Lemon Blueberry Mascarpone Pound Cake
This decadent Lemon Blueberry Mascarpone Pound Cake recipe is moist and velvety soft with fantastic flavor.
Servings: 15 servings
Ingredients
- 1 cup Unsalted butter, room temperature (equivalent to 2 sticks butter or 226g)
- 8 oz Mascarpone cheese, room temperature We used one container (8 oz.) mascarpone cheese
- 3 cups Sugar (600g)
- 5 large eggs room temperature (If in a hurry, place eggs in a bowl of warm water for 5 minutes)
- 3 cups Cake Flour (342g)(Not self rising. We use Swan's Down, bleached)
- ½ teaspoon Baking powder (2g)
- ½ teaspoon Salt (3g)
- ¾ cup Buttermilk (180g) We used whole buttermilk
- 1 tablespoon Lemon Extract (12g) *Do "smell check" to make sure it hasn't gone bad, even if expiration date hasn't passed. No extract? Add even more lemon zest. Lemon flavor will be much lighter though.
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract (4g)
- Zest of 2 lemons
- 1½ cups fresh or frozen blueberries (we like wild blueberries for their smaller size) (If using frozen, see notes)
Glaze Optional (for drizzling over finished cake)
- 1 cup confectioners sugar
- 1 ½ teaspoons milk Add additional bit by bit until you reach desired consistency.
- pinch of salt
- ½ tsp lemon extract Adjust amount to your liking.
Instructions
- Grease and flour a bundt cake pan or tube pan. (We used a pan that is 10 inches across).
- Preheat the oven to 325℉.
- Dry Ingredients: In a medium bowl, combine the cake flour, baking powder, and salt. Whisk together for about 20-30 seconds. Set aside for later.
- Wet Ingredients: In a measuring cup, combine the buttermilk, vanilla, lemon extract, and zest. Set aside for later.
- In the bowl of your mixer, mix the butter on low to medium speed until smooth. Then, add the mascarpone, mixing just until combined.
- Next, with the mixer on medium speed, pour in the sugar, and mix for three minutes. The mixture will become fluffier. Scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed.
- Add the eggs to the mixing bowl one at a time, blending on low to medium speed after each until the yolk is incorporated.
- With the mixer on low speed, add the flour mixture alternately with the milk to the butter/sugar/egg mixture in the mixing bowl. Begin and end with the dry ingredients. We do three additions of dry ingredients, alternating with two additions of wet. Mix just until incorporated.
- Gently stir in the blueberries and scoop the batter into the prepared bundt pan. **As a general rule, don't fill the pan more than about ⅔ full so that it has room to rise without overflow. If your pan is smaller than ours, you could pour any excess batter into a mini loaf or make little cupcakes, etc.
- Bake at 325 degrees for 1 hour and 10 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. The top of the cake should spring back when lightly touched when it is done. *Baking times may vary. Depending on the type of pan, etc., you may need additional baking time.
- This makes approximately 9.5 cups of batter.
- Allow to cool in the pan for 10 minutes before turning out.
Glaze (optional)
- Combine ingredients, adding the milk bit by bit until you reach desired consistency. If the glaze is too thin, add a bit more powdered sugar. If it is too thick, add a bit more milk.
Decorating the Cake
- This cake is great just as it is or topped with berries and cream! If using a glaze, you can either spoon the glaze over the cake, or for more control, you can spoon it into a disposable piping bag with the tip snipped away (or a ziplock bag with the corner snipped away). Top with fresh blueberries and small wedges of lemon if you'd like!
Notes
Bundt Pan: Our bundt pan has a baking capacity of 12 cups and measures about 10 inches. If you are working with a smaller pan, it will take longer to bake. Be careful not to overfill. (General rule of thumb: don't fill pan past ⅔ full)
Freezing: This cake can be frozen. If working in advance, we like to tightly wrap our freshly baked cake in a layer of plastic wrap and foil while the cake is still a bit warm and pop in the freezer. The cake can be frozen for up to three months.
Thawing: Bundt cakes take longer to thaw than cake layers. It is best to move the frozen, wrapped cake to the refrigerator the night before, and then move to the kitchen counter the next morning (still wrapped) to continue thawing for a few hours. If you'd like, you can remove the foil after a condensation has formed.
Buttermilk Substitution: This recipe calls for ¾ cup buttermilk. If you don't have buttermilk, you can add 2 ¼ teaspoon of lemon juice or white vinegar to a measuring cup and then pour in milk to reach the ¾ cup mark. Stir and allow to sit for a minute or two, it will thicken.
Frozen Blueberries: No need to thaw. To cut down on "streaking" of the cake batter, run your frozen blueberries under water for a few seconds until the water runs lighter. Then place them on a paper towel and lightly pat just before adding to the batter.