MAScarpone not MARscapone Cake ;)


I had never baked with mascarpone (an Italian cream cheese) before, but I had some leftover from a tiramisu.

I decided to make a simple cake, not a cheesecake, but a cake made with flour and lemon zest. Sort of like my ricotta cakes, but if I dare say, this one takes the cake.

It is so ridiculously simple to make, you will wonder where it's been all your life.

But if I may, just a small rant.

The word is MAS-carpone, not MAR-Scapone. So many professionals mispronounce this word. If I hear Bobby Flay say MAR-scapone one more time on television, I am going to scream!

The correct way to say it is exactly how it is spelled. Mas-car-pone.
"MAS-CAR-PONY" in Italian.

I know, I am not even Italian.

Glad I got that out of the way ;)

Here is the recipe for this wonderful cake.

Mascarpone Cake:

3 eggs
1 cup or a bit more of mascarpone cheese (an Italian cream cheese)
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup vegetable oil (it won't hurt you)
1/2 tsp almond extract
zest of a lemon
1 1/2 cup flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder

I actually used a handmixer for this one. I usually don't, but wanted it to be nice and fluffy.

Whip the eggs with the mascarpone, sugar, zest and extract. Add in the oil and keep mixing.


Lastly, add in the flour and baking powder and whip until you have a nice fluffy yellow batter.

Butter and flour a 9" cake pan (I use a Nordicware cake pan).

Smooth the batter into the prepared pan and bake in a 350F oven for 30 minutes.


Let cool in the pan 15 minutes then invert onto a cooling rack.

Dust with powdered sugar after cake has cooled.


Serve with berries or whipped cream or both!

Moist, light and delicious.

I'm in love.

Comments

Stephanie said…
This looks like breakfast for tomorrow. Thanks for another easy cake. LOL - your rant about the proper way to pronounce mascarpone. It wasn't until recently that I realized the "s" came before the "r" and it was pronounced mas-carpone. Never too late to learn the right way.
Lorraine G said…
Oh my gosh - that bugs the heck out of me too! Just say it the way it's spelled! Cake looks delicious.
Katie C. said…
I would like to add that there is no “r” in Washington! Just like you don’t “warsh” your car. We get a lot of this in the suburbs of DC.

P.S. you have eggs listed twice.
Bebe said…
When I was growing up in SoCal, we had neighbors from Camden, NJ, and she said “warsh”… I don’t believe she probably had to deal with mascarpone…

I am wondering about whipping in flour. I was taught, somewhere back in The First Ice Age, that flour must be handled gently lest it toughen up. Folded in or beaten in very sloooowly and gently on the lowest speed for the shortest time. That was obviously not a problem with this cake … ????

For those of us who don’t have a handy Italian deli, can cream cheese be whipped up and used as a substitute or is that a forgetaboutit?
Stacey Snacks said…
Katie C,
I was in the middle of warshing my face when your comment came thru.......LOL. ;)

I made the correction. Thank you!

xo Stacey
Stacey Snacks said…
Bebe,

Nope. No substitutions.

It's a mascarpone cake.......the idea is to use this lovely Italian sweet cream cheese.
I am sure you could, but then it's no longer a MASCARPONE cake, right?

;)
Stacey
Kristine said…
This cake looks delish-- thank you/ and you crack me up,"I'm not even Italian"
Giada drives me crazy when she says it- not sure why...
Anonymous said…
Stacey

You tell them! dont even get how Mars ever got in that word!
This cake looks sooo good.
thanks for sharing

Michele S.
praianogirl said…
Thank you. Perhaps you could help me...while you are at it:

It's Bru-sket-ah NOT bru-shet-ah...
It's tur-mer-ik NOT toom-er-ik
An authentic Caprese salad (Insalata Caprese) NEVER includes balsamic vinegar. The dish is named for the storied Isle of Capri, a splendid island located off the coast of Southern Italy. We can see Capri from our home in Praiano on the Amalfi Coast. Ingredients include milky, fresh mozzarella, slabs of San Marzano tomato, a generous bouquet of bright green basil and a drizzle of local olive oil. Balsamic is delicious. May I suggest a trip to Modena. Balsamic is king there. It's a quick trip from Modena to Maranello where the Ferrari is made. Fun day trip...
Stacey Snacks said…
Praianogirl:

Can we be best friends?

I have been screaming for the last 11 yrs on this blog that bruschetta is BRU-SKETTA! However, since I don't speak Italian fluently, I come off as a food snob (which I am!).

People can't even pronounce Ralph Lauren's name correctly.
But hey, we can't always be right all the time, right?

I was always taught that Caprese (CA-PRASAY) salad was red, white and green for the Italian flag....I am sometimes guilty of drizzling balsamic on top....but usually just summer tomatoes w/ good olive oil, and salt, basil from my garden......can't wait!

Thanks for your comment!

xo Stacey
Stacey Snacks said…
Kristine,
Giada pronounces every Italian word correctly.......she speaks fluent Italiano and is 100% Italian....but I know a lot of people who it drives crazy when she says MOZZARELLLLLLLLA!
ha!

Stacey
Jennifer said…
I loved this! I can grin and bear occasional mispronunciations - but when they come from professionals, IN THEIR OWN FIELD, it's so painful. A non-cooking mispronunciation that grates on me is 'ecksetra' instead of et set era - it's like three letters when abbreviated, e T c, why do so many people get it all scrambled? I hear it from journalists and podcasters and all kinds of 'learned' people all the time.

On the other hand, growing up, when we received catalogues from Williams Sonoma, I, never having heard its correct pronunciation, read 'Sonoma' as if it were a cross between sonogram and enema. I mean, I poured through those catalogues, and mentally sang, "Yay! Another catalogue from Williams Sawnema," every time one came in the mail. At some point, I cheerily told my dad about some cool cooking gadget in the Williams-Sawnema catalogue, and he practically fell off his chair laughing. I refused to believe him when he told me the actual pronunciation. He was like, "Haven't you heard of the Sonoma Valley?" Uh, no, Dad. We live in Cheyenne, Wyoming, so, ya know, I mighta missed that one. But, it was toooooo late. That seed was deeply planted, and it took years to overcome the mental hurdle- Sawnema? SaGNOMEa? Sawnema? SaGNOMEa? After years of therapy, and the help of this little mental trick that my husband inadvertently provided me (in response to my lust for all things kitchen,) I've finally gotten a handle on it: Just say NO to Williams SoNOma. As a pneumonic device, it's great. As practical advice? Nah.
Stacey Snacks said…
Jennifer,

I can beat that one....when I was a kid, I pronounced the designer perfume Chloe "SHLOW". My mother corrected me and said it is KLO-EE, not SHLOW.

Hey, you live and learn.

xo