Raspberry, Peaches and Mascarpone Cream Cake

A party without cake is just a meeting. I think Julia Child is very right there, I've never had a birthday without cake.

I'd quite honestly be sad if I didn't have at least something to blow out some candles on, sounds a little pathetic I know (but being a foodie person means my life is quite literally centred around food!) For this reason I can't help but offer up my cake making services to my friends and as for Ellen - my bestie, well there is no exception. A request was put in for something summery and light, I thought that this cake would be that exactly. 

I do also just love the chance to cook up a beautiful looking cake and do something that little more special. I've never added a fruit puree to a cake batter before, or marbled with it, it could have gone one of two ways, luckily in this instance it worked well. The cake was ultra moist and light, a lovely accompaniment to the fresh cream filling and sweet juicy fruits. 

Peaches, I believe, are the taste of summer. The stoned fruits are coming into season just about now which means buy them at their best, leave them to ripen a few days before making the cake in the warm sun and then delicately slice segments to adorn the top of your cake right before serving. If you happen to have an abundance and prefer using all fresh, then you could easily swap the tinned for fresh with a bit more prep involved of course (remove the skin before blitzing, you might not get quite a vibrant colour either meaning the marbling is a bit pointless). 

Raspberry,  Peaches  and  Mascarpone  Cream  Cake

Ingredients:

For the cake: 225g (1 cup) butter 225g (1 cup) caster sugar 225g (1 + 1/2 cups) self-raising flour 2 tsp baking powder 4 eggs

For the peach puree: 410g can (250g drained) peaches in juice For the mascarpone cream: 240ml double cream 225g (1 cup) mascarpone  1 tbsp icing sugar

To fill and decorate: 150g (1 +1/3 cup) raspberries 3 medium sized peaches (any type), sliced into pieces Lemon balm or mint leaves Daisies

Method

Preheat the oven to 170°C/350°F/gas 4. Grease and line two 8inch diameter cake tins with baking parchment. Combine all the cake ingredients in a large mixing bowl of a free standing mixer and beat altogether until smooth and creamy, equally you can do this by hand using a wooden spoon. 
Make the peach puree by draining the peaches from the tin liquid and place into a smoothie maker or small food processor and blitz until smooth and thick and there are no remaining peach lumps. Weigh 120g of the puree and fold into the cake batter. Pour the cake batter equally into the two prepared cake tins and then add 2 tbsp of the puree to each of the batter filled tins. Using a skewer or the tip of a knife, swirl the puree through the batter to create a marble pattern effect. 
Bake the cakes for 20-25 mins, until when a skewer inserted comes out clean and they are springy to touch. Leave to cool in the tins for 5 mins and then turn the caked out onto a wire rack, peel off the parchment and leave to cool completely. 
Meanwhile, place all mascarpone cream ingredients into a mixing bowl of a free standing mixer with the whisk attachment and whisk until soft peaks, be careful no too over whip, it will go thick quite quickly.  
To assemble the cake, place one cake layer on your serving plate and spread about a third of the mascarpone cream on top. Spread the rest of the peach puree on top of the cream. In a small bowl crush about 20 raspberries with a fork, just squash them slightly but don't create a coulis. Spread the crushed raspberries over the puree and top with the other cake layer. Coat the top and sides of the cake with the remaining cream, leaving a thin coating around the sides, smoothing with a palette knife to create a 'naked' look. Top the cake however you wish, I used a mixture of freshly cut peach slices, raspberries, lemon balm leaves and daisies (washed!) 
Store the cake in the fridge and take out about 30 minutes before eating to bring to room temperature. The cake will last upto 2 days, in an air tight container, refrigerated.