We enjoyed a lemon berry cake with a mascarpone filling at a restaurant, and I was inspired to duplicate it for my birthday.
The restaurants that serve the lemon berry cake buy it ready-made from Sysco Foods. The information on the Sysco website states: "Two layers of moist cream cake with cranberries, blueberries and cinnamon streusel baked into each cake then filled with fruit and a lemon mascarpone cream."
The recipe I used is for a firm cake. If you prefer a moister cake, you may want to use a different recipe for the cake part. One of my readers told me they used Joy of Cooking's Sour Cream Cake recipe for the cake part., and said it was "light, moist and incredibly yummy!"
Lemon Berry Cake with Mascarpone Filling
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Ingredients for Two Layer Cake:
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 pound (1 stick) salted butter
1/4 cup finely minced lemon zest
1 cup sugar
3 eggs
1 cup sour cream
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter two 8" round baking pans and set aside. Prepare crumb topping and set aside.
Streusel topping:
1 cup all-purpose flour
2/3 cup granulated sugar
grated zest of 1 lemon
dash of cinnamon
8 Tbs. (1 stick) of butter, melted
Using a pastry cutter, cut in butter until your crumb topping resembles peas. You want crumbs, so don't overmix.
Cake instructions:
Sift together flour, baking powder and baking soda, and set aside.
With a mixer, cream butter and lemon zest until the butter is soft. Add the sugar and beat to mix well. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating after each addition until thoroughly incorporated. Scrape down the bowl as needed. On low speed, add the dry ingredients in three batches alternately with the sour cream in two batches, beating only until incorporated after each addition. Scrape batter into buttered pans and smooth the top. Sprinkle each cake batter with half of crumb topping and 1/2 cup (or more) of mixed berries (I used a frozen mixture of blackberries, blueberries, strawberries and raspberries). Bake for 30 to 45 minutes, until a cake tester or toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean and dry. Baking time may vary with different ovens and types of pans.
Once cake has cooled, remove from pans. (Once cool, I wrapped each layer individually in foil and kept refrigerated until I was ready to use)
Prepare the mascarpone cream filling:
12-ounces mascarpone cheese, cold
1/4 cup light cream (half & half)
4 tbsp powdered sugar, or to taste
grated zest of lemon - optional
Beat all ingredients together with a whisk until soft peaks form. If you want to make the filling sweeter, then add a bit more sugar. You might have to add a little more cream to keep the filling from getting too stiff. Spread cream filling over a cake layer, sprinkle with a handful of fresh blueberries, and top with the second cake layer. Refrigerate at least two hours and serve cold.
My notes:
This dessert is served cold, and keeps well in the fridge for 3-4 days.
You can drizzle some raspberry sauce on the plate for a nice presentation.
I sprinkled with confectioners sugar.
Thank you for stopping by!
Debbie
