Mascarpone Cream Cake with Marsala-Infused Mixed Berries
One of my favorite things about summer is the variety of berries: blueberries (my favorite!), red raspberries, black raspberries, blackberries, etc… I love eating berries plain (i.e. snacking on handfuls of blueberries) but of course, I’m also a huge fan of eating them in desserts and salads. And since berries are best served fresh, I like to limit the amount of cooking that they go through. I’m all about blueberry scones, blueberry coconut cake, blueberry pancakes and anything else with blueberries/berries in them but today’s recipe doesn’t call for baking the fruity morsels. Rather, the mixed berries are infused with some amazing marsala wine for a sweet flavor with a slight zing. Served atop the cake and on the side, the infused mixture perfectly counteracts the simpler flavors of the cake.
Mascarpone Cream Cake with Marsala-Infused Mixed Berries
Mascarpone cream cake with mixed berries
Ingredients
Cake
- 1 3/4 c sifted flour
- 4 T cornstarch
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 5 T salted butter, softened
- 3 T sour cream
- 1 c sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 2 eggs
- 1 c buttermilk
Berries
- 1/2 c marsala wine
- 1/2 c sugar
- 3 c strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, chopped
Cream
- 8 oz mascarpone cheese
- 1 c heavy whipping cream
- 1/4 c sugar
- 3 tsp Marsala wine
Instructions
- Cake: Sift just over a cup of flour and measure out 1 3/4 c. Place the 1 3/4 c of flour in a bowl and add cornstarch, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Sift mixture together.
- In a separate bowl, beat butter, sour cream, sugar together until combined. Add in vanilla and eggs and beat until smooth. Add buttermilk alternately with flour mixture to egg/butter mixture. Mix together thoroughly.
- Place a large square piece of parchment paper over the bottom of a 9 1/2" springform pan. Attach bottom of pan to the sides (parchment paper will serve as a cover over the bottom of the pan). Grease the bottom of the parchment paper.
- Pour batter inside springform pan and tap down pan to eliminate air bubbles. Place on the middle rack in a preheated 350F oven and bake for about 38 minutes or until toothpick inserted comes out clean. Loosen cake around the edges and cool. Remove from pan.
- Berries: Place marsala and sugar in a small saucepan and boil until thick. Pour over mixed berries and allow to sit for a few minutes.
- Cream: Place mascarpone cheese in a bowl and beat until smooth. Add in whipping cream, sugar and marsala and beat until cream develops stiff peaks.
- Assembling the cake: Cut cake in half horizontally. Spread cream mixture on bottom half of cake, reserving about 3/4 c of the cream mixture for the top layer. Smooth cream evenly and place the top half of cake over the cream layer.
- Spread remaining 3/4 c of cream over top the second cake layer and spoon a few berries on top.
- Refrigerate for several hours before serving. Serve cake slices with remaining marsala-infused berries.
Notes
*Recipe adapted from this recipe
