Strawberry Mascarpone Vanilla Cake

This was a fun dessert to make. Since I recently made the ube cupcake, I decided to make something classic but of course with a little sum sum. I made a simple vanilla cake with a strawberry mascarpone vanilla buttercream. Although the cake is delicious and super moist, I wanted the star to be the buttercream. We had some freeze dried strawberries and pulverized it in the food processor to make this luscious buttercream, and of course a fair amount of butter. Unlike traditional buttercream, I’ve added some mascarpone cheese and that vanilla extract to get that good flavor without using more sugar.

Although the cake is delicious and super moist, I wanted the star to be the buttercream.

I had planned to make this a 3 layer cake at first, but told myself not to do it because I’ll end up eating it all… we all know how that goes! Hope you try this out!

What you need:

Vanilla cake

• 1/2 cup unsalted butter softened to room temp

• ½ cup canola oil

• 1 1/2 cup sugar

• 4 eggs room temperature preferred

• 1 Tablespoon vanilla extract

• 3 cups all-purpose flour 

• 1 Tablespoon baking powder

• 1/2 teaspoon salt

• 1 1/4 cup buttermilk room temp (I made my own buttermilk. 1 tablespoon of vinegar + 1 cup of whole milk. Let stand for 5-10mins, then you have buttermilk!)

Strawberry Mascarpone Buttercream:

• 1 1/2 cups unsalted butter room temperature

• 6 oz mascarpone cheese room temperature

• 3.5 cups powdered sugar

• 1.5 tablespoons heavy whipping cream

• 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract.

• 1/2 cup freeze-dried strawberry (pulverized)

The Deets

Cake

• Preheat oven to 350F and line the bottom of two 9” round cake pans with parchment paper. Grease with butter as well.

• Using an electric mixer, cream together butter, canola oil and sugar until creamy.

• Add eggs, one at a time, make sure it’s incorporated. Mix in vanilla extract.

• In a separate, medium-sized bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, and salt. Hand whisk to ensure it’s combined.

• Using a spatula and gently hand-mixing, alternate adding flour mixture and buttermilk to the butter mixture, starting and ending with flour mixture and mixing until just combined after each addition. The batter should be smooth and completely combined, but avoid over-mixing.

• Evenly divide batter into your prepared cake pans, and bake for 30 minutes. Check with a toothpick - should come out with some crumbles and dry. If still wet, put it back in for 2 minutes and check again. Keeping going through that process until cooked through.

• Allow cakes to cool in their cake pans for 10-15 minutes before inverting onto cooling rack to cool completely before frosting.

Buttercream

• Beat butter until smooth.

• Add mascarpone cheese and beat until smooth and combined.

• Slowly add in powdered sugar (1/2 cup at a time).

• Add vanilla and heavy cream and beat on med-high for 5mins. R

• Reduce speed to the low setting and beat for 2mins.

• Mix in strawberry powder and fully incorporate.

Assembly.

• Determine which cake you want on the bottom and top.

• Bottom Cake: place that cake on the pedestal or platter you want your cake to be presented in. Set the top of the cake aside for now.

• Even out the top of the cake by cutting the rounded portion of the cake to make a flat surface.

• Frost the cake with the buttercream as desired.

• Top Cake: even out the top of the cake by cutting the rounded portion of the cake to make a flat surface. Place the cut side of the cake on top of the bottom cake so that it is on top of the buttercream (both the bottom and top cake’s cut sides should be facing each other. This will ensure you have a flat top of the cake.

• Gently press down on the cake to ensure it’s secure and has time to soak in some of the buttercream.

• Proceed with frosting the entire cake as desired. I like the sides to be somewhat covered, but it’s nice when some of the cake peeks through.

• Tada!! you have your cake!