30/52 Redcurrant-Mascarpone-Cake

Can you believe it is already week 30 of 2012? I for sure can't...
It seems like the year is just flying by and we'll be searching for Christmas baking recipes soon...

But now it is still summer! So what could be better than more berries?

Redcurrant-Mascarpone-Cake

Adapted from Living at Home 7/2008

Cake

200 ml (6.8 fl oz) heavy cream

100 g (1/2 cup) sugar

1 pack vanilla sugar (or 1 teaspoon vanilla extract)

zest of 1/2 lemon

3 eggs

190 g (1 1/2 cups) flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

250 g (9 oz) redcurrants

2 tablespoons starch

Almond Topping

20 g (1 1/2 tablespoons) butter

3 tablespoons almond slivers

2 tablespoons sugar

Mascarpone Topping

1 egg

4 tablespoons sugar

2 tablespoons starch

125 g (4.5 oz) mascarpone

Powdered sugar for dusting

• Pour cream into a bowl. Add sugar, vanilla sugar (or extract), and lemon zest. Beat until cream is half stiff. Combine flour and baking powder and add to cream mixture. Beat until smooth.
• Preheat oven to 200°C (390°F). Pour batter into prepared spring or pie form (diameter 26 cm/10 in). Mix 4/5 of the currants with starch and scatter on the batter. Bake on second lowest rack for 35 minutes.

• For almond topping, melt butter. Mix with almond slivers and sugar. Set aside.
• For the mascarpone topping, mix together eggyolk, sugar, starch, and mascarpone. Beat eggwhite until stiff and fold in.
• Spread mascarpone topping onto baked cake and sprinkle with remaining redcurrants and almond topping. Bake for another 20 minutes. Let cool in pan and dust with powdered sugar before serving.

My modifications:

The original recipe calls for cardamom to be added to the batter. I just didn't like the idea too much and left it out.

The taste:

Very curranty and yummy!
Just don't expect too much from the mascarpone topping - you can't really see or taste it... But I'm sure something would be missing from the overall taste if you left it out.

What kind of berries do you like best in a cake, muffin, cupcake, or pie?