Making up for belated celebrations

Well, one unfortunate thing about living on your own is that you have to celebrate birthdays after- or before-the-fact. Its never really been a problem, but it seems a little ridiculous that we had to put off celebrating my mom's birthday for 3 weeks. (Clearly, medical school does not allow frequent visits home) Nonetheless, later is much better than never. So, on her first free weekend, mom came out to visit me here in KC, and by-golly, I was going to have a birthday cake ready for her!

Two things my mom wants in a dessert: dark chocolate and something that's not overtly sweet. Considering that I LOVE anything that's super sugary, that eliminated half of my cupcake and cake recipes. Then I found this one that I had saved from a year ago. I knew instantly that this was my mom's birthday cake: Strawberry and Vanilla Mascarpone Cake with Whipped cream and Chocolate Ganache.

The whipped cream frosting was just sweet enough to qualify the cake as a dessert, and the chocolate gave a great contrast to the strawberry cake. I think next time I revisit this cake, I would put a layer of strawberry jam in between the mascarpone layers.

Happy Birthday, Mom!

Strawberry-Vanilla Mascarpone Cake with whipped cream and chocolate ganache

recipe from: I don't remember it was so long ago!

Cake:
-6 eggs
-125 gms sugar
-1 t vanilla
-150 gms flour
-1 t. baking powder
-1/8 t. salt
-1 t. strawberry extract
-5-6 drops red food coloring


Mascarpone Filling/whipped cream:
-600 gms mascarpone, room temperature
-1 t. vanilla + 1/2 t. vanilla
-3/4 c. powdered sugar + 1/4 c. powdered sugar
-200 mL heavy cream, cold or well chilled


Ganache:
-1 c. dark chocolate
-1/4 c. heavy cream


Preheat oven to 375F. Grease and flour two 8 inch cake pans and set aside.
Sift together the dry cake ingredients and set aside. Beat eggs and sugar together until very thick! (~10 min). Add vanilla and strawberry extract and beat for another minute. Gently fold in sifted dry ingredients. Divide batter between cake pans. Bake for 30-35 minutes, or until an inserted tooth pick comes out clean. Let cool for 5 minutes, then remove from pans and let cakes cool completely.


Meanwhile, whip the mascarpone with powdered sugar and vanilla extract until well combined. Divide in fourths. Set aside.
Whip the cold heavy cream until stiff peaks form. Whip in 1/4 c. powdered sugar and 1/2 t. vanilla. Slowly whip in 1/4 of the mascarpone filling.
In a double broiler, melt chocolate. When melted, stir in cream. Set aside to cool before topping cake. 

To assemble:
Cut each cake in half horizontally to make 4 cake layers. Spread 1/4 of filling on one cake layer. Top with cake layer and another 1/4 of filling. Top with another cake layer and last 1/4 of filling. Top with final cake layer. Ice cake with whipped topping. (If you want to decorate with swirls like I did, reserve 1/3 c. and add a drop or two of red food coloring. Draw swirls on top of cake.) Using your cake pan, draw a circle in wax paper. Cut out circle just slightly smaller than pencil outline. Place circle lightly on top of cake. With a spoon drizzle ganache over sides of cake, letting the yummy chocolate drip over the sides.

Hope you enjoy it as much as we did!