If you are looking for a fun and pretty way to decorate a cake, this marble drip cake is for you! Follow this decorating tutorial for and easy drip cake with a marble effect, and you’ll have a stunning cake in a matter of minutes!
We’re sharing a deliciously easy way to create a marble drip cake! Drip cakes can be so intimidating to make, but to be honest, they’re actually a fairly simple way to frost a cake!
As long as you’re comfortable using fondant to cover the cake, the frosting part is easy peasy! Fondant isn’t difficult either, it just takes some strength and time to roll it out!
We used a simple icing recipe and added a little corn syrup to keep some of the shine.
How to make an easy Marble Drip Cake – step by step
Bake a vanilla or chocolate cake in a standard 8″ round cake pan. Lightly frost the cakes before adding the fondant.
Knead and roll out the fondant to about 1/4 inch thick. Then place it over a lightly frosted cake. The reason you frost the cake is so the fondant will stick to it and hold. Frost all the way down the sides, top, etc.
Place the fondant on top and then smooth it out to remove any bumps, it doesn’t have to be perfect!
Place a rack on a rimmed cookie sheet and place the cake on top. This way the frosting will fall beneath.
Make the frosting (recipe below) and add in drops of desired food coloring. Don’t stir it, it will marble as you pour. Since we love blue so much, we did different shades of it to create our marble effect.
Pour the icing over the top of the cake and watch it drip down the sides. It’s awesome to see the colors blend together and make such stunning patterns!
In about 30 minutes, your marble drip cake will harden and keep its shape!
A Marbelized Cake is an easy way to make a decorative cake for a special occasion.
This cake is perfect for any occasion, especially if you are short on time.
This is great for a birthday cake, and you can make it with the person’s favorite color, or how about a baby shower cake and you can do blue for a boy and pink for a girl!
Drip cake without chocolate
To make this marbelized cake as easy as possible, (and with the least mess!) opted to create the drip with icing.
There are a lot of chocolate drip cakes out there, but if they get too warm you have a mess on your hands! By making this with icing, was able to achieve the beautiful marble effect.
Cake decorating tools to make a marbleized cake
The great news is that you don’t have to be an expert cake decorator to make this show-stopping cake!
The only tool I would recommend is a fondant smoother so you can get the cake nice and smooth, you can pick these up fairly cheaply at most stores.
Top tips for decorating
- Make sure your cake has cooled to a warm temperature before decorating.
- Remember to place the cake on a rack over a cookie tray before pouring over the icing so you don’t end up in a mess!
- Finish decorating the cake with fresh fruit or edible flowers.
- For the marbling, try to stick to different shades of the same color. It will give the marble drip cake a marble look.
Be sure to check these other occasion cakes and decorating ideas
Momufuku Milk Bar’s 4th of July Cake
A Delicious Spring Coffee Cake Recipe
Pumpkin Spice Sunflower Cupcakes
How To Make A Watercolor Cake by Style Sweet CA
Striped Buttercream Balloon Cake by Sugar Hero
If you have tried this marble drip icing recipe, please rate it and let me know how it turned out in the comments below!
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Marble Drip Icing
Ingredients
- 3 cups powdered sugar
- 1 tablespoon corn syrup
- 1/4 cup warm water
- 1/2 teaspoon almond extract
- food coloring
Instructions
- Add all of the ingredients, except the food coloring, in a bowl and whisk until smooth.
- Add in drops of food coloring, or use a wooden popsicle stick to add drops of gel food coloring to the icing. Do not mix it. It will give it’s own marbling effect when it’s poured.
- Place the fondant cake on a cooling rack with a cookie sheet underneath.
- Pour the icing over the top and let it dry.
SHERIE ELLIOTT says
Does the drip icing set hard? I need to ice a bowling ball cake.
Eden says
Not super hard but it does set.
Melany says
Do you have to put fondant icing on first?
Eden says
It helps with the marble frosting to have the fondant. You can try with a smooth, thick buttercream but I would make sure it’s cold. It might not work though.
Marsa Mattatia says
Hello will this work if I cover the cake in royal icing first as its to cover a fruit cake. I want to use greens to make a water lily pond.
Eden says
Hi! We’re not sure if that would work. If you try it let us know!
Barb says
Can I use the marble effect on a cookie cake
Eden says
We’ve done this on cookies that have fondant frosting and we dipped them into a bowl of marble icing. It did work! You can see the cookies here https://sugarandcharm.com/easter-brunch-ideas
Amrita says
Hi! Love this technique😍can I skip the corn syrup? Do you think this will work on buttercream? Thank you
Eden says
Hi! Thank you! Unfortunately we don’t think it will work if you skip the corn syrup.
Sandy J. says
I tried this on a fondant cake and i love how it looks except that on mine it seems the icing drip broke away a little so I have spots where there is just color runand no icing. The icing is very clumpy in spots. I’m thinking my cake was maybe too cold? Or my icing too warm?
Sini says
Will this work over cream cheese frosting??
Eden says
Most likely not, but if you try it let us know!
Heather says
HI i have to make the cake 2 layers i was wondering if i would be able to double the recipe will it still work thanks
Eden says
Yes try to double and that should cover it!
Kayla says
This is amazing! First time I’ve baked a proper cake, and I couldn’t be happier with the end product. I used teal, royal blue and sky blue for the icing and it almost looks like a gemstone, so gorgeous!
Eden says
Thank you Kayla! Love hearing that!!
Sarah says
Hi i am making this cake this weekend and was wondering if you need to use gel food colouring and if so how did you get different shades thanks
Eden says
You can use gel and you can mix the colors to make different shades or leave them and they will blend together as you pour.