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I have made this cake for my father’s 73rd birthday just last week and have made it ever since once again, because everyone loved it so much. And honestly, it’s a fairly simple bake. I’m planning to make it yet again for my husband’s birthday in a week. I’ll be honest: it’s a mixture of a regular chocolate sponge you can basically make based on thousands of recipe on the internet but I came up with the filling by myself.

First of all, I didn’t have double cream to make a decent ganache. But I did have mascarpone, milk and butter. So I figured – these need to combine somehow with the chocolate chips to be able to work them into a lightweight, chocolatey filling. Which was my dad’s wish: a really light, not overly sweet cake, but chocolatey to the maximum. And they did work perfectly well – lucky me, because I had no backup for the cake!

So you will not need any cream for this cake but a little butter, milk and a tub of mascarpone.

Tips when making chocolate mascarpone cake

use high fat or full fat milk, because it will make both the glaze and a filling firmer
use 2/3 milk chocolate and 1/3 dark chocolate chips for the filling and the other way around for the glaze. The milk chocolate goes better with the creamy mascarpone and the dark chocolate gaze will match up perfectly in contrast
you could swap a lot of things in this recipe for vegan ingredients, however, I do not think the mascarpone can be replaced by any vegan substitution and also couldn’t find anything. So, this is a vegetarian cake
you can decorate the cake anyhow you want it – but what I did is, was aiming for a rustic, homemade look and letting the the glaze drip down on the sides still exposing the luxurious looking mascarpone filling, toasted biscuit crumbs and sprinkles

Because it has mascarpone, the cake needs to be stored in the fridge and ideally consumed within 3 days. Enjoy!

Chocolate Mascarpone Cake

Chocolate mascarpone cake - a lightweight take on the traditional chocolate ganache by replacing the heavy cream for mascarpone

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Prep Time 20

Cook Time 25

Total Time 1

Course Dessert

Cuisine American, European

Servings people

Equipment

cake tin I used 12 inch / 30cm
handheld mixer or whisk

Ingredients

For the cake batter x2

240 g all purpose flour
240 g soft brown sugar
60 g unsweetened cocoa powder
3 eggs can also be flax
100 g unsalted butter softened, can also be plant based
2 tsp baking powder
4 tbsp milk can also be plant based
1 tsp vanilla essence
1/4 tsp salt
6 tbsp boiling water

For the filling

300 g milk and dark chocolate mixture I used 200g milk and 100g dark
250 g mascarpone I've not found plant based mascarpone yet
80 ml milk can also be plant based
70 mg unsalted butter can also be plant based
1 tsp vanilla essence
1 tsp caster sugar

For the glaze

300 g milk and dark chocolate mixture I used 100g milk and 200g dark
80 ml milk can also be plant based
70 mg unsalted butter can also be plant based

Instructions

Preheat oven to 180C.
Make twice the batch if you only have one tin or double up. This recipe is for one tin only.
I do not fuss, I just add everything to the same bowl and mix it as I go.
First sift the flour, baking powder, chocolate and sugar and mix it. Add some the salt and the milk along with the egg. I tend to quickly mix the eggs and the milk before in a cup or on the same side of the bowl so that the boiling water doesn't cook the egg.
Add the boiling water in half and mix, then the other half. Mix well.
Pour the mixture into the baking tin and bake for 20-25 minutes. Check with fork to be sure.
When the cake is ready, let it cool. Repeat with the second one.
In the meantime, prepare the chocolate mascarpone filling and the glaze.
The glaze and the filling is almost the same, they both start with heating the milk with the butter in a pan until it starts bubbling.
Filling:
Prepare two heatproof bowls. In one add 200g milk chocolate chips/baking bar and 100g dark chocolate. The filling needs to be a bit more milky-silky pairing well with the mascarpone. Pour over the hot mixture of milk and butter and add the sugar and vanilla essence. Beat it with the mixer to make it fluffy. Pop it in the fridge for the time you are moving onto making the glaze.
Glaze:
100g milk chocolate and 200g dark chocolate to be place in the bowl and pour over the hot milk and butter mixture. Mix until it's smooth.
Now assemble the cake: add the filling in the middle and cover it with the second cake and pour the glaze mix over. I didn't doo more, just let it nicely drip down on the side of the cake. This gives a very nice, home made look, the nice, fluffy mascarpone filling visible between the top and bottom part.
Decorate it as you wish.
Enjoy!