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Lemon Berry Mascarpone Cake

White mascarpone frosting on a lemon layer cake filled with blueberries. The cake is sitting on a glass cake stand, with lemons and berries scattered around it.

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Lemon zest, lemon juice, and fresh blueberries all come together in the soft layers of this elegant yet easy lemon blueberry mascarpone cake. 

Ingredients

Scale

Cake

  • 2 ⅓ cups (300 grams) all-purpose flour
  • 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
  • 1/2 tsp baking soda
  • 3/4 tsp kosher salt
  • 1 cup, plus 1 Tbsp (250 grams) granulated sugar
  • 2 T lemon zest
  • 1 1/2 sticks (171 grams) unsalted butter at room temperature
  • 2 ¼ tsp lemon extract
  • 1 T vanilla extract
  • 3 eggs at room temperature
  • 3/4 cup (195 grams) buttermilk, room temperature
  • 2 T lemon juice, fresh or bottled
  • 3 T (35 grams) canola oil (or other colorless, odorless oil like vegetable or rapeseed)
  • 2 T full fat Greek yogurt or sour cream at room temperature
  • 1 cup (165 grams) of fresh blueberries
  • 1 T of all-purpose flour to coat the blueberries

Mascarpone Frosting 

  • 1 8–ounce container (226 g) mascarpone, chilled
  • ½ cup (150 grams) heavy cream, chilled
  • 1 ½ cups (200 grams) powdered sugar
  • 1 tsp (12g) vanilla extract

Instructions

Lemon Berry Cake

  1. Preheat your oven to 350 F. Butter and flour three 6” round cake pans or coat them with baking release spray. I use damp cake strips on my pans for more evenly baked layers.
  2. To a bowl large enough to eventually hold all of your ingredients, add and whisk together all-purpose flour, baking powder, baking soda, and kosher salt. Set aside.  
  3. Using the paddle attachment in the bowl of a stand mixer, beat your sugar and lemon zest together for 1 minute. Then add your butter, vanilla and lemon extract to cream them together on medium speed for 4 minutes. Stop mixer and scrape down the sides of the bowl.
  4. Add your eggs, buttermilk, lemon juice, canola oil, and Greek yogurt to your primary mixing bowl. Mix on slow for about 3 minutes. Higher speeds will have batter splashing and flying around!
  5. Add the bowl of wet ingredients to the dry, mixing gently until just combined. In a small bowl, toss blueberries with tablespoon of flour before gently folding them into batter.
  6. Pour and evenly spread the batter into your prepared can pans (about 415 grams in each pan). Bake for 35 - 40 minutes or until layers appear buttery and dense but bounce back at the touch of your finger.
  7. Let cakes cool in pans about 10-15 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely before frosting. 

Mascarpone Frosting

  1. Whip your mascarpone, vanilla extract, and powdered sugar on low speed for about 10 seconds, then bump up for another 30 seconds on medium speed
  2. Once combined, slowly pour in your heavy cream. Once incorporated, bump mixer to medium high speed and continue whipping until all ingredients are combined, about 90 more seconds. Closely watch the bowl to avoid over-mixing, as it will cause the frosting to develop lumps and curdle.
  3. Transfer frosting to a piping bag fitted with a large open round tip.

Assembling Cake Layers

  1. First, pipe or spread a dollop of your frosting onto a cake circle to act as glue to hold the layer in place. Set first cake layer on top of that.
  2. With your piping bag, evenly spread roughly 20% of your frosting on top of the bottom layer.  Place second cake layer on top of the first, repeating the same steps, and then add your third layer.
  3. Then, starting from the base of the cake, drag your piping bag in circles around the cake until the sides are mostly covered.  Because the design is more rustic, it's okay to have some openings in the frosting.
  4. Place and hold a cake scraper against the side of the cake and gently pull the cake around to smooth out the frosting. Use the cake scraper or an offset spatula to also push the frosting on the cake's top toward the center. Smooth top with offset spatula.
  5. Continue coating cake with remaining frosting and scraping gently as desired.
  6. If desired, add some fresh blueberries and small pieces of lemon zest to the top of the cake, base and sides.

Notes

Please note that these nutritional values are approximate and may vary slightly depending on the specific brands and measurements used. This is based on 12 servings per cake. 

Nutrition