This holiday season let’s bake a Christmas Snowy Village Cake, with a moist cake recipe, baked in mini village cake pan molds and sugar snow!
Snowy Village On A Cake Stand
A winter wonderland on a cake stand! This Snowy Village Cake brings charm and whimsy to your holiday table, one that is created from a detailed village cake pan that makes several houses depicting a winter wonderland village.
Placing tiny figurines, and glowing fairy lights nestled around the base, quickly transports you to a favorite holiday animated scene sure to transform all into bright-eyed children. It’s part dessert, part decoration, guaranteed to make your guests pause for photos before the first slice.
A White Christmas Holiday Dessert Recipe To Make Each Year
Mascarpone Christmas Cake, delicately moist, scented with vanilla, lightly dusted and baked in winter wonderland cake molds for the magic of a white Christmas.
If we can’t have a White Christmas outside, then we can certainly have one inside. Let’s make a Christmas cake that ignites a bit of magic and wonder in our little lives, if only for this magical time of year.
And yes… thank you Bing Crosby for setting the snowy village Christmas vibe we will carry on each and every Christmas season!
A Christmas Dessert Needs An Easy Cake Recipe
A fun cake that is an easy recipe made from simple cake ingredients and lightly dusted with powdered sugar to create a snowy village fun to serve for Christmas morning because it is not covered with heavy sweet icing.
Using this easy cake recipe, there are many options available to change the flavor if you so choose:
- Black Walnuts, crushed to a flour, bringing their earthy and somewhat exotic flavor to this cake recipe.
- Ouzo or Arak both anise flavored liquors often used in Greek or Arabic cooking.
- Mastic, a pine resin crushed into a powder with the unique flavor that comes from a Greek island.
Adding gingerbread spices (cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg and cloves), turns this cake into a gingerbread cake recipe, or simply add a bit of cocoa powder to bring a hint of chocolate to the finished cakes.
The Best Cake Is A Moist Cake
The secret to making this cake recipe moist and easy to work with is the addition of mascarpone to the butter.
Sure you could use cream cheese or sour cream but mascarpone has a higher fat content, and fat is what makes a cake mix moist.
When a cake remains moist after baking, it really doesn’t need an icing, and for special occasions, such as Christmas morning, these snowy village cakes, are perfectly dusted with snow!
Mascarpone vs. Cream Cheese In A Cake Recipe
Fat is an important element in making baked goods have a moist, as well as fluffy texture.
When whipped with sugar and eggs, something magical happens when fat traps air into it. The trapped air expands and makes for a fluffier cake, so naturally you will want to use a fat that will make this happen best.
Cream cheese has almost half the butterfat as mascarpone and is not as delicate in flavor as mascarpone. American cream cheese also has a more firm texture than mascarpone’s velvety texture.
Recipes To Love Using Mascarpone
When you’re married to a Brit, who loves his shortbread cookies, you fast learn to use mascarpone, as well as butter, in cookie recipes.
Here are just a few cookies you are sure to love, though I often use mascarpone in a variety of cakes and pie recipes as well.
- Edible Flower Cookies – an almost divine summertime cookie that showcases the edible flowers I grow.
- Coffee Chocolate Artsy Cookies – a very adult cookie made into a square checkerboard design, to show off both the chocolate and coffee cookie dough.
- Button Cups – my now, very famous, adorable cookies that all of America had the chance to watch me bake on The Great American Recipe, on PBS
- Chestnut Cookies With Salt Caramel Filling – not your grandma’s cookies, but oh so festive for holiday season.
Mascarpone Substitutes For Very Important Recipes
When your are really in a pinch for a quick substitute, like when you send hubby to the store for mascarpone and he has no idea what it is or where it is, have him grab Ricotta cheese!
Ricotta cheese or Creme Fraiche can work, though neither are as velvety in texture or sweet in flavor as mascarpone.
However, if you are making a savory dish, such as my Fig and Garlic Chive Pizza or another dish I made on The Great American Recipe, Beet and Endive Salad with Fig Dressing ricotta can work.
A Unique Cake Recipe For The Magic Of A White Christmas
Let’s face it, making cake is as about as simple as it gets in the dessert world; fat, flour, sugar, eggs and something to make it rise.
Whisking all these ingredients together and bake, is not rocket science to get a quick cake pulled out of the oven.
However, this is not just any cake, this adorable cluster of several mini cakes baked to look like a snowy Christmas village, need an extra measure of care.
Christmas Village Cakes
Taking the basic ingredients used in making a cake, and playing around with them, rather than simply whisking them all together in a bowl, is where the cake becomes more refined.
Try taking the eggs you would ordinary just toss into a cake batter and separate them. The yolks are fat, so mix those with the sugar, butter and creamy (fat), ingredients.
Whip the whites until they are stiff, fold them into the cake batter and already you have a more refined light and moist cake.
This Village Cake Recipe Is Also Great For Other Seasons Too
While I find this cake recipe to be the very best cake for summertime berries and cream, I created the recipe for this mascarpone cake for a very particular reason; Fancy Cake Pans.
A very dear friend gave me a fancy, whimsical cake mold at Thanksgiving time as a gift and said, “It reminded me of you”. I must admit, I was a bit intimidated by all the intricate carvings inside the mold and feared I might not be able to get the cake out in one piece.
So, I thought and thought, long and hard about the type of batter I would need to make for a firm, yet moist cake that would stand proud and not fall apart once I got the cake out of the molds.
This cake recipe turned out so perfectly, that I now use the same recipe for other seasonal cakes as well.
The Best Snowy Village Christmas Cake
I did it! I am so proud of these little cakes that are not only firm, like a pound cake, but moist and delicious!
Since I received the cake mold just before Christmas, I decided to make a Christmas Cake Centerpiece.
I wanted it to have all the whimsy of a winter wonderland; cakes, cookies, snow, horse-drawn carriage fairytale looking centerpiece for the holiday season.
Christmas Allows Us To Feel Like A Kid Again
Wouldn’t you agree that just the sight of this Christmas snowy village cake brings out the little kid in all of us!
I promise you this cake is so easy to make that anyone who has never baked or is just starting to bake, can make this cake.
The trick to baking in cake or bread molds, like my Cornbread Halloween Skull bread pan, is to spray the inside of the pan well with non-stick oil and dust a little flour into all the cracks and crevices.
Comes out perfectly every time!
Ingredients Needed
- Icing Sugar (Powdered Sugar) – This ultra-fine sugar is what gives the cakes their soft, snowy finish. It melts effortlessly into glazes and dusts the rooftops of your little village with a powdery fresh snowfall look.
- Flour – The structure and backbone of the cakes, flour creates those crisp little edges and defined details that make each tiny house recognizable, chimneys, shingles, window frames and all.
- Sugar – Granulated sugar sweetens the batter and caramelizes ever so slightly in the oven, helping the cakes develop a golden hue before their snowy sugar coat goes on.
- Baking Powder & Baking Soda – These leaveners work together to give the batter a gentle lift, ensuring the cakes bake up light enough to release cleanly from the mold but sturdy enough to stand tall in your village display.
- Salt – Just a pinch is all it takes to balance the sweetness and bring out the cozy, buttery flavors that make these little cakes so comforting.
- Butter – Melted or softened, butter adds richness and tenderness, creating a soft crumb inside while helping the exterior take on crisp, beautiful details from the mold.
- Eggs bind everything together and add structure, helping the cakes rise evenly and hold their charming shapes from rooftop to doorstep.
- Mascarpone – This luxurious Italian cream cheese makes the batter extra velvety and moist. It adds a subtle richness that makes each bite feel like a holiday indulgence.
- Vanilla Extract – A splash of vanilla perfumes the batter with warm, bakery-style aroma, like a cozy kitchen on Christmas morning.
Equipment Needed
- Winter Wonderland Cake Mold – This charming specialty mold is the heart of the whole project. Its detailed designs capture tiny rooftops, windows, chimneys, and snowy slopes, and the non-stick finish makes unmolding a breeze. Each year, it becomes a beloved part of your holiday ritual as the little houses pop out perfectly, ready to be dusted with “snow.”
- Non-Stick Baking Spray – A quick mist ensures every nook and cranny of the intricate mold is coated, helping the cakes release cleanly so each miniature cottage keeps its crisp, storybook details.
- Mixing Bowl – A simple, roomy bowl to bring all the ingredients together. It’s where the batter starts to look like a smooth, velvety base ready to fill the village mold.
- Whisk or Hand Mixer – Either tool works beautifully to blend the batter until it’s light and uniform, no lumps, just a silky mixture that pours easily into each little house cavity.
- Measuring Cup and Measuring Spoons – Precision matters when baking, especially with a mold that captures such fine detail. These ensure the perfect balance of flour, sugar, leaveners, and flavor.
- Small Saucepan (or Microwave) – Used to gently melt the butter, either on the stovetop or with a quick zap in the microwave, so it blends seamlessly into the batter.
- Spatula – Ideal for scraping down the sides of the bowl and guiding the batter into the mold without overfilling. It also comes in handy when loosening any edges after baking.
- Cake Tester or Toothpick – A quick poke into the center of one of the cakes tells you exactly when they’re done: no crumbs clinging means the village is ready to emerge from the oven.
- Oven – Where the magic truly happens. As the batter bakes, the houses rise, set, and turn lightly golden, transforming into a tiny edible winter wonderland.
Christmas Snowy Village Cake Recipe
Equipment
- Nordic Ware Pan
- Non-stick spray
Ingredients
- 2 1/4 cups All Purpose Flour extra for dusting the pan
- 1 cup Granulated Sugar or Brown Sugar
- 2 tsp Baking powder
- 3/4 tsp Bicarbonate of soda baking soda
- 1 tsp Salt
- 16 tbsp Unsalted Butter room temperature, soft
- 4 Eggs separated
- 1 cup Mascarpone
- 1 tbsp Vanilla extract
- 1/2 tsp Orange zest optional
- 1/3 cup Icing sugar
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350
- Prepare baking pan by spraying with non-stick spray and then dust flour evenly around the pan.
- In a medium bowl, with a hand mixer on low speed, mix the dry ingredients, flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt together and set aside.
- In a small bowl, whisk the egg whites until light and fluffy and set aside.
- In a large bowl with a hand mixer, whisk on medium-high speed, the egg yolks and sugar together until well blended.
- Whisk in the soft butter, mascarpone, extract and zest (if using), and continue on medium-high speed to whisk until light and creamy.
- On medium speed, whisk in the flour mixture until a smooth batter is obtained. Gently fold in the whipped egg whites.
- Divide the cake batter equally among the individual molds of the prepared pan, filling about 3/4 way up. For the best results while baking, tap the pan several times on a hard work surface to remove any air bubbles from the batter.
- Bake for 30 – 45 minutes depending on the size of the pan, until the top of the cake is lightly golden and a toothpick comes out clean.
- Transfer the pan to a wire rack or cooling rack so that air can circulate around the pan and cool it quickly. Cool completely.
- Turn the pan upside down, lightly tap on the bottom of each of the mini houses so that they pop out easily. Turn the cakes rightside up and prepare to decorate.
- For an easy snowy village scene, simply place the cakes on the plate you want the scene arranged on (I often use a wood cake board round that turns), and dust the icing sugar (powdered sugar), on top of the different houses.
Video
Notes
- For a more complex and detailed snowy village, a royal icing can be made and applied with a piping bag.
- Christmas cookies and candy canes can also be used to decorate the snowy village cake scene as well.
I believe the table... that place that draws people to gather, is the most powerful symbol of togetherness. All that happens before the table is set, the planning, the gathering, the preparing, are all an intricate part of the dance that create the mood of celebration to share with friends and loved ones.