Time flies so fast. When we celebrate the birthdays of our kids each time, I wish they were young as babies. They seem to grow faster even before we realize. Lockdown days have made us watch all the baby videos we recorded when they were young. The super cute chubby babies have grown to young teens now. Where did all the time go?
I miss the days where we had lots of celebrations and their friends come over for the birthday party. The boys never cared for birthday parties. Its our daughter who likes her friends to come over and have a party and a cake. But this year, we had to celebrate it just within the family.
I baked a 3 tiered berry cake for her birthday. She likes whipped cream fruity cakes. So it was easy to decide what to bake for her. Since there was no party I made this small 3 tiered 6'' cake. This berry cake is moist and really delicious with the Mascarpone whipped cream frosting. If you like fruity cakes with light whipped frosting, this cake is for you.
Yields - Three 6'' cakes
Vanilla Cake
sugar - 3/4 cup
3 - eggs
1 1/2 tsp - pure vanilla extract
Berry Filling
1 cup - mixed berries (strawberry, raspberry & blueberry)
1/4 cup - granulated sugar
1/4 cup - water
1 tsp - corn starch
Whipped Cream Mascarpone Frosting
1 1/2 cup - cold heavy whipping cream (unsweetened)
1 1/4 - powdered sugar
8 oz - cold Mascarpone Cheese
1 tsp - pure vanilla extract
Vanilla Cakes
- Pre-heat the oven to 350 ° F.
- Line three 6'' cake pan with parchment paper.
- In a sauce pan, add milk and butter. Warm it till the butter melts. Turn off the flame.
- Sift together flour, salt and baking powder in a bowl.
- Beat the egg and sugar together to form a fluffy mix using a stand mixer or hand mixer. If using stand mixer, use the whisk attachment.
- Gently fold in the flour mix into the wet ingredients till everything is mixed well.
- Add the warm butter & milk mix into it. Add the vanilla extract and mix well.
- Divide the batter into the prepared pans.
- Bake it for 25 - 30 minutes till a tooth pick comes out clean when tested.
- Transfer the cakes to a wire rack to cool completely.
- Blend the mixed berries with 1/4 cup water.
- Transfer the puree into a sauce pan. Add the sugar and corn starch to it and let it come to a rolling boil. Cook it for 2 more minutes till the puree thickens up.
- Let the filling cool down completely. Refrigerate the filling for at least 1hr.
- Whip the heavy whipping cream with powdered sugar till soft peaks are attained.
- Add the mascarpone cheese and vanilla extract to the whipped cream and whip it till sharp peaks are attained. Once the mascarpone cheese is added, the frosting whips to sharp peaks faster.
- Level the cakes by removing the bulged top part.
- Apply some frosting on the cake stand and place one cake on it.
- Spread a layer of the berry filling on the top of the cake.
- Apply a layer of whipped frosting on top of the berry filling. I used a piping bag with round nozzle to do this step.
- Place the second cake on top of it. Repeat berry filling and whipped frosting layers on top of the second cake.
- Now place the final cake and crumb coat with the frosting.
- Decorate the cake with rest of the whipped frosting as you desire.
- Top them with some fresh berries.
- Refrigerate the cake till ready to serve.
- Over beating the whipped frosting will curdle the whipped cream. So make sure to stop whipping once stiff peaks are formed after adding Mascarpone cheese.
- Instead of 3 layered 6'' cake, you can divide the batter into two 8'' pans and bake the cake.
- The mascarpone whipped cream frosting pipes well. Make sure you used well chilled whipping cream and mascarpone cheese to make the frosting.
