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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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I read some people had trouble with the cake so I used a boxed French vanilla cake instead of trying to make that part. I doubled the filling and icing but stayed true to your recipe and this was one of the best cakes I’ve eaten!! Thanks for your recipe my family loved it!! I may just make that filling to eat by itself sometimes it was soo good!! 🙂
So I made this for a 4th of July cookout. I actually baked the cakes about a month ago and froze them, this worked out so great , I just took them out and made the compote the night before the party and on the day I just had to do the frosting and assembly. I’m not a layer cake baker at all this might be my 2nd shot at that , but it came out great everyone loved it!!! Thanks I will defiantly do this again . Leah O.
Hi,
I made this for Mother’s Day and it was a huge hit!! I want to make it again, but I want to use two 6 inch cake pans… how would I alter the cake recipe?
I haven’t done it in a 6 inch before. If you’re still using three cake layers, you’d need to increase the baking time a bit.
Have you ever tried using frozen berries for the filling instead of fresh? Also wondering g if you’ve ever tried adding a bit of lemon extract to the frosting? Thanks!
I also saw that you mentioned psalm 25:1 as an especially meaningful verse right now, and that is also one for me! The version I use is slightly different, “to You, O Lord, I lift up my soul, in you I trust O my God.”
As I was praying through an issue I felt the Lord give me this verse. When I feel the disappointment and doubt of a circumstance creeping in I lift this up as a breath prayer. Thanks for sharing!
Yes, it’s a wonderful verse when fear, doubt or anxiety creeps in. 🙂
I haven’t, but I think some others may have and it turned out ok. Just be sure to pat them dry of liquid. I haven’t tried the lemon extract, but it sounds tasty.
Hi Lindsay,
It’s looks so delicious . Is this cake flavor , filling and frosting will be good for sheet cakes( 1/4 or 1/2 sheet)? TIA
I believe I’ve had someone share a photo somewhere (maybe on fb) of this cake that they’d made as a larger cake. I think it was a 9×13. I haven’t done it myself, but it seems like it should work fine. Though might need to make some adjustments – like maybe more filling?
I made this cake for Mother’s day and it was a hit! I had never made a layered cake and thanks to your site I am hooked! Everyone was very impressed with this cake (even though mine was lumpy and uneven without the proper icing tools compared to yours). I just might have to make some purchases soon! Can’t wait to try another cake from your blog for Father’s Day this weekend!
Should the mascropone cheese be chilled or room temp? Im nervous chilled will result in lumps! Thanks!
I would say chilled. The trouble with room temperature is that if it gets too soft, it can get watery and it doesn’t recover well. If you want to let it sit out for 5 or 10 minutes though, it should be ok.
This cake was absolutely delicious and went in a few minutes….it is totally wedding worthy! I was a little nervous that the batter seemed watery but it wound up being the tastiest vanilla cake I’ve ever eaten. Great job!
Wonderful – so glad to hear you enjoyed it! Thanks Danielle!
Love this recipe, made it first time and the cake turned out very flat and dense but very tasty. I talked to a few people and they said it’s from over mixing the batter. Making another cake, this time I will add the water to the egg mixture instead of your method of mixing water into the already combined batter and use a spatula to mix with instead of mixer, I hope it turns out better this time.
I made the cake, this evening, but my layers are much thinner than what you have pictured. I bake, often, and have never had a cake with such thin layers:( I followed the recipe exactly as you posted. Any thoughts?
The positive note is that it smells delicious!
Hmmm, I’m really not sure. I’m sorry!
Hello,
Eventhoug the cake looks fantastic! However I would reduce the ammount of sugar in half. I think the batter and the frosting are too sweet.
Thanks for sharing.
Hi! This cake looks delicious and I would love to make it for my grandparents’ 50th Anniversary party… It needs to feed about 20 people and I was going to make it in a 11×11 Wilton square pan… I want to make the cake two layers and was just wondering if you thought I should double this recipe to make a bigger, two-layer square cake in that 11×11 pan. I also would like to add that this is by far my favorite website for baking recipes, you are amazing!! Thank you so much!!
Thank you, Justine! I’m so glad you enjoy the site. I’m thinking that doubling it would probably be best. I hope you enjoy it!
Do you think this would work as a semi naked cake? Is the frosting pretty dense? I would like to make is for my daughters bday party this weekend.
Yes, I think it’d be fine. My frosting was plenty firm.
Question can this cake be substituted with cake flour if so what’s the ratio ..Also I have baked a lot of cakes with baking powered, but never 3 tsp is this correct for this cake?
The recipe is correct as written. I haven’t tried using cake flour, so I don’t know how it’d turn out.
My son made this cake for my birthday today and it was fabulous! Everyone loved it!
So glad to hear it was enjoyed!
I made this for Mother’s Day and everybody loved it! Thank you! How can I share a picture of it?
Wonderful! So glad to hear it! You could always email it to me, or share it on instagram and tag me if you use it. Unfortunately there isn’t a way to add photos in the comments.