mascarpone-filled cake with macerated berries

makes one cake

I made this as a welcome home from Minnesota present for my mom. I wanted it to be small, so I quartered the recipe using my mini cake pans. It turned out great; probably the lightest cake I’ve ever made.

very slightly adapted from www.epicurious.com

Ingredients

  For cake:

• 2 cups sifted cake flour (or 2 cups minus 4 tbsp sifted all-purpose flour)
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 stick unsalted butter, softened
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
• 2 large eggs
• 1 cup well-shaken buttermilk (or 1 cup milk plus 1 tbsp white vinegar or greek yogurt or lemon juice)

  For berries: 

• 1/2 cup water
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 3 cups mixed berries (blackberries, cut up strawberries, blueberries, raspberries)

  For cream:

• 1 cup mascarpone cheese
• 1 cup chilled heavy cream
• 1/4 cup sugar

  For garnish: 

• confectioners sugar

Preheat oven to 350°F with rack in middle. Butter a 9-inch round cake pan (2 inches deep). Line bottom with a round of parchment paper, then butter parchment.

Sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.

Beat together butter and sugar in a large bowl with an electric mixer until pale and fluffy. Beat in vanilla. Add eggs 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. With mixer at low speed, beat in buttermilk until just combined. Add flour mixture in 3 batches, mixing after each addition until just combined.

Spread batter in cake pan, smoothing top. Rap pan on counter several times to eliminate air bubbles.

Bake until golden and a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean, 35 to 40 minutes. Cool in pan on a rack 10 minutes. Run a knife around edge of cake to loosen, then invert onto a plate. Discard paper and reinvert cake onto rack to cool completely.

Bring water and sugar to a boil in a small heavy saucepan, stirring until sugar has dissolved. Put berries in a bowl and pour hot syrup over them, gently tossing to coat. Let stand 15 minutes.

Beat mascarpone and cream with sugar in a large bowl using cleaned beaters until mixture just holds stiff peaks.

Halve cake horizontally with a long serrated knife. Carefully remove top half and reserve. Put bottom half on a plate, then spread evenly with all of cream and replace top half. Serve with berries. Dust with sifted confectioners sugar.