Really easy lemon mascarpone cake (one cup, one bowl)

To make this delicious cake, just toss everything into a food processor, then pour into two pans and bake. Finally, sandwich together with a delicious 2-ingredient lemon mascarpone cream. It’s cake perfection!

I’m pretty sure I’ve mentioned here before that I’m a bit of a layer cake snob.

I really don’t mind if it doesn’t look perfect (rustic rules), but I want it to taste as good as it sounds. And sadly I’ve tried many many cakes that just don’t make the cut.

Which is why I only post cakes here that I love; that are really easy to make; that I’ll make time and time again.

Like this really good, really simple chocolate orange cake which is one of the most popular recipes on the blog. Or this peanut butter, banana and chocolate chip cake which hits the spot every time. Because peanut butter and chocolate…. mmmm!

So you guessed it, I really really like and recommend this food processor lemon mascarpone cake. Mr. Scrummy often complains that I only make chocolate cakes, and until now I couldn’t really deny this (oops). But now I can honestly say that there’s another kind of cake on the blog that’s just as scrummy.

I might just choose a piece of this cake over a piece of chocolate cake, which means it must be good!

I get recipe inspiration from many places, but it’s especially nice when it comes from friends or family. Mr. Scrummy and I had lunch with my friend Melinda recently. It’s always wonderful to see Mel, but especially when she comes with a homemade cake as delicious as this!

We all made short work of a big piece, then the naughty girl left the rest of the cake with us and we scoffed the whole lot over the next few nights. I really looked forward to that nightly piece of cake, and some days I even had two pieces [blush].

No surprises then that I asked Mel for the recipe.

Essentially this is Nigella Lawson’s basic vanilla cake (otherwise known as Victoria Sponge) sandwiched together with a mascarpone and lemon curd cream. Just those two delicious ingredients. How easy is that?

One bowl, one cup!

This is also a one-bowl cake with one cup each of sugar, butter and flour in it, so it’s insanely simple to make. You just whizz everything up in a food processor. Seriously, that’s it.

I bet you could remember the recipe after making it a couple of times. The resulting cake is light, buttery, and moist. Delicious.

The cake is light, airy and moist. I made it a second time soon after this, and added more cream. Even more perfect!

If you don’t have a food processor, no problem – just cream the butter and sugar together with a hand held whisk or stand mixer first, then add the other ingredients, but skip the baking powder. In fact this is how I made it as I’ve already packed my food processor off to Australia – as you do.

If you wanted to you could make this very simple (but no less delicious for it) cake a bit fancier by topping it with strawberries, or even adding blueberries into the batter.

In fact Mel actually sent me a blueberry and passion fruit version of this cake.

I haven’t tried it yet but I can’t wait to. Instructions in recipe notes!

These are the sorts of pans (7 inch) I used for my 2 cakes:

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Lemon mascarpone cake

A delicious vanilla cake that couldn't be easier to make. Mix the ingredients up in a food processor, then bake and sandwich together with a 2-ingredient mascarpone lemon cream.

Course Cake

Prep Time 10 minutes

Cook Time 25 minutes

Total Time 35 minutes

Servings 12

Calories 367 kcal

Author Helen

Ingredients

• 8 ounces butter (2 sticks) unsalted, soft
• 1 cup sugar I used fine / caster sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla essence
• 4 eggs large
• 1 cup self raising flour self-raising flour
• 1 tsp baking powder don’t use if mixing by hand
• 3 tbsp milk (3 to 4 tablespoons)
• icing / confectioner's sugar to decorate

For the cream

• 1 cup mascarpone cheese 1 cup mascarpone cheese
• 4 tablespoons lemon curd or more, to taste*

US Customary - Metric

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 355F / 180C. Line (with baking paper) and butter two 7” sandwich cake pans.
2. Put all the ingredients except the milk in a food processor and process until you’ve got a smooth batter. Then pulse in the milk gradually until the mixture is a soft dropping consistency.
3. Pour the batter equally into the pans and bake for about 25 mins, until a metal skewer or knife comes out clean.
4. Cool the cakes for 10 minutes in the pans, then turn out onto a wire rack and cool completely.
5. Meanwhile, make the lemon mascarpone cream. Simply whisk the lemon curd into the mascarpone cheese, then spread thickly to sandwich the cakes together.
6. Just before serving, dust with icing / confectioner's sugar.

Recipe Notes

Only slightly adapted from Nigella Lawson's recipe for Victoria Sponge. Lemon mascarpone cream also adapted from an idea from Nigella!

*This is how much lemon curd I added to the mascarpone, but taste and add more if you like!

If you don't have a food processor, no problem! Just cream the butter with the sugar with a stand mixer or hand held mixer, then slowly add the other ingredients.

If you like you can make a delicious blueberry and passion fruit version of this cake. Simply add approximately 100 grams / 3.5 ounces blueberries to the batter before baking. Sandwich with whipped cream, then make a passion fruit icing for the top. Scrape out the contents of 2 passion fruit and sieve to get the juice (if you put the flesh, seeds and juice in a blender first and give it a quick whizz before sieving then you release more juice). Mix with 100 grams / 3.5 ounces icing sugar, then drizzle or spread the thick icing over the top of the cake.

Nutrition Facts

Lemon mascarpone cake

Amount Per Serving

Calories 367 Calories from Fat 234

% Daily Value*

Total Fat 26g 40%

Saturated Fat 15g 75%

Cholesterol 114mg 38%

Sodium 187mg 8%

Potassium 82mg 2%

Total Carbohydrates 28g 9%

Sugars 20g

Protein 4g 8%

Vitamin A 16.4%

Calcium 6.3%

Iron 2.1%

* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.