toothpick comes out with just a few moist crumbs on it.

Ingredients and substitutions

For the chocolate raspberry marbled bundt cake:

All purpose flour: the structure of the cake.

Baking powder: for helping the cake rise.

Salt: for balancing and bringing out the sweetness of the cake.

Unsalted butter: for tenderizing the cake and giving it that classic buttery taste. You can substitute in salted butter, just be sure to reduce the added salt from 3/4 tsp. to 1/4 tsp.

Vegetable oil: for tenderizing the cake. You can substitute any neutral oil, such as canola, in place of vegetable oil.

Granulated sugar: for sweetening the cake and keeping it moist. The sugar also helps aerate the butter to give this cake its rise.

Eggs: for moisture, structure, and binding the batter together.

Vanilla: I use and love this vanilla extract.

Buttermilk: for tenderizing the cake and adding moisture. I highly recommend using buttermilk but I know it can be hard or annoying to purchase, especially if you don’t plan on using it for anything else. It won’t be completely the same, but you can make a homemade buttermilk substitute. I recommend mixing together 140g sour cream & 220g whole milk for the best results.

Cocoa powder: Use natural unsweetened cocoa powder here for the best color results.

Freeze-dried raspberries: for flavor. There’s really no non-freeze-dried substitute for these since using regular raspberries would add too much moisture before adding enough flavor. You could sub in freeze-dried strawberries though!

For the ganache:

Chocolate: use your favorite % cocoa baking bar, or chips!

Heavy whipping cream: thins out the ganache.

How to: chocolate raspberry marbled bundt cake

Here are the steps to follow to make this cake. You can find the complete recipe (which is printable!) at the end of this blog post.

1. Prep ingredients. In a medium-sized bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt and set aside.

2. Cream together the fat and sugar. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment (or in a large bowl and with a hand mixer-) cream together the butter, oil and granulated sugar for 5 minutes.

3. Slowly add in the eggs. Scrape down the sides of the bowl. With the mixer running, add in the eggs one at a time, beating for 20 seconds before adding the next egg. With the last egg, beat in the vanilla.

4. Alternate the wet and dry ingredients. Alternate between adding the flour mixture and the buttermilk. Gently mix in 1/3 of the flour mixture just until no flour streaks remain, then mix in 1/2 of the buttermilk. Repeat until you have used up all of the flour and buttermilk. Be super careful to not overmix here!

5. Bloom the cocoa. Add the cocoa powder to a small mixing bowl and pour the hot espresso over it. Mix it up until it’s smooth. In another small mixing bowl, add the crushed freeze-dried raspberries.

6. Make the flavored batters. To each bowl, add ~300g (~1 c.) of batter and lightly mix just until no flour streaks remain. Be super careful to not overmix here!

7. Layer the batter. Evenly spread ~⅓ of the vanilla batter into the prepared bundt pan. Place dollops of the cocoa batter over the vanilla, then spread it out into an even layer and use a knife to swirl it around. Spread ½ of the remaining vanilla batter over the top, then place dollops of the raspberry batter over the vanilla. Use a knife to swirl around the layers, then top the pan off with the rest of the vanilla batter and swirl again.

8. Bake. Bake the bundt for 40-50 minutes, until a knife inserted in the center of the cake comes out with only a few moist crumbs on it. Bundt cakes have a tendency to dry out easily, so be sure to keep a close eye on it!

9. Make the ganache. Pour hot heavy cream over the chocolate, then place a lid or plate on top of the bowl and let the mixture sit for 1 minute before whisking together. Once the mixture is smooth and the cake has come to room temperature, pour the ganache over the cake.

10. Serve and enjoy! Slice up the cake, serve, and enjoy!

Chocolate Raspberry Marbled Bundt Cake Q & A

Can I make this in a different-sized bundt pan?

• Yes of course! This batter makes enough to fit in a 12-cup capacity bundt. This means it can also fit dispersed between two 8″ round pans, or a 13 x 9″ pan. Just be sure to keep an eye on it as it bakes, because it may take more or less time depending on the thickness! If you want to make it in a smaller bundt pan, just be sure to only fill it up ~3/4 of the way and then you can use the rest of the batter to make cupcakes!

How do I prevent the cake from sticking to the bundt?

• To make sure your cake doesn’t stick, generously butter it, making sure to get all of the crevices. An easy way to do this is to melt 1-2 tbsp. of butter and use a pastry brush to brush the inside of the bundt. Then, generously pour some sugar or flour into the pan and shake it around so that it completely coats the inside. Tap out any excess and then you’re good to go! If you’re ever making a completely chocolate cake, you can coat the inside with cocoa powder.

How should I store this cake?

• Ganache can *technically* be at room temperature for up to 2 days, but for the best safety practices I would recommend waiting to pour the ganache on the cake until you plan on serving it. If you plan on keeping the cake longer, store the whole thing in an airtight container in the fridge. You can take it out ~1 hour before eating to avoid eating cold cake!

Why do you measure in grams?

My recipes are all written in grams because it is the most accurate way to bake. When you use a kitchen scale, you ensure that your baked goods turn out as close to the written recipe as possible. Plus, the cleanup is way easier when using a scale! I will provide standard cup measurements but please note that I have not tested the recipe using cup measurements and therefore can not guarantee your recipe will come out how mine did. Here is my favorite kitchen scale, and here’s an article about why I use a kitchen scale, and why you should too!

A note on oven temperature

Ovens vary and fluctuate in temperature. For example, I always have to set my oven to 330°F if I want it to bake at 350°F. If you love to bake like I do, I highly recommend getting an oven thermometer. They are super helpful for letting you know when your oven might be lying to you! I use this one.

Chocolate Raspberry Marbled Bundt Cake Troubleshooting

The butter/oil/sugar mixture isn’t coming together

• These ingredients should come together to be a smooth, fluffy & white mixture. If they aren’t coming together, that means that your butter wasn’t soft enough before starting the cake. I would recommend letting the mixture sit until the butter gets warmer, or you can try microwaving the mixture in 5-second intervals until it is room temperature (but not melted or warm!)

My cake turned out dry

• Typically, the #1 culprit for this is always not measuring the flour properly. If you use cup measurements, you run the risk of adding too much flour to the dough which can make it super dry. I include cup measurements because I often get asked for them – but I highly recommend using a kitchen scale if you love to bake! There is one linked in my Amazon Storefront below that is cheap and works super well! Your cake may have also turned out dry if you overmixed the batter – make sure you are only folding in the flour/buttermilk just until the point that it has completely mixed in.

Tools and ingredients

You can find all my favorite tools and ingredients that I use on my Amazon Storefront page, here!