Mascarpone Christmas Cake, delicately moist, scented with vanilla, lightly dusted and baked in winter wonderland cake molds for the magic of a white Christmas.
The Magic Of A White Christmas
Why is it that we dream of a White Christmas when much of the world isn’t about to get snow at Christmas time? Bing Crosby! That’s why.
Oh how seduced we’ve become by the magic of Hollywood. But is it such a bad thing? Are fairytales, magic and wishes such a bad thing? I believe NOT!
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.
A Perfectly Formed Mascarpone Christmas Cake Recipe
A Mascarpone Cake recipe that will woo you away from cream cheese forever! Want to know why mascarpone is better than cream cheese in all your baking recipes?
Fat! Yep. Just like butter makes everything better, the same goes for mascarpone. Think of it like butter because in essence, it almost is butter.
Mascarpone vs. Cream Cheese
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.
For this reason I will often use mascarpone in my favorite cookie recipes;
- Edible Flower Cookies – an almost divine summertime cookies that showcases the edible flowers I grow
- Coffee Chocolate Artsy Cookies – a very adult cookies made into a square, checkerboard design to showoff 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
Mascarpone Substitutes
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, is 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.
Mascarpone Cake vs. Cheese Cake
Mascarpone (cheese), cake is not the same thing as cheese cake. Nope! Cheese cake is a dense, creamy, almost pie-like dessert we call a cake, though it isn’t like a cake at all.
Mascarpone Cake is a light and fluffy cake that resembles a pound cake rather than a cheese-cake-pie.
Vanilla gives this cake a luscious flavor, as only vanilla can, but use any favorite flavor to showcase this gentle textured cake and it will fast become your favorite cake recipe.
Mascarpone Cake 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 (baking soda or baking powder), and some flavorful wet ingredients.
Whisk all this together and bake and it is not rocket science to get a quick cake pulled out of the oven.
Moist Christmas Cakes
Taking the basic ingredients in making a cake, and playing around with them, rather than simply whisking them all together in a bowl, is where things begin to get tricky and 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 cake.
Mascarpone Cake
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 Mold.
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.
What would I need in order to accomplish this? Fat! Yep, lots of fat and lots of air. That’s when I knew this cake recipe needed to have both butter and mascarpone to accomplish my design goal.
Mascarpone 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, Pies, Snow, Horse-drawn carriage fairytales bring a special magic to the holiday season.
It brings out the little kid in all of us. And so, I couldn’t let the magic of this season pass without creating my very own Winter Wonderland Cakes, which are now the centerpiece for my holiday table every year!
I promise you this cake is so easy to make that anyone who has never baked or is just starting to bake, like your little ones wanting a piece of the kitchen action at holiday time too, can make this cake.
Dry ingredients get mixed, then wet ingredients in a separate bowl, mix them together and pour into a baking dish and it is perfectly baked, even with just a regular ole cake pan!
Ingredients Needed
- Confectionary Sugar
- Flour
- Sugar
- Baking powder
- Baking soda
- Salt
- Butter
- Eggs
- Mascarpone
- Vanilla extract
Equipment Needed
- Winter Wonderland Cake Mold or Two 9-inch cake pans
- Non-stick baking spray
- Mixing bowl
- Whisk or hand mixer
- Measuring cup
- Measuring spoons
- Small sauce pan – or microwave, to melt butter
- Spatula
- Cake tester or tooth pick
- Oven
Mascarpone Cake – Magic Of A White Christmas
Ingredients
- Flour – 2 1/4 cups all purpose flour
- Sugar – 1 3/4 cups
- Baking powder – 2 teaspoons
- Baking soda – 3/4 teaspoons
- Salt – 1 teaspoon
- Butter – 2 sticks (16 tablespoons), softened or melted and cooled
- Eggs – 4
- Mascarpone – 1 cup
- Vanilla extract – 1 tablespoon (optional, booze instead of extract)
- Confection Sugar – 1/4 cup
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350
- Prepare baking pan(s) by spraying it well with non-stick spray and then dust flour evenly around the pan.
- Mix dry ingredients together in a bowl. Whisk wet ingredients together in a separate larger bowl.
- Slowly whisk in the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients. Scoop the thick batter 3/4 way, into the prepared pan.
- Bake for 30 – 45 minutes depending on the size of the pan and when a toothpick comes out clean. Cool completely before icing or dusting powdered sugar.
Nutrition
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.
