Mascarpone cheese has been on sale at Hyvee for a dollar, so I needed to find ways to use it. I love it! Might not be helping my weight loss goals at all. But here is a great way to use it, I love the frosting.
cake ingredients -
- 1 box white cake mix (I used Betty Crocker Super Moist White)
- 2 egg-whites
- 1 egg
- 1/3 cup oil (I used canola)
- 3/4 cup buttermilk*
- 3/4 cup sour cream
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/4 strong coffee
filling ingredients -
- 8 oz. mascarpone cheese + 4 oz. (1.5 packages)
- 2 tbsp strong coffee
- 1 cup powdered sugar
- 8 oz. cream cheese
- 1 cup powdered sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 cups heavy (whipping) cream
- 4 oz. mascarpone
directions -
- Preheat oven to 350 and line cupcake pan with liners.
- Sift cake mix into a small bowl and set aside. (If you beat your batter by hand, like I do, sifting all your dry ingredients creates an easy, smooth mixture right off the bat.)
- In a large bowl, whisk the egg-whites, egg, oil, buttermilk, sour cream, and vanilla.
- Stir the cake mix into the wet ingredients.
- Divide the batter into two bowls. To one of the bowls, add the strong coffee and combine well. (I added a bit of all-purpose flour to this mixture to keep the texture consistent with the plain batter.)
- Use the plain batter to fill the cupcake liners about 1/3 full.
- Scoop the coffee batter on top of the plain batter in the liners, filling them to the 3/4 mark. (They rise quite a bit, so I wouldn't recommend filling the liners to the brim!)
- Bake for 10-13 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the centre of a cupcake comes out clean.
- To make the filling, combine all ingredients in a small bowl.
- To assemble, use a small knife (I used a peeling knife with success) to cut a bowl-shaped hole in the top of each cooled cupcake. Fill the hole with the mascarpone filling.
- To make the topping, beat the heavy cream. Beat the mascarpone and cream cheese in a separate bowl and add the powdered sugar and vanilla. (I microwaved my cream cheese for approximately fifteen seconds to quickly soften it.) Add the whipped cream to the mixture and beat until stiff peaks form.
- Garnish with chocolate shavings or cocoa powder.
