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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 just made this for my son’s 12th birthday and it was a hit! I used raspberries, blackberries, blueberries and a few strawberries for the filling and decorated the top with everything except the strawberries (since my husband doesn’t like them).
I did find that my layers were quite thin and with barely any dome, but then I realized belatedly that my pans were 9″ instead of 8″, so that helps explain it. They did have a dense, moist and almost doughy consistency similar to thick pancakes, rather than the lighter sponge you seem to produce — but I’m wondering if perhaps the people who’ve been experiencing this problem are all, like me, Canadian? If so, the difference in density is probably because our all-purpose flour has more protein in it than the US all-purpose. So Canadian bakers might be able to solve the problem by using Cake & Pastry flour instead.
The other difference I noticed was that my icing was more of a whipped-cream consistency than the thick, frosting-like stuff shown in the video. Could this be a result of not whipping the cream enough before adding the mascarpone?
I’m glad you enjoyed it! Helpful suggestions regarding the flour – thank you! I don’t know why some people are having trouble, but I imagine it’s some difference like that.
The thinner whipped cream is hard to say from a distance. Did you add the full amount of powdered sugar? I use it to help stabilize the frosting. Also, I think that a stand mixer produces a firmer whipped cream than a hand mixer, which could be it as well, depending on which you used.
I used the full amount of sugar and also a stand mixer, so not sure where I went wrong there. Maybe my mascarpone wasn’t as thick as the brand you used, hard to say. Still a great recipe, though!
I just made this cake for my sister and brother-in-laws 50th anniversary. It is amazing! A real show stopper. Thanks for the great recipe and easy to follow directions.
Hi Lindsay!
I love your work, I bake with your recipes often and it’s always a huge success 🙂 However, in my country layer cakes are made with sponge cake that doesn’t contain any fat or liquid, just eggs and flour and I don’t like it 🙂 What vanilla cake would you recommend from your recipes that is both moist and really really soft, like melt in your mouth? I am deciding between berry mascarpone or fresh berry vanilla cake or white chocolate raspberry. I’d love your suggestion which one I should try out 🙂 Thank you!
Hai, is it ok to only use two berries, blueberry and strawberry for the fillings?
i have a few pointers after making this cake. Firstly, the filling was amazing, it came out perfect, I used frozen berries that were thawed out since the real berries are hard to find where I live.
The frosting was also really good. I used cream cheese since the cheese is impossible to find where I live. But I would recommend whipping out the cream cheese before you incorporate it with the whipped cream because it leaves lumps in the whipped cream.
Andddd the cake….. I don’t like this cake recipe at all. I was contemplating on using this cake recipe after reading the ingredients because it just didn’t sound right. And boy was I right. After reading comments that the cake tasted so good, I decided to give it the try. What scared me the most was all the liquids. It’s just too much liquids for a cake. My cake didn’t rise at all, so I had little “stingy” cake layers. My baking powder was good so it was not that it was expired. I think the over powerment of liquids is what caused it to not rise. After seeing them not rise I decided maybe the quality in this cake is the taste. Nope. After I assembled my cake and decided to taste it, not even the goodness of the frosting and filling can help it. It doesn’t taste good at all.
So, I do want to try to make this again, just using a different cake recipe
This cake was incredible!!! The cake was so light, moist and delicious- not at all heavy or dense or even too sweet. This will definitely become my new vanilla cake recipe for any cake that I make in the future. The berry filling was also so delicious! And the frosting was unbelievable!! The perfect amount of sweetness and also light and so flavorful. Such an unexpected texture and taste with the mascarpone. People were freaking out at how amazing this cake was and so was I! Will definitely make again! Thank you!!
Wonderful! I’m glad it was a hit!
I LOVE the icing for this recipe! I made it for the second time this weekend and it tastes like vanilla ice cream, but is so light and fluffy, AND it’s easy to work with. I was delighted to find Trader Joe’s has mascarpone for only $2.99 for 8 oz compared to $6.99 at our regular grocery store. It’s great to know I can make this icing all the time now without spending $14 on delicious cheese!
I’m so glad you’ve enjoyed it! Great deal on the mascarpone too!
You truly have a gift. I have made this cake twice. It is so light and the texture is perfect. Absolutely delicious!
The first time the layers came out thin due to using 9″ pans. Duh! if recipe calls for 8″ pans this will happen. This time I increased recipe by 1/2 truly pleased with layers.
My husband won’t stop talking about it and refuses to share with others LOL! I’m sure it would be out of this world if I were to use mascarpone cheese instead of cream cheese but there was a cost factor.
Keep the recipes flowing. Amazing recipe!!!
So glad to hear you enjoyed it! Thanks Monique!
This cake was amazing! This was easy and the cake turned out so light! Certainly a “keeper”! I don’t have 8 inch pans so I used 2 -9 inch and baked it for 26 minutes. I’m going to try this with a peach filling and add 1/2/almond flavoring of all vanilla. My family loved it!
So glad you enjoyed it!
I’m planning on making this cake for a baby shower this weekend. Can I use a frozen Berry medley for the fruit filling, or would you suggest sticking to fresh fruit?
Thanks!
People seem to have had success with frozen berries. Just thaw them out and pat them dry of extra moisture.
Baking a 2 tier cake with this recipe….yup! It’s that good (made this cake as is 3 times already!!)! I’ll Do the first tier as 8 inch cakes. Would this cake work for 6 inch cakes and would baking time change?
I haven’t made a 6 inch, but I imagine it’d be fine. Not sure of the bake time.
Hi! I’m making this for my mom’s birthday and I was wondering if you can use neufchatel cheese instead of the mascarpone cheese? Does it make a difference in the frosting. Thank you
I haven’t actually worked with neufchâtel cheese to be able to say for sure. I would think it’d be ok though.
Made it today with my 4 year old. Amazing.
I made this today – I made the berry sauce with just strawberries and it came out delicious! And I made a chocolate mascarpone icing modified from yours, also delicious!
However, my cake came out short and dense and overly moist – we even did a second batch with my husband making it and same issue. Any idea what would cause that? The second time we left it in the oven a little longer to see if it would help it rise more, but nothing.
We’re avid bakers, and It was a delicious cake just sad that it didn’t turn out.
Hi, can I use frozen berries?
Some people have said they’ve used them and had success. You’d want to thaw them and pat them dry to try and get rid of excess moisture.
I just want you to know that I used your recipe to make a Vanilla Naked Cake with strawberry filling and regular Buttercream. I made the recipe two times because it only makes 2-8″ at a time. Both times the cakes came out fluffy and light. I read everyone post and many said, their cakes were dense. Again, I repeat…I did the recipe two times and it came out with the same texture. If I may, you can delete if you like. But, I made sure all my ingredients were at room temperature. Mixed till I didn’t see any eggs, 2 minutes, then added the hot water. Once I completed that step. I stopped the mixture and then hand mixed all the batter that was at the bottom. It came together creamy but loose. I hope this helps many!! To you the creator of this delicious recipe….THANK YOU!!????????????????????????????May God Bless You abundantly for sharing His Word and recipes!
Nina
Made this for 4th of July. Sooooo good. Came out perfect. You have totally redeemed my experiences with blogger recipes. Just had 2 major disasters with 2 different sites, so I was nervous for this recipe ???? but it was perfect. I’ll be trying more of yours in the future.