My mom asked me to make a cake for a coworker who was retiring. Our family loves reading ALL Dr. Seuss books and one of our favorite books is “Oh The Places You’ll Go.” I thought it was a cute idea to incorporate this book into the cake because after retiring there are many adventures still head!

This cake is not so Eazy Peazy. This cake takes time, patience, and planning. This cake took me 3 days to complete from start to finish.

Day 1: Make the cakes.

Day 2: Make the Strawberry Filling, Mascarpone Frosting, and assembled the cake.

Day 3: Decorated the cake.

So I would recommend this to a more advanced baker. I am not saying a beginner baker can’t do this because you most definitely can, but you need to have patience and be OK with not being perfect the first go-around with this cake.

I was planning on this cake to be a 6-layer cake but the cake box I had barely fit a 5-layer cake, so decided to axe 1 cake layer. I used the extra cake layer to make Cake Truffles! No food goes to waste in this household!

I chose to do a homemade Vanilla Cake from The Sprinkles Baking Book with Fresh Strawberry Filling and Mascarpone Whipped Cream Frosting. Then I decorated the cake with the Wilton’s Vanilla Buttercream Frosting.

How To Make Strawberry Mascarpone Layer Cake

DAY 1:

Bake the cakes

First, gather all your ingredients to make the Vanilla Cake.

FOR THE VANILLA CAKES:

• 4 & 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting cake pans
• 3 teaspoons baking powder
• 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 3/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
• 2 cups whole milk
• 1 & 3/4 tablespoons pure vanilla extract
• 1 & 1/2 cups (3 stick) unsalted butter, slightly softened
• 3 cup granulated sugar
• 3 large eggs
• 6 large egg whites
• 8 or 9-inch round baking pans
• Parchment Paper

Preheat the oven to 325°F degrees.

Prepare six 8 or 9-inch round baking pans, line the bottom with parchment paper cut to fit, and grease the parchment.

Flour the pans, coating the bottom and sides of each pan, then tap the excess flour.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.

In a small bowl, stir together the milk and vanilla.

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment or a large bowl and a handled mixer, beat the butter and sugar on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, 2 to 3 minutes.

Reduce the speed to medium-low, slowly add the eggs and egg whites one at a time, and beat until creamy, 1 to 2 minutes.

Slowly add half the flour mixture, then the milk mixture, then the remaining flour mixture, beating until just blended after each addition.

Divide the batter evenly between the 6 pans (about 2 cups each) and bake until the tops are just dry to the touch, and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, 18 to 20 minutes.

Transfer the pan to a wire rack and cool completely.

DAY 2:

Make the Strawberry Filling and the Mascarpone Frosting. Then assemble the cake.

FOR THE STRAWBERRY FILLING:

• 2 cups strawberries, pureed
• 2 tablespoons lemon juice
• 4 tablespoons granulated sugar
• 2 tablespoons flour, sifted

Chop and puree the strawberries with a food processor.

In a medium-sized sauce pan, combine pureed strawberries, lemon juice, sugar and flour stir well.

Cook over medium-high heat until mixture starts to boil, stirring frequently.

Reduce heat and simmer for another 5 minutes, stirring occasionally until the strawberry puree starts to thicken.

If the puree seems too thin, add up to 1 tablespoon of additional flour.

Allow the puree to cool completely. Cover and store in refrigerator until ready to use.

FOR THE MASCARPONE FROSTING:

• 5 cups heavy whipping cream
• 2 & 1/2 cups confectioner’s sugar
• 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
• 32 ounces mascarpone cheese, cold

FOR THE MASCARPONE FROSTING:

Place the mixing bowl and whisk attachment in the freezer for 5 to 10 minutes to chill.

Pour the heavy whipping cream into the chilled bowl and use an electric mixer to beat the heavy cream on medium-high speed until the cream starts to thicken.

Slowly add the confectioner’s sugar and vanilla and continue beating on high speed until soft peaks form.

Next, spoon the mascarpone into the bowl and continue beating at a high speed until stiff peaks form.

TO ASSEMBLE THE CAKE:

Use a cake leveler to cut the domes off the top of the cake.

Place a dollop of frosting on your cake board and place the bottom layer of cake on top of that.

Place half of the whipped cream in a large piping bag fitted with a large open round tip, or simply cut off the end of the piping bag.

Pipe a thick boarder (a dam) along the outside edge of your cake. You may need to do this twice.

Spread the strawberry mixture over the cake, carefully filling the inside of the dam you created (so the sauce doesn’t leak out the sides).

Pipe another thin layer of frosting over the strawberry sauce and spread evenly with your offset spatula.

Add the second layer of cake and repeat the above steps using all of the remaining strawberry sauce.

Next, add the final layer of cake on top.

Use your piping bag to fill in any gaps between your layers and to create a crumb coat.

Using an offset spatula or icing smoother, wipe away the excess frosting, leaving you just enough to coat the outside of the cake.

Do not mix your crumb coating frosting back into your icing if it has cake debris in it.

Proceed to frost the top and sides of the cake using your offset spatula.

Once the sides of the cake are covered, use you icing smoother to remove any excess frosting.

This cake MUST be refrigerated.

DAY 3:

Decorate the Cake.

I love using the Wiltons Vanilla Buttercream Frosting (I doubled the recipe) to pipe decorations on my cakes. Its a stiff buttercream so its great for decorating cakes or cupcakes.

• 2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1 cup solid vegetable shortening
• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
• 8 cups (approximately 2 lb) confectioners’ sugar, sifted
• 4 tablespoons milk

In large bowl, beat shortening and butter with electric mixer until light and fluffy. Beat in vanilla.

Gradually add sugar, one cup at a time, beating well on medium speed. Scrape sides and bottom of bowl often. When all sugar has been mixed in, icing will appear dry.

Gradually add milk, beat at medium speed until light and fluffy.

Leftover buttercream can be stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to two weeks.

Buttercream can also be frozen for up to six months. Before reusing, bring buttercream back to room temperature and rewhip using a paddle attachment until it’s back to the correct consistency.

For this cake I used Wiltons Gel Food Coloring, Rose and Violet.

For the piping tips I used Wiltons 1M, 10, 16, 5, 32, and 3 (for the black icing). 

Fill tip 3 bag with black icing. Fill tip 1M bag with a combination of colors. Fill all other bags with separate icing colors. Place Wilton® Icing Bag Ties at the ends of the bag to hold the frosting in.

I randomly pipped rosettes, stars, dots and swirls. I also added pink, white, and purple sugar pearls/sprinkles randomly throughout the cake.

There really is no right or wrong way to decorate. Just be creative as you can!

Tips & Tricks

• Using a cake turntable like the WIlton Cake Turntable would help out a lot when making this cake.
• My favorite go-to baking book is The Sprinkles Baking Book: 100 Secret Recipes from Candace’s Kitchen.
• I prefer using gel-based food coloring instead of liquid food coloring. I feel as if the gel-based food coloring gives a more vibrant color. You also do not have to use as much as you would if you were using a liquid food coloring. I remember using almost the whole bottle of liquid red food for one batch of cupcakes, so now I just stick to the gel-based food coloring for my cake mixes and frostings.
• I love using Wilton baking pans. I feel like they are the best quality pans out there for the price. They do not rust, are durable, and easy to clean.
• Whether you are frosting a cake or piping decorations, the consistency of the icing is key to getting the right results. Too soft and your decorations will droop. Too stiff and your icing will be difficult to spread. Go here for the 3 different buttercream icing consistencies.
• For all-purpose flour I love using Bob’s Red Mill Gluten Free All Purpose Baking Flour. I first fell in love with this brand when I started eating healthy back in 2012, shortly after our twins were born. I first tried their Steel Cut Oats. Then when I had more time to bake I started using a lot of their other products such as, Almond Flour, Coconut Flour, Gluten Free Flour, Whole Wheat Flour, Pastry Flour, Bread Flour, and Xanthan Gum. They have so much more too! Baking mixes, Oats, Bars, Cereal, Granola, Grains, Beans, Seeds, Baking Aids, and more Flours! Seriously go check them out. Best quality baking products out there and no I am not getting paid to say this, I just love their products that much!
• Since I bake quite often I like to buy stuff in bulk. I love buying my flour, sugars, pure vanilla extract, butter, oil, eggs, and spices at Costco.
• Costco, Target, & Amazon are my favorite stores to shop at!

Here is the same cake but for a different occasion, Mother Day!

Make sure you post your photos on Instagram and tag me in them so I can see your creations from my blog #eazypeazylemonsqueezee