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This Berry Mascarpone Layer Cake has layers of fluffy vanilla cake, fresh berry filling and mascarpone whipped cream frosting! It’s light, fruity and perfect for spring!
Berry Mascarpone Layer Cake
I never really realized how much of an effect caffeine has until I stopped drinking it recently. As part of the IVF process, caffeine isn’t really recommended so I’ve been doing my best to not drink it. Since soda has less caffeine than coffee, I’ll have a little if I’m desperate. I’d rather have coffee though. 🙁 Much more yummy.
Point is though – the lack of a picker-upper is brutal! And the tiredness is making me crave a way to increase energy so now I just want to eat all the carbs and sugar, which I’m also avoiding. Sometimes I feel like I just can’t eat anything. It’s not a good situation. I’ve gotta find a way to muster up some energy!
My go-to move right now is to play some of my favorite music and dance around while working. Gets the blood flowing and pumps me up. 🙂 Yay for 90s music! That’s my era.
And this is my cake.
Boy, do I love this cake! Fresh berries are some of the best things ever and we’ve had them galore for the last month or so. I can’t get enough of them! Especially the blueberries and strawberries. I just want to eat a carton at a time. And I can eat fruit – yay! 🙂
How to Make Berry Mascarpone Layer Cake
This cake starts with a moist and easy vanilla cake. The batter is so easy to put together, you could simply use a whisk to combine everything if you wanted. I always love a good stand mixer – it takes the work out of it for you – but you could do it by hand. Just combine the dry ingredients and wet ingredients separately, then add them all together with a little water. Done! Plus, the ingredients are all nice and straight forward. Rock on.
Then there’s the berry filling. You could almost think of it as a homemade jam, but not quite as thick. I used an even mix of strawberries, blueberries and raspberries, but you could use whatever combo you like. The berries are purred in a food processor, then cooked over heat with some sugar and cornstarch. The heat reduces the liquid a bit and the cornstarch helps thicken everything. Once it’s cooled, you’ve got the perfect berry filling!
The mascarpone whipped cream frosting is used both to add to the cake filling and to frost the cake. I love how light this frosting is! You basically make whipped cream and add mascarpone cheese to it. The mascarpone flavor is lighter than a more straight forward mascarpone frosting, but this version runs much less risk of getting a super soft mascarpone frosting. Just be sure to add the full amount of powdered sugar to make sure the frosting stays stable. It makes a great addition to the cake and keeps things light and fresh!
The final cake is perfect for spring, Easter and all through the summer! It was a huge hit!
Watch How To Make It
SHOP THE RECIPE
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Berry Mascarpone Layer Cake
- Prep Time: 45 minutes
- Cook Time: 26 minutes
- Total Time: 1 hour 11 minutes
- Yield: 12-14 Slices
- Category: Dessert
- Method: Oven
- Cuisine: American
Description
This Berry Mascarpone Layer Cake has layers of fluffy vanilla cake, fresh berry filling and mascarpone whipped cream frosting! It’s light, fruity and perfect for spring!
Ingredients
VANILLA CAKE
- 2 1/2 cups (325g) all purpose flour
- 2 cups (414g) sugar
- 3 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 cup (240ml) milk
- 1/2 cup (120ml) vegetable oil
- 1 tbsp vanilla extract
- 2 large eggs
- 1 cup (240ml) water
BERRY FILLING
- 1 1/2 cup (240g) mixed berries (I used strawberries, blueberries and raspberries)
- 3 tbsp (45ml) water
- 3/4 cup (155g) sugar
- 3 tbsp cornstarch
WHIPPED MASCARPONE FROSTING
- 2 1/2 cups (600ml) heavy whipping cream, cold
- 1 1/2 cups (173g) powdered sugar
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 16 oz (452g) mascarpone cheese, chilled
Instructions
1. Preheat oven to 350°F (176°C) and prepare three 8 inch cake pans with non-stick baking spray and parchment paper in the bottom. These cakes can have a tendency to stick to the pans a bit, so I strongly recommend the parchment paper in the bottom.
2. Add the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt to a large mixer bowl and combine. Set aside.
3. Add the milk, vegetable oil, vanilla extract and eggs to a medium sized bowl and combine.
4. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and beat until well combined.
5. Slowly add the water to the batter and mix on low speed until well combined. Scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed to make sure everything is well combined.
6. Divide the batter evenly between the prepared cake pans and bake for 24-28 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out with a few moist crumbs.
7. Remove the cakes from oven and allow to cool for 2-3 minutes, then remove to a cooling rack to finish cooling. These cakes can have a tendency to stick to the pans a bit so jiggle them a bit to loosen from the sides of the pan before turning the cakes out to cool.
BERRY FILLING
8. To make the berry topping, add the berries and water to a food processor and puree until smooth. You should end up with about 2/3 cup puree.
9. Combine the sugar and cornstarch in a medium saucepan. Stir in the berry puree.
10. Cook over medium heat, stirring consistently until mixture thickens and comes to a boil, about 8-10 minutes.
11. Allow to boil for 1 minute, then remove from heat. Refrigerate and allow to cool completely.
FROSTING AND ASSEMBLY
12. Add the heavy whipping cream, powdered sugar and vanilla extract to a large mixer bowl and whip on high speed until soft peaks form.
13. Add the mascarpone cheese to the whipped cream and whip until stiff peaks form. It will happen fairly quickly.
14. To assemble the cake, use a large serrated knife to remove the domes from the top of the cakes.
15. Place the first layer of cake on a serving plate or a cardboard cake round. Pipe a dam of frosting around the outside of the cake. I use Ateco tip 808 for the dam so that it’s tall.
16. Spread half of the berry filling evenly on top of the cake layer, inside the dam. It should fill the dam about half way full.
17. Add some additional mascarpone frosting to the top of the berry filling and spread into an even layer to fill in the remaining dam space.
18. Add the second layer of cake and repeat the filling layer with the remaining berry filling and additional mascarpone frosting.
19. Add the final layer of cake on top, then smooth out the frosting around the sides of the cake.
20. Frost the outside of the cake, then use an icing decorator (I use this Ateco Icing Smoother ) to add a striped pattern to the sides.
21. Finish off the cake with some swirls of frosting and fresh berries.
22. Refrigerate cake until ready to serve. Cake is best for 2-3 days.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 Slice
- Calories: 678
- Sugar: 53 g
- Sodium: 216.6 mg
- Fat: 40 g
- Carbohydrates: 74 g
- Protein: 8.7 g
- Cholesterol: 118.4 mg
Enjoy!
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Hello,
If baking the cake 1 night in advance..and filling the layers/ completely decorating the cake. What do you recommend is the best way to store the cake to be eaten the next day for a party? Can I refrigerate it like that? Or will it cause the cake to become dry? Or should I put it in a regular cardboard cake box and then put it in the fridge?
Or when I finish baking the cake..wrap the layers with saran wrap and pre-mix the frosting and place the frosting in the fridge for next day and just assemble the cake next day morning of? Sorry for all the questions.
Thank you in advance!
You can frost the whole cake and put it together the day before. If you have a cardboard cake box or an airtight container, that would be best. But it would be fine without that for one night as well. I would not make the frosting ahead of time and leave it in the fridge. It would deflate when you stir it up again the next day prior to using it.
Wow! What an amazingly easy cake. Super moist and tasty. The filling is so yummy not to mention the mascarpone filling/frosting, delicious. Love, love this cake – super easy to make. So worth it! Thank you for sharing this awesome recipe
So glad you enjoyed it!
I made this cake few years ago and it was delicious, everyone in the family loved it. This time I won’t have time to do it in the morning, so can i assemble the whole cake and do the whole frosting the night before to have it the next day? thx
sorry also can I replace the water for buttermilk in the cake batter? would it make it more moist and fluffy?
I haven’t tried replacing the water with milk. Not sure if it’d make it any better or not, but you could try it.
Glad you enjoyed it! Yes, you can do the whole thing the night before. You may just want to hold off on adding the fresh fruit on top until the morning so that it looks fresh.
Hi! Could you use frozen berries instead of fresh for the filling? Thanks!
Sure, you just may want to thaw them first.
Thanks for the recipe! I plan to make this next week, but I was surprised to see ‘1 cup (240ml) water’ in the recipe for the sponge – I’ve never added water to sponge before, only milk. Is the water needed?
The water adds moisture to the cake without adding additional fat to make it heavier. I have a couple cakes that use water and they are all excellent, but you could try replacing it with milk if you prefer.
Can the cake be made in a 9 by 13 pan? Then split that in half?
That should be fine.
Can I use Jam in replace of the berries? If so do I need to add anything extra to the jam?
You could, but I do think the homemade filling is quite a bit better.
I made this cake this past weekend and it was absolutely delicious! Unfortunately, when I assembled the layers the cake fell to pieces. The cake was room temperature, icing was cold, and berry filling was cold. Any idea what the problem may be?
Felt a pieces in what way? Did the cakes split in half? Or did the layers slide all over the place? They’re different problems that create those different issues.
I’ve made this several times and everyone loves it. This time I would like to make the berry filling ahead of time . Any ideas how far in advance it can be made?
It should be fine to be made 2-3 days in advance. Glad you’ve enjoyed it!
Hi. I have have made this 3 times now. Absolutely delicious!! Would like to make into cupcakes this time. Any pointers??
Glad you’ve enjoyed it! You could consider doing something like these cupcakes.
Probably THE best cake recipe ever. I have made this recipe many times and it is always a huge hit. I’ve made it as 6” cakes, 8” cakes and 9” cakes and always so so good. And I absolutely LOVE the whipped mascarpone cream. If you are looking for a light and fresh cake, this is it!! Thanks Lindsay
So glad you’ve enjoyed it!
Hello! When using 9 inch, did you use 2 pans?
I’d recommend two 9 inch pans.
I followed the recipe to a T but unfortunately the cake came out stodgy and thin
Hi! I love this recipe and was wondering if I were to make it into cupcakes would the recipe need to change at all?
The cake batter would make 24 cupcakes, but I’m not sure you’d have enough filling, depending on how much you use in each. And you may not need all of the whipped cream.
These berries and cream cupcakes are a little bit different, but you could try something like that as well.
Hi Lindsay, I made the cake following your directions. It was really good, frosting & berry jam very yummy. My cake didn’t seem to have a good vanilla flavor; I used Cooks organic pure vanilla extract. Can you tell me what I could do to get more of a vanilla flavor? Thank you.
You could try adding some additional vanilla extract or some thing like vanilla bean paste. The rest of the cake ingredients are pretty standard so I’m not really sure what more you could do beyond that. Glad you enjoyed it overall!
This cake was very well received! Moist, not too sweet, light and fresh! The cream frosting is a little soft at first; however after an hour or two in the fridge, if firmed up nicely. Overall I would make it again, maybe add a lemon flavour to the cake, and use stiffener in the cream frosting.
I made it and it ran all over… What did I do wrong…
What ran all over? The whipped cream? The cakes when you baked them?