Berry Chantilly Cake
This fresh Berry Chantilly Cake with it's moist vanilla velvet cake layers, chantilly cream, and fresh berries is the perfect dessert for spring and summer celebrations!
Table of Contents
Why we Love It
- There are so many reasons to love this Berry Chantilly Cake! Here are just a few:
- Light and fruity cake recipe
- Moist, tender vanilla velvet cake layers
- Rich and flavorful Chantilly cream filling
- Makes a wonderful birthday cake recipe, summer cake idea, and more!
What is Chantilly Cream?
Our Berry Chantilly Cake wouldn't be a Chantilly Cake without the heavenly Chantilly cream!
Chantilly cream originated in France centuries ago, and has been a favorite addition to pastries and cakes ever since. It is simply a fancy name for sweetened whipped cream-and it's delicious!
Although we have many cakes in our Recipes section that call for sweetened whipped cream in the filling, we didn't realize that we were making Chantilly cream ;0) This is a new term for us!
Chantilly cream is made by combining whipped heavy cream, a bit of confectioners sugar (some bakers use granulated), and a bit of vanilla extract for flavor.
It is an amazing sweetened whipped cream filling and topping for fruit and desserts!
Variations of Chantilly Cream
Many delicious variations of Chantilly cream have popped up over the years. Some bakers keep it sweet and simple as described above, while others add in mascarpone cheese, cream cheese or a combination of both to create a slightly richer and more stable cream.
For our Chantilly cream recipe today, we are folding a mixture of sweetened, softened cream cheese into a freshly whipped batch of whipped cream.
This adds a wonderful creaminess and slightly thickens the consistency while still resulting in a very light and airy filling. It is SO good!
Vanilla Cake Layers
For our cake layers, we are using our Vanilla Velvet Cake recipe. We love this super soft and moist vanilla cake which has a lovely texture thanks to the cream cheese and buttermilk in the cake batter.
Our Vanilla Buttermilk Cake and Vanilla Bean Cake recipes or our Yellow Cake from Scratch, Homemade White Cake or White Velvet Cake recipes would be great options as well.
If you prefer cake mix, try our White Almond Sour Cream Cake or White Cake- Doctored Mix with this recipe!
How to Make Berry Chantilly Cake
Our Berry Chantilly Cake is not only moist, light, and flavorful, but it is also so beautiful when sliced!
It consists of moist vanilla cake layers, Chantilly cream, and fresh berries- we are using sliced strawberries and blueberries although raspberries are often used as well.
You can find the full, printable recipe further down in this post. Here is a quick rundown of our steps!
- Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Grease and flour three 8 inch pans, adding a circle of parchment or wax paper to the bottom of each pan.
- Flour Mixture: In a medium bowl, whisk the flour, baking powder, and salt for 30 seconds and set aside.
- Combine Wet Ingredients: In another bowl, add the milk, oil, and vanilla extract. Set aside.
- Butter & Cream Cheese: In the bowl of your mixer, add the butter and cream cheese and mix at medium speed until smooth.
- Sugar: Gradually add the sugar and mix at medium speed for 2-3 minutes.
- Eggs: Add the room temperature eggs one at a time, mixing until the yellow of the yolk disappears.
- Adding Wet & Dry Mixture: With the mixer on low speed, alternately add the flour mixture and the milk mixture, beginning and ending with the flour mixture (We did 3 additions of the dry mixture, 2 additions of wet). Then, slightly increase speed until combined.
- Do not mix above medium speed or over mix the cake batter. Divide the batter between the three pans.
- Time to Bake!: Bake at 325 degrees F for 25-28 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean or with just a few crumbs attached.
- Let cool for 5-10 minutes in the pans on a wire rack before turning out.
How to Make Chantilly Cream
The Chantilly cream for our Berry Chantilly Cake has the lightness of whipped cream, but a bit more stability thanks to the sweetened cream cheese folded in.
It is the perfect complement to the fresh fruit in our filling, and you can pipe simple borders and accents with it as well.
We like to prepare the Chantilly Cream when our cake layers are baked, cooled, and ready to decorate.
Chill the Bowl & Beaters/Whisk Attachment: Freeze your mixing bowl and beaters 15 minutes before whipping the cream (30 minutes if chilling in the refrigerator).
Beat the heavy cream: Using either a stand mixer with a whisk attachment or a hand mixer, beat the heavy cream on medium-high speed until stiff peaks form.
Stiff Peak Stage: You have reached stiff peak stage when you lift the beater and the cream stands straight up forming a peak. Keep in the refrigerator while completing the next step.
Cream Cheese Mixture: In another bowl combine the softened cream cheese, powdered sugar and vanilla extract. Mix until very smooth. We did this with our hand mixer.
Using a rubber spatula, I gently folded the cream cheese mixture into the freshly whipped cream.
Cover and refrigerate until ready to use.
Assembling the Berry Chantilly Cake
- Place the first Vanilla Cake Layer on the cake pedestal and spread with a fairly thick layer of Chantilly cream.
- Top with sliced strawberries and blueberries. I then topped with a very thin layer of Chantilly cream (optional).
- Add the second cake layer and repeat. Finish with the third cake layer and lightly press down. Fill in any gaps between the cake layers with Chantilly cream.
- Frost the cake with Chantilly cream using an offset spatula. I like to smooth over it with a bench scraper also.
- After applying the first layer of frosting, I like to chill it in the freezer for about 10-15 minutes. This is optional but is helpful to firm everything up.
- Apply the next layer of frosting as needed and smooth over with your bench scraper of spatula.
- Whipped frosting does not smooth in the same way that buttercream frostings or cream cheese frostings do.
- For a smoother finish, I find it helpful to glide over the chilled, frosted cake with a metal bench scraper or spatula that has been warmed under hot water.
Decorating the Berry Chantilly Cake
After smoothing the frosted sides of our cake, I swirled a little extra frosting on top of the cake using a small offset spatula. Chantilly cream is just fun to swirl around- it is so light and fluffy!
I topped things off with a few whole strawberries and blueberries, and piped a few stars here and there using a Wilton 6B french tip. (You could also use any large star tip).
I also piped a shell border around the base of the cake using a 1M large star tip. We had plenty of Chantilly Cream for the filling, frosting, and decorative accents here and there.
I love the simplicity of this cake and design. It's the kind of cake you just want to dive right into ;0) We hope that you enjoy it!
More Fruity Cakes to Try!
We just love fresh, light, and fruity cakes! We've made so many favorites over the years. Our Strawberry Shortcake Cake , Angel Food Cake, and Berry Cheesecake Cake feature fresh berries as well!
We're sharing some more of our light and fruity go-to cake recipes below, but you can find many more here!: Favorite Cake Recipes for Spring and Summer!
Some of our most popular are Lemon Velvet Cake, Pineapple Cake, and Orange Cake! Here are some more favorites:
Thanks so much for stopping by. Don't miss our full collection of cake recipes, including cake recipes from scratch as well as cake mix recipes! We hope that you enjoy the Berry Chantilly Cake!
Have you made this? We would LOVE for you to leave a ⭐️ rating as well as a comment and photo below! We really appreciate your feedback!
Berry Chantilly Cake
This light, flavorful dessert consists of moist vanilla cake layers, Chantilly cream, and fresh strawberries and blueberries!
Ingredients
For the Vanilla Cake
- 1 (8oz)(226g) package cream cheese, softened
- 1 ½ sticks (¾c)(168g) unsalted butter, softened
- 2 cups (400g) sugar
- 4 large eggs
- 3 cups (342g) cake flour- see Notes for substitution
- 2 teaspoons (8g) baking powder
- ½ teaspoon (3g) baking soda
- ½ teaspoon (3g) salt
- 1 cup (242g) buttermilk - See Notes for substitution
- ¼ cup (54g) vegetable oil (we used canola oil)
- 1 Tablespoon (12g) vanilla extract
For the Chantilly Cream (This will be a filling and frosting)
- Two 8 ounce (423g total weight) packages cream cheese, softened. It must be full fat, not reduced fat or cream cheese in a tub, those are too soft.
- 2 cups (230g) powdered sugar, measure then sift
- 2 teaspoons (8g) vanilla extract
- 3 cups (696g heavy whipping cream
Fresh Fruit for Filling (adjust amounts to your liking)
- Approximately 4 oz./1 cup fresh blueberries
- Approximately 1 ¼ cup (165g) sliced fresh strawberries
- *We used additional whole strawberries and blueberries for decoration on top of the cake.
Instructions
For the Vanilla Cake
- Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Grease and flour three 8 inch pans, adding a circle of parchment or wax paper to the bottom of each pan.
- In a medium bowl, whisk the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt for 30 seconds and set aside.
- In another bowl, add the buttermilk, oil, and vanilla extract. Set aside.
- In the bowl of your mixer, add the butter and cream cheese and mix at medium speed until smooth.
- Gradually add the sugar and mix at medium speed for 2-3 minutes.
- Add the room temperature eggs one at a time, mixing until the yellow of the yolk disappears.
- Alternately add the flour mixture and the milk mixture, beginning and ending with the flour mixture (We did 3 additions of the dry mixture, 2 additions of wet)
- Do not mix above medium speed or over mix the cake batter. Divide the batter between the three pans.
- Bake at 325 degrees F for 25-28 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean or with just a few crumbs attached. Let cool for 5-10 minutes in the pans on a wire rack before turning out.
- This recipe makes 7 ½ cups of batter. Works for cupcakes also (although there will be little to no dome).
- Freeze your mixing bowl and beaters/whisk attachment 15 minutes before whipping the cream (30 minutes if chilling in the refrigerator).
- Use the whisk attachment for a stand mixer, beaters on your hand mixer. Beat the cream until stiff peaks form. This can happen very quickly and so don't walk away from the mixer. You are at the stiff peak stage when you lift the beater and the cream stands straight up forming a peak. Keep in the refrigerator while completing the next step.
- In another bowl combine the cream cheese, powdered sugar and vanilla. Mix until very smooth.
- Fold the cream cheese mixture into the whipped cream. Cover and refrigerate. If you are piping this frosting and it becomes too soft, just refrigerate the filled piping bag for a short while.
- Place the first cake layer on the cake plate or pedestal. Spread the top of the layer with Chantilly cream, and top with blueberries and sliced strawberries. It's a good idea to keep the berries within about a ½ inch from the edge of the cake layer since they will spread a bit closer to the edge when the layers are stacked.
- As an optional step, I spread over the top of the berries with an additional thin layer of chantily cream. Top with the next cake layer and repeat.
- Top with the third cake layer. Give a gentle push down on top of the cake before filling in any remaining gaps between the cake layers with the Chantilly cream.
- Frost the cake with Chantilly cream. I like to freeze the cake for about 10-15 minutes to firm things up before going in with the final coat of frosting. This frosting is whipped and so it doesn't smooth as easily as other frostings. You can get a smoother finish by heating your spatula or bench scraper under very hot water and lightly glide over the frosted cake.
For the Chantilly Cream
Assembling the Cake
Notes
Substitution for Cake Flour: Using all purpose flour (plain in UK) to make Cake Flour: For each cup of flour in a recipe, remove 2 Tablespoons of flour and replace with 2 Tablespoons cornstarch (cornflour in the UK). This recipe has 3 cups of flour so you will measure out 3 cups of all purpose flour, remove 6 Tablespoons and replace with 6 Tablespoons cornstarch, whisk to blend
Substitution for Buttermilk: Add 1 Tablespoon vinegar or lemon juice to a measuring cup. Add milk to the 1 cup mark, stir. Wait 5 minutes and it is ready to use.
Good morning. So I was going to make this cake Tuesday for my birthday on Wednesday. I was going to do a two layer cake for Wednesday and then use the third layer as a single layer cake for Saturday. Do you think everything will still be good by then maybe if I refrigerate the cake and the frosting separate and then put it together Saturday morning??
I really only need a two layer cake for Wednesday but if with the ingredients I have to have three so I don’t have extra cake mix and frosting going to waste, I was going make one for Saturday too.
What do you suggest?
Love your site! Thank you for sharing such good recipes and tips.
Regarding the Chantilly Cream cake, do you spread chantilly cream, fruit then whipped cream on the bottom and middle layers? Is it whipped cream or chantilly that tops the fruit? I’m a bit confused on that.
Thank you,
Lily
Hi Lily! I see what you mean, I'm sorry for the confusion- I've updated "whipped cream" to say Chantilly cream.
All of the whipped cream that we made was folded into the cream cheese mixture to create a more stabilized version of Chantilly cream-it looks and behaves very much like whipped cream though. We used this as our filling, frosting, and for our decoration.