Mascarpone Pound Cake

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This decadent Mascarpone Pound Cake is velvety soft and with a rich, buttery flavor. It is divine- and so simple to make!

Mascarpone Pound Cake, sliced, on a cake pedestal.

Why we Love It

  • Easy to Make
  • Rich and flavorful with wonderful texture
  • Perfect for potlucks, holidays, birthdays, or just because!
  • Can be made well in advance and frozen

Ingredients at a Glance

You can find the full recipe and ingredient list at the bottom of this post. Here is a quick look at the key players!

  • Cake Flour: We like to use cake flour as it contains less protein, which results in a softer, more tender crumb.
  • Mascarpone Cheese: Adds richness and gives the cake a wonderful texture
  • Vanilla: We used pure vanilla extract but you could also substitute the same amount of vanilla bean paste.
  • Butter & Sugar: We use unsalted butter since we add the salt separately. If using salted butter, you can omit the salt in the recipe.
  • Eggs & Milk

How to Make Mascarpone Pound Cake

Just as with most pound cakes, the steps of this recipe are very simple! You can find the full recipe at the bottom of this post. Here is a quick look at our steps!

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F and grease & flour a bundt or tube pan.

  • After creaming the butter and mascarpone cheese, we added the sugar and mixed for a few minutes until fluffy.
Mixing the butter, mascarpone, and sugar.
  • Next, we added the five eggs one at a time, mixing after each addition until the yolk was blended.
  • Then, with the electric mixer on low speed, we alternately added the dry ingredients (cake flour, baking powder, and salt) and wet ingredients (milk and vanilla). It is important to mix just until combined- be careful not to over mix.
Mascarpone Pound Cake Batter in mixing bowl.
  • Scoop the batter into the prepared bundt pan or tube pan and bake at 325 degrees F for 1 hour, 10 minutes or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean or with just a few crumbs attached. *Baking times may vary depending on the type or size of pan.
Mascarpone Pound Cake, freshly baked.

Allow the freshly baked cake to cool in the pan on a wire rack for ten minutes before turning it out.

Glazing the Cake

We often dress up our pound cakes using a simple vanilla glaze. It is a simple combination of powdered sugar, a bit of milk, vanilla extract, and a pinch of salt. You can add more milk (if too thick) or more powdered sugar (if too thin) to reach your desired consistency.

The glaze can be spooned over the cake or piped over it using a disposable piping bag with the tip snipped away.

Mascarpone Pound Cake, sliced, on a cake pedestal.

FAQs

Mascarpone is often referred to as Italian Cream Cheese, but it does have a higher fat content, making it creamier and richer than regular cream cheese.

Despite this additional richness, the texture of the cake is remarkably light and delicate.

Mascarpone is also a bit sweeter and less tangy than cream cheese. We love them both as a "secret ingredient" in cake batter and they both make for fabulous frostings as well.

We also have a delicious Lemon Mascarpone Pound Cake and Lemon Mascarpone Layer Cake!

Yes, just as with the majority of our cakes, this pound cake freezes beautifully!

Yes! Just as with the majority of our cakes (from carrot cake to marble pound cake,  buttermilk pound cake and more), this cake freezes perfectly!

Whether you are baking in advance, or saving leftover cake for another time, simply wrap the cake tightly in plastic wrap, followed by foil. You can freeze the cake for up to three months!

Pound cakes and bundt cakes are thicker and so they take more time to thaw. When baking in advance, we like to place the cake (still slightly warm) on a foil-wrapped cake cardboard, then cover in plastic wrap followed by aluminum foil. (We use foil so that we can reuse the cardboards).

To defrost, move the wrapped cake to the refrigerator overnight, and then continue to thaw the next morning on the kitchen counter for a few hours or until time to serve.

We like to remove the wrapping after the condensation has formed (after sitting about 40-45 minutes at room temperature).

Individual slices can be wrapped and frozen in the same way!

You cannot detect the flavor of the mascarpone cheese in this pound cake, but it adds incredible richness and lends a velvety soft texture.

Many of our cake recipes call for cake flour. This type of flour has a lower protein content which means less gluten formation in the cake batter. The result is a softer, more tender crumb.

More Pound Cakes

We love pound cake recipes and have made so many over the years! Some of our favorites are buttermilk pound cake, whipping cream pound cake, and lemon pound cake but we have so many more!

Mascarpone Pound Cake, sliced, on a cake pedestal.

Mascarpone Pound Cake

This rich Mascarpone Pound Cake is so decadent! You will love the buttery flavor and velvety soft texture. It is so simple to make!
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 1 hour 10 minutes
Course: Dessert
Servings: 15 servings
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Ingredients

  • 3 sticks unsalted butter, softened (equivalent of 339g) The butter should be soft enough to dent when pressed.
  • 8 oz mascarpone cheese, softened We used one container (8 oz.) mascarpone cheese
  • 3 cups (600g) sugar
  • 5 large eggs room temperature (If in a hurry, place eggs in a bowl of warm water for 5 minutes)
  • 3 cups (342 g) cake flour (Not self rising. We use Swan's Down, bleached)
  • ½ teaspoon (2g) baking powder
  • ½ teaspoon (3g) salt
  • ½ cup (120g) milk (we recommend whole milk or 2 percent).
  • 1 tablespoon vanilla extract

Glaze

  • 1 cup confectioners sugar
  • 1 ½ teaspoons milk Add additional bit by bit until you reach desired consistency.
  • pinch of salt
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Instructions

  • Grease and flour a bundt cake pan or tube pan.
  • Preheat the oven to 325℉
  • In a separate bowl, whisk the cake flour, baking powder, and salt to combine, set aside for later.
  • Using an electric mixer (paddle attachment if using a stand mixer), mix the butter and mascarpone cheese on low to medium speed until combined and smooth.
  • Next, gradually add the sugar and beat until light and fluffy for three minutes.
  • Add the eggs to the mixing bowl one at a time, blending after each until the yolk is incorporated.
  • Combine the milk and vanilla extract.
  • 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.
  • Scoop batter into prepared bundt pan.
  • 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. Peek in as the end time approaches and adjust time as needed. 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

  • 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

  • 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).

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.

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