Vegan Zebra Bundt Cake (Vegan Marble Cake)

Fluffy and decadent vegan zebra bundt cake with swirls of chocolate and vanilla cake topped with an easy chocolate ganache! This is an impressive but easy and versatile vegan marble cake recipe.

Why you'll love this vegan marble cake

FLAVOR: If you like chocolate but don't want something too rich, this vegan cake recipe is perfect for you! The alternating layers of vegan chocolate cake and vegan vanilla cake make this a well-balanced dessert. But it's decadent enough for a special celebration!

APPEARANCE: Vegan bundt cakes are shaped so beautifully that they don't need anything extra. If you don't have a bundt pan, you can use a round or loaf pan and your cake will still be beautiful.

DIFFICULTY: The cake uses only common pantry ingredients and comes together in just two bowls! If you can mix dry and wet ingredients together, you can make this cake.

CROWD-PLEASER: I've served this cake to non-vegan guests at parties and it was loved by everyone! You need to try it!

Ingredients you'll need

Notes about the ingredients

Sugar, preferably regular white sugar or cane sugar. I'd recommend a light-colored sugar for this cake to keep the vanilla cake layers light in color.

Dairy-free milk such as soy milk, almond milk or oat milk. However, any non-dairy milk will work!

Oil which keeps the cake moister compared to butter! According to Bon Appetit, it also keeps a cake tender!

Cocoa powder or raw cacao powder. I prefer the taste of classic cocoa powder for cakes as it's less bitter and provides a more nostalgic chocolate flavor.

Baking powder and soda. We're using double baking agents to give the cake a lovely light crumb with no dense spots!

Vinegar (either apple cider or regular) which reacts with the milk to make buttermilk. This makes the cake fluffier and more tender.

Even though this is an eggless cake, we don't need any egg replacers or flax eggs. I've tested this recipe with egg substitutes and it doesn't make a difference.

A complete list of ingredients, quantities and instructions are in the gray recipe card at the bottom of this post.

Easy way to prepare a bundt pan to prevent sticking

You can use a couple of pantry ingredients to make any bundt pan non-stick. It even worked for my intricate Nordicware bundt pan (10-cup)!

To prepare a bundt pan, I'd suggest you:

1. Throughly brush inside of the pan with melted vegan butter. Make sure you reach all the nooks and crannies! I prefer using butter rather than oil as the latter sometimes leaves 'puddles' when used for greasing. Alternatively, you can use an oil spray to coat your bundt pan.
2. Lightly dust some cocoa powder on top.
3. Invert the bundt pan and tap it on your kitchen bench or side of your sink a few times. This forces the excess cocoa powder to fall out.

If you don't have a bundt pan, you can use a loaf tin or 2 x round cake pans for this vegan marble cake!

Preparing the cake batters

First you need to prepare an unflavored cake batter for your vegan bundt cake. You may use a whisk or spatula for this step.

Add the flour, sugar, raising agents and salt to a large bowl and mix until there are no lumps. Then add dairy-free milk, oil and vinegar and mix until JUST combined (or just before it's combined).

Some lumps in the cake batter are fine! Please avoid over mixing the cake batter at this stage as we're mixing it more later.

Evenly divide the batter into two bowls. The batter should weigh about 780g in each bowl.

Add your vanilla to one bowl of cake batter and gently stir in it. Set this aside.

To the remaining second bowl, add some cocoa powder and plant-based milk. If your cocoa powder is lumpy, I'd recommend sifting it in! Then gently fold the ingredients together.

To make the pattern for the vegan marble cake, both cake batters need to be the same consistency in order for the marble pattern to work.

However, cocoa powder makes the chocolate batter slightly thicker. To counteract this, I added in a little extra dairy-free milk to the chocolate batter so it's the same consistency as the vanilla batter.

How to assemble vegan marble cake

Once you've prepared your cake pan and cake batters, you can assemble your vegan zebra cake!

It's much easier than it looks. All you have to do is:

1. Spoon ½ cup chocolate cake batter in one spot in your cake tin. I started with the chocolate batter as we dusted the tin with cocoa powder.
2. Then spoon ½ cup vanilla cake batter right on top of the chocolate batter. The weight of the vanilla batter will force the chocolate batter underneath to spread out and so on.
3. Repeat until you have used up all the cake batter!

The two-toned appearance of zebra cakes or marble cakes is automatically created when you layer and alternate the two batters.

The batters will not mix together IF the batters are the same consistency/thickness (see my tips above on preparing the cake batters).

After you've assembled the marble cake, you don't need to use a knife to swirl the chocolate and vanilla layers together. There are enough layers in the cake for a stunning visual effect!

It takes about 50-60 minutes to bake the vegan bundt cake. However, the baking time will depend on your cake tin and whether your oven runs hot or cold.

Tips: How to customize this cake

More easy vegan chocolate desserts

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This post was first published in July 2019 and updated a few times since then with more useful information.

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