Happy holidays! And in the spirit of the holidays I give you...cake frosting! And you're probably thinking...what the heck? Well, it goes like this - we made a white chocolate Christmas cake which naturally had to have white chocolate frosting. And thus we discovered our most favorite cake frosting ever!
Recently we've been experimenting with all different kinds of frostings/buttercreams for our cakes. After all a girl cannot ever have too much cake, amiright?! Some frostings hubby found too sweet. Others my little girl found not sweet enough. And yet some others I found too buttery.
But at long last we hit the jackpot with this White Chocolate Mascarpone Frosting, an exquisitely light yet creamily chocolaty, slightly tangy and not overly sweet frosting that pipes like a dream, perfect for frosting and decorating cakes and absolutely yummilicious to boot!
White chocolate is my hubby's chocolate love. I adore dark chocolate and my little girl is super greedy for milk chocolate. Alas, a family divided by chocolate!! Hee, hee... To satisfy my hubby's chocolate love I've been trying to use white chocolate whenever I can and also because...shh, don't tell...I'm secretly in love myself with the luscious creaminess of white chocolate.
And because I'm lazy I usually just use the plain white chocolate bars , the kind you buy to eat, instead of the fancy baking white chocolate. It works just fine, just be sure to use real chocolate made with cocoa butter and not the chocolate buttons and chips made with vegetable oil.
Use a bain marie to gently heat the cream and chocolate until the chocolate is melted. Bain marie is another name for a double boiler, an efficient way to very gently heat without fear of over heating or scorching as it's basically just heating over a hot water bath.
If you don't have a double boiler at home, it's a cinch to set one up with what you have at home. You'll need a small pot and a medium sized stainless steel bowl that can sit on top of the pot. Heat an inch of just simmering water in your pot, add whatever you're heating up to the bowl, making sure that bowl bottom doesn't directly contact the water, and you have set up your own bain marie.
The magic ingredient to this frosting is the mascarpone (above left), an Italian version of cream cheese. This is gorgeous stuff...light, creamy and slightly tangy...like regular cream cheese, except milder and tastier.
In this frosting recipe mascarpone replaces half of the butter resulting in a truly delightfully light and subtly flavored frosting/buttercream. Mascarpone is a dream cream for desserts and is most famously used in the classic tiramisu dessert. (Check out our tiramisu recipe!)
The best thing about this gorgeous mascarpone frosting is how easy it is! In the wink of an eye you'll find yourself with a light, luscious, creamy white* frosting all whipped up and ready to pipe in swooshes and swirls onto your cake or cupcakes or whatever you want to smother with fluffy swirly goodness. And a dream to pipe too, smooth, soft, holds and sets really well!
This is our absolute favorite frosting so far, not too buttery, not too sweet with an altogether light and yummilicious cream white chocolate flavor. You can even substitute milk or dark chocolate in for the white chocolate to please the chocolate desires of you and your family. Try it, I guarantee you'll love it!
*Note: If you want a pure white frosting, use clear or white vanilla extract instead of the real vanilla extract which is tinted brown. Clear or white vanilla extract is artificial flavoring but will keep your frosting very white. If you don't mind an ivory colored frosting like in our cake use the real vanilla extract.
White Chocolate Mascarpone Frosting
(frosts a 8" to 9" cake) Prep time: 5 mins Cook time: 10 mins
Ingredients:
(frosts a 8" to 9" cake) Prep time: 5 mins Cook time: 10 mins
- 8 oz white chocolate* 227g
- 3/4 cup whipping cream, 178g
- 1 cup mascarpone, 225g
- 8 oz butter, room temperature, 227g
- pinch salt
- 2 tsp vanilla extract**
- 1 1/2 cup powdered sugar, shifted, 188g
Directions:
Break/chop up white chocolate into small pieces. Smaller pieces make it easier to melt.
Add chocolate and cream into large stainless steel bowl, place over small pot of just simmering water, making sure that the bowl bottom does not touch the water, i.e. a bain marie or double boiler. Stir until the chocolate is melted and smooth. Let cool.
Slice butter into cubes. Beat mascarpone, butter, salt, vanilla for a couple of minutes on medium speed until fluffy and light. Add in cooled chocolate cream mixture and use whisk until incorporated. Turn speed to low and add powdered sugar and mix in. Turn speed to high and whisk 2 mins until light and fluffy.
Use offset icing spatula and piping bag to frost cake. If the frosted cake is chilled the frosting will harden, when ready to serve take the cake out of fridge for 10 mins to soften. Enjoy!
*Substitute milk or dark chocolate for the white chocolate to make an equally light and yummy chocolate frosting.
**Substitute white or clear vanilla extract for a really white color frosting
Cake-i-liciousness at The Hong Kong Cookery:
Google
Love your blog. On the topic of sweets, I've been trying to identify a traditional Chinese (maybe?) sweet that I had when I was young. It was this black colored dumpling shape that had a sweet peanut/shredded coconut filling. The black "skin" of the dumpling resembled a steamed glutinous rice flour texture with some chew to it. Do you know what this is? I can't remember what it was called except it had the word guo3 in it's name.
ReplyDeleteThanks! The cake you are looking for, maybe it is the Black Tortoise Cake, also known as O Ku Kueh? ~ellen
Deletehi there, thank you so much for this - just wanted to check, should the mascarpone be at room temperature too? thanks!
ReplyDeleteHi Paul - I used it straight from the fridge but letting it warm up a bit would probably be better. ~ellen
DeleteThank you so much for sharing. I can’t wait to try this. Do you think it would work for piping flowers?
ReplyDeleteHi Jenne - Yes I think it should be as the texture is like buttercream. ~ellen
ReplyDeleteDo you use salted butter or unsalted butter?
ReplyDeleteI used salted butter but you could use unsalted butter and add salt to taste.~ellen
ReplyDeleteHey! I love this, my go-to! How well does this freeze/defrost?
ReplyDeleteHi - I've never tried freezing this frosting but from the info on the internet, it seems that it should freeze well. Let completely defrost and then whip it a bit to fluff up, being careful not to over whip it.🤗 ellen
ReplyDeleteThis frosting is amazing! I just reduced the sugar by 1/2 since the white chocolate is extra sweet. It pipes like a dream. Thanks for the recipe. Kevin
ReplyDeleteCan u colour this frosting for piping etc
ReplyDeleteYes you can add color! I would recommend gel food color as it gives better colors and less addition of unnecessary liquid. ~ellen
ReplyDeleteI am looking for a mascarpone white chocolate filling for macarons. Needs to be a bit stiffer than a usual frosting. If this one says it is good for piping, my guess is that it might be a good choice.
ReplyDeleteHi Karen - i think it would be good for macarons! This frosting is pretty thick and hold shape well. A most excellent idea and I'm gonna try it in my macarons next time. ~ellen
DeleteWhy do you have whipping cream in the ingredients?
ReplyDeleteI can’t find it in the recipe. Thank you
It's in the recipe but simplified to just 'cream'. It's mixed with the white chocolate before placing over bain marie. ~ellen
DeleteIs this scaled for a double-layer 8" cake like in the photos, or a single-layer?
ReplyDeleteIt's scaled for a double layer cake like in the photos. ~ellen
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing, Ellen!
ReplyDeleteI might try this on my Bûche de Noël, this year ( I wait for the Bûche! :).
Ohh! A Yule Log! How wonderful! Happy holidays! ❤️
ReplyDeleteHi there, this frosting is delicious and a beautiful texture, have you tried colouring it? The other mascarpone frosting I do splits if you add food colour, even with gel colours.
ReplyDeleteI haven't tried coloring this frosting but a quick search on the net says that it can be done with gel food coloring if you mix the coloring in with mascarpone before mixing with the cream. Be sure to use heavy cream. Hope this helps.
ReplyDelete