Pound Cake With Fresh Berries And Maple Whipped Mascarpone Food

BERRY CHANTILLY CAKE

Steps:

• Note: It's VERY important that your cold ingredients are at room temperature or slightly warmed. See video for tips. Heat oven to 335º F/168º C - 350º F/177º C. I tend to use lower setting to prevent my cakes from getting too dark on the outside before the inside is done baking.
• Place 4oz of the milk and oil in a separate bowl or cup and set aside
• Combine remaining milk, vanilla extract, almond extract and room temp eggs in a separate measuring cup and set aside
• Measure out dry ingredients (flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt) and place them into the stand mixer bowl.
• Attach the paddle to the mixer, and turn on the slowest speed (setting 1 on Kitchen Aid mixers). Slowly add chunks of your softened butter until it is all added. Let mix until batter resembles coarse sand.
• Add milk/oil mixture into the dry ingredients and mix on medium speed (speed 4 on my KitchenAid) and mix for 2 full minutes. Do not skip this step or your cake will not rise.
• Add in 1/3 of your milk/egg mixture. Repeat 2 more times until batter is just combined. Don't forget to scrape your bowl.
• I always start by baking for 25 minutes for 8" and smaller cakes and 30 minutes for 9" and larger cakes and then checking for doneness. If the cakes are still really jiggly, I add another 5 minutes. I check every 5 minutes after that until I'm close and then it's every 2 minutes. Cakes are done when a toothpick inserted in the center comes out with a few crumbs.
• Remove the cake pan from the oven and "tap" it lightly on the counter once to remove air from the cake and keep it from shrinking un-evenly.
• Place cakes on a cooling rack and press down the dome immediately with an oven mitt covered hand. After cakes have cooled for 10 minutes or the pans are cool enough to touch, flip the cakes over and remove from the pans onto the cooling racks to cool completely. Wrap in plastic wrap and chill in the refrigerator.
• Once the cakes are chilled in the refrigerator (about an hour for this size, longer for larger cakes), tort, fill and crumb coat all at once. If you do not plan on crumb coating the same day, you can leave the wrapped cakes on the countertop. Chilling can dry out your cakes before they are iced, so avoid keeping them in the refrigerator longer than necessary. Cakes can be frozen in freezer bags for later use as well.
• Cream together the softened butter, cream cheese and mascarpone cheese together until smooth.
• Add in the powdered sugar and continue creaming until combined
• Whip the whipped cream to soft peaks. Add in the pudding mix to stabilize the whipped cream and whip until just combined. Add in the vanilla and almond extract. Peaks should be firm but not curdled. This happens quickly so watch your cream closely! Check out the stabilized whipped cream recipe to see other options to use besides instant pudding mix.
• Fold your cream cheese mixture and whipped cream together to make your frosting.
• Place the berries in a medium saucepan with 2.5 oz of sugar and bring to a simmer.
• Combine the cornstarch with the cold water to make a slurry. Pour the slurry into the bubbling berries.
• Cook a few minutes until the mixture is thick (1-2 minutes). Remove the berries from the heat and stir in the zest of one lemon and your lemon juice.
• Cool berry filling before using.

AWARD-WINNING MASCARPONE POUND CAKE

Steps:

• Coat a 10-inch tube pan or bundt pan with solid vegetable shortening, then sprinkle with granulated sugar. Or, spray with cake release, my favorite!
• Preheat oven to 325 degrees F
• In the bowl of an electric mixer, cream butter, shortening, and mascarpone until smooth.
• Add sugar and beat until fluffy, mixture will lighten in color slightly.
• Add eggs one at a time, beating after each addition.
• Slowly add flour to mixture and combine.
• Add vanilla, butter, and almond extracts and combine.
• Spoon batter into prepared pan. Bake 1 hour and 15 to 20 minutes or until pick inserted in center comes out clean or with 'dry' crumbs.
• Allow to cool on the countertop on a wire rack 15 minutes before inverting on a serving tray. Cool completely before covering.
• Cake can be stored in an air-tight container on the counter-top for 3 to 4 days or refrigerator for one week.

MASCARPONE CHEESE POUND CAKE

Steps:

• In a large mixing bowl, cream butter and shortening. With electric hand-held mixer on medium speed, gradually beat in the sugar. Beat in mascarpone cheese. Add flour, alternating with the eggs, beginning and ending with flour. Stir in vanilla. Pour batter into a greased and floured 10-inch tube pan or Bundt cake pan. Bake at 325° for about 1 hour and 15 minutes or until a wooden pick comes out clean when inserted in the center. Let cool in pan for 10 minutes, then remove to a rack to cool completely.
• For Berry Salad:.
• In a large bowl, add all berries and sugar.
• Mash berries slightly and add orange liqueur. Let sit for 30 minutes until ready to serve.
• Slice pound cake and top with macerated berries and whipped cream. Garnish with mint.

MASCARPONE-FILLED CAKE WITH SHERRIED BERRIES

Steps:

• Make cake:
• 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.
• Macerate berries:
• Bring Sherry 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.
• Make cream and assemble cake:
• 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.

POUND CAKE WITH FRESH BERRIES AND MAPLE WHIPPED MASCARPONE

Steps:

• Place the large, diced pound cake into a storage container.
• Combine the strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, water, sugar and peach schnapps, and mix well. Store in a separate container.
• In a mixing bowl combine mascarpone cheese with real maple (not pancake syrup). Mix well and store in a container.
• Place the pound cake cubes in the center of a bowl. Top with the marinated fruit. Place a nice dollop of the maple mascarpone on top and garnish with fresh mint.