Tutorial: How to Make Mascarpone Cheese at Home for Cheap! All You Need is Heavy Cream and Lemon Juice!

how to make mascarpone cheese for cheesecakes easy diy cupcake filling recipe better baking bible blog low fatMASCARPONE / DAVID ERICSON / CC BY , CHEESECAKE / FREDERIQUE VOISIN-DEMERY / CC BY , MASCARPONE / STU_SPIVACK / CC BY, CARAMEL / ROSENBEGAL / CC BY

We all know that mascarpone cheese can be expensive, but did you know that there’s a way to make it at home? This budget-friendly recipe is truly a keeper, and you’ll never want to buy mascarpone from the store again! All you need are two basic ingredients to make this delicious cheese. Heavy cream and lemon juice are all you need to put this together, and a little bit of patience. Use your homemade mascarpone with your favorite tiramisu recipe, or simply spread it on a bagel for a tasty breakfast!

Ingredients:

1) Saucepan

2) 2 cups heavy cream (this recipe makes approximately 2 cups of mascarpone cheese)

3) 1 lemon

4) Strainer

5) Unbleached cheese cloth

6) Large bowl

7) Candy thermometer

Steps:

1.) Take out your saucepan, pour in the 2 cups of heavy cream, and stick in your candy thermometer. Bring the cream to a simmer. The temperature on the thermometer should be around 180 F. Keep the temperature around 180 F.

2.) Allow the cream to simmer at 180 F for 3 minutes. Add in lemon juice. Allow it to simmer for an additional 3 minutes, then take the cream off the heat. Leave it to cool until it’s room temperature.

3.) Take out your strainer and line it with 3 layers of cheesecloth. Place a bowl under the strainer. Pour the mascarpone into the strainer.

4.) Place the strainer with the bowl underneath into the fridge. Leave it there overnight. In the morning, your mascarpone will be thick and creamy. The mascarpone will be good in the fridge for 1 week.

Lemon Blueberry Layer Cake with Lemon Buttercream Frosting

lemon blueberry buttercream cake lemon icing frosting layer summer recipe better baking bible blog

Lemon Blueberry Butter Cake / Stephanie / CC BY-NC-ND

A refreshing lemon and berry cake is all you need this summer to enjoy the long, gorgeous, sunny days to come! Stacked between layers of blueberry filling and frosted with a delicious lemon buttercream, this cake is a definite winner at any gathering, party, baby shower, or brunch! The recipe below specifically makes the second cake from the top. Enjoy!

Refreshing Lemon Blueberry Layer Cake with Lemon Buttercream Frosting

Layers of delicious blueberry cake, blueberry filling, and lemon buttercream frosting.

Ingredients:
 

For the Cake

– 2 cups plus 6 tbsp all-purpose flour

– 2 tsp baking powder

– 1 tsp salt

– 3 cups blueberries

– 1/2 cup sour cream

– 1/2 cup milk

– 2 tsp vanilla extract

– 3/4 tsp pure lemon extract

– 1 tsp lemon zest

– 1 cup unsalted butter, softened at room temp

– 1 1/2 cups sugar

– 4 large eggs

For the Blueberry Filling

– 1/2 cup blueberry jam

 

For the Lemon Buttercream Frosting

– 1 cup butter, room temp

– 4-6 cups confectioner’s sugar

– 1/4 cup milk

– 1 tsp lemon extract

Directions:

To Make Cake
 
  1. Preheat oven to 350 F and grease 2, 10″ round cake pans.
  2. In a bowl, sift flour, baking powder, and salt. Place 1 tbsp of the flour into an empty bowl and toss in the blueberries, coating them with flour.
  3. In another bowl combine milk, sour cream, vanilla extract, lemon extract and lemon zest, set aside.
  4. Using an electric mixture, cream together butter and sugar in a mixing bowl until pale yellow and very fluffy. Slowly beat in eggs until combined.
  5. Alternately mix together flour and milk mixture and stir until combined and then fold in blueberries gently.
  6. Divide batter among the 2 pans and bake for 25 mins or until toothpick comes out clean. Remove from oven, cool for 10 mins on rack and then invert onto cooling rack.
  7. Spread blueberry jam on completely cooled cake layers and stack the layers.
To Make Lemon Buttercream
 
  1. In a bowl using an electric mixer, beat butter until pale and fluffy.
  2.  Slowly add in confectioner’s sugar, milk and lemon extract. Add more confectioner’s sugar if necessary.
  3. Frost the top and sides of the cake equally and decorate as you wish!
Notes
 

This recipe is for two cake layers – if you would like to have three layers like in the photo, split all the cake ingredients in half and bake another cake layer.