Good Morning!! I want to make a marble cake and am hoping someone can give me a few tips. Should I start with the white cake and swirl in the chocolate? or the other way around? Baking times may be tricky because chocolate takes a little longer to bake right??? Any insights will be very appreciated!! Thanks

This will be the easiest and most foolproof way to do it. Start with your favorite yellow cake. Make the batter. Now pull out 1/3 of the batter. Add cocoa powder to taste. This will be your chocolate. Put the yellow in the pan. Spoon the chocolate on top and swirl with a knife.

The reason this works is because it's the same batter and will bake the same. That added cocoa powder won't affect the outcome.

Hope this helps.

Now with a strawberry marble, at least if you're using seedless jam in the contrast batter, there *is* enough of an effect on the batter chemistry to affect the rise (the cake domes a bit unevenly), but not enough to ruin it (so far, it came out just fine, except for the uneven doming, both times I made it).

So far as I'm aware, yellow cake is preferred for chocolate or spice marble, but white would be the obvious choice for a strawberry marble (otherwise, I'd expect the contrast batter to come out awfully orange).

I also note that there are widely available mixes available for both a chocolate marble, and a spice marble (the latter marketed as primarily a coffee cake).

As far as putting the batter in the pan, with my strawberry marble, my procedure is:
1. Put just enough of the base batter in to cover the bottom.
2. Add random streaks of the contrast batter.
3. Pour in the rest of the base batter.
4. Pour in the rest of the contrast batter, again in random streaks.
5. Draw a knife through the batter, enough to vein and swirl the contrast batter, but not enough to mix the two batters much.
6. Get it into the oven.

Actually, most marble cakes are yellow cake with some chocolate batter swirled through.
Make up your batter - yellow or white - whatever you want, and remove about 1/2 to 1 cup of batter before filling the pan; add some UNsweetened cocoa powder (as much as you want) and drop blobs of it into the light colored batter. Use a fork to swirl them together; go all over the pan w/your swirling but don't do so much that it all blends together

FWIW: my strawberry marble cake recipe

Cake:
1 standard Duncan Hines white cake mix
1/2 cup seedless strawberry jam
1/4 tsp + 1/4 tsp strawberry extract (based on McCormick)
red food coloring

Stir jam in 2nd bowl, to break cohesion.

Grease and flour pan(s).

Mix batter according to package directions, except: add 1/4 tsp strawberry extract. As soon as ingredients are combined, but before they are thoroughly mixed, draw off 1 cup of batter, and mix with the jam, adding the second 1/4 tsp of strawberry extract, and up to 4 drops (again, based on McCormick) red food coloring, stirring with fork or bowl scraper to combine.

Beat main batter 2 minutes. Beat pink batter 2 minutes.

Cover bottom(s) of pan(s) with a thin layer of main batter, then add both batters, in streaks. Run a knife through the filled pan(s) several times, to distribute the pink batter without mixing it.

Bake according to package directions.

Frosting: (still experimental, and subject to revision)

1 lb powdered sugar
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter
milk, as needed
1/4 cup + 1/4 cup strawberry jam
1/4 tsp + 1/4 tsp strawberry extract
Red and green food coloring

Use recipe on back of C&H powdered sugar box, except: reduce butter by 50%, and omit vanilla. Add 1/4 cup jam, 2 drops of red food coloring (based on McCormick, again), and 1/4 tsp of strawberry extract. Once cake is frosted, reserve a small amount of remaining frosting, and tint green, and add an additional 1/4 cup jam, 2 drops red food coloring, and 1/4 tsp strawberry extract to the remaining frosting.

Chill both the cake and the filled piping bags before decorating.

Pipe red strawberry shapes and green stems onto cake.