High Altitude Peaches and Cream Cake with Mascarpone Cream Frosting - Curly Girl Kitchen (2024)

I look forward to peach season all year. There’s nothing like biting into a warm, juicy, sun-ripened peach on a hot summer day. To celebrate this beautiful fruit, I made this incredible high altitude peaches and cream cake. Four layers of moist and tender white velvet cake, homemade peach compote, and mascarpone whipped cream frosting makes the most delicious combination of flavors and textures in this luscious peach cake.

This is a cake that gets better every day, as it soaks up the moisture from the peaches and the whipped cream. The mascarpone whipped cream frosting is a nice change from buttercream, and perfectly complements the fruit filling and the vanilla buttermilk cake. It’s light and refreshing, cool and creamy, and everything a summer cake should be.

The leftover whipped cream frosting is also great on pretty much anything. Spooned onto a warm fruit crisp or crumble, a simple dark chocolate cake, layered into a trifle, served on waffles (which we did a few days later)… the possibilities are endless. And for an easy, but dramatic decoration, I cut a small clipping from our peach tree to garnish the cake with a whole peach on top.

Looking for more peach recipes? You’ll love this fresh peach lattice pie, peach upside down cake, and brown butter peach crumb bars.

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Ingredients

Peach Filling

• Peaches. Use ripe, juicy peaches with a sweet, peachy flavor.
• Lemon Juice. Adds a bit of tartness.
• Granulated Sugar. Sweetness.
• Ground Ginger. Complements the flavor of the peaches.

White Velvet Cake

• Unsalted Butter. The butter adds moisture and richness, and when creamed with the sugar, produces a very light, tender cake crumb.
• Granulated Sugar. Granulated sugar sweetens the cake and adds moisture.
• Vanilla Bean. I used real vanilla bean for the best flavor. You can also use vanilla bean paste or vanilla extract. I’ve been buying vanilla beans on Amazon, and they’re surprisingly inexpensive right now!
• Egg Whites. The egg whites contain protein, add structure to the cake batter, and keep the cake white and light.
• Cake Flour. Cake flour has a lower percentage of protein than all-purpose flour, and makes an incredibly light and fluffy cake.
• Baking Powder. Leavens the cake and makes it rise.
• Coarse Kosher Salt. Adds flavor and balances the sweetness.
• Buttermilk. Adds a slight tang, and creates a really beautiful soft and tender cake crumb in white velvet cake.

Mascarpone Whipped Cream Frosting

• Mascarpone Cheese. Stabilizes the whipped cream and adds a rich, sweet flavor and texture.
• Powdered Sugar. Adds sweetness and stability.
• Heavy Whipping Cream. You need the high fat content of heavy whipping cream, not table cream or half and half, to whip into a beautiful frosting.
• Vanilla Bean Paste. Flavor.

Instructions

Cook and Cool the Peach Filling.

• In a saucepan, combine the peaches, lemon juice, sugar and ginger. Over medium heat, bring the peaches to a simmer. Continue to simmer until the fruit begins to break down, and the liquid is syrupy.
• Mash the fruit slightly for a chunky compote. Cool completely.

Make the White Velvet Cake.

• Preheat the oven to 350 F, and spray the bottoms of three 8-inch cake pans with non-stick spray.
• In the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter, sugar and vanilla bean on medium speed for 10 minutes, scraping the bowl occasionally.
• Beat in the egg whites, one at a time, beating each for 10 seconds before adding the next. Scrape the bowl down and beat for 10 more seconds.
• In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder and salt.
• With the mixer on low, add the flour mixture in three additions, alternating with the buttermilk, starting and ending with the flour. Use a spatula to scrape the bowl well and incorporate any stray bits of flour.
• Divide the batter between the pans. Bake on the center oven rack for about 25-30 minutes, until a cake tester or toothpick comes out clean.
• Set the pans on a wire rack, cover loosely with a clean kitchen towel, and cool completely before frosting.

Make the Mascarpone Whipped Cream Frosting.

• With an electric mixer (stand or hand mixer), beat the mascarpone cheese and powdered sugar until smooth.
• Gradually stream in the cream, and the vanilla bean paste, and beat until soft, thick, fluffy peaks form that will hold their shape.

Assemble the Cake.

• Place one of the cooled cakes on a cake board or cake pedestal.
• Spoon some of the mascarpone whipped cream into a piping bag and snip off the end. Pipe a “dam” of cream around the edge of the cake.
• Spoon some of the peach compote onto the cake, enough for a thick layer, and spread it out to the edge to fill the space inside the dam of cream.
• Repeat the process with the second and third layers of cake; you may not use all the peach compote. Top with the fourth layer of cake, and frost all over with the mascarpone whipped cream. Refrigerate immediately to let the whipped frosting firm up a bit.

Be sure to read all of my BAKING FAQs where I discuss ingredients, substitutions and common questions with cake making, so that you can be successful in your own baking! I also suggest reading these comprehensive posts on making Perfect American Buttercream, How to Stack, Fill, Crumb Coat and Frost Layer Cakes and How to Use Piping Bags.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I use all-purpose flour instead of cake flour?

Cake flour is best in this cake. It makes a much lighter cake than all-purpose flour does, since it has a lower percentage of protein. Be sure to use the spoon and sweep method to measure the flour, and sift the cake flour after measuring.

Does this cake need to be refrigerated?

The mascarpone whipped cream frosting is very stable, and will not deflate or turn watery, but the cake should be kept in the refrigerator to keep the frosting chilled. However, cake is always best eaten at room temperature. Cold from the fridge, the cake will be more firm, but if allowed to warm up to room temperature for several hours before serving, it will be very soft, moist and luscious. You can also microwave a cold slice of cake on low power to warm it up, and it will be amazing. This cake is fantastic for days afterwards, and stays very moist as it soaks up the compote and the cream.

Is this a high altitude recipe?

As with everything I bake, my peaches and cream cake was baked and tested at Denver’s high altitude of 5,280 feet. To achieve your own perfect results, you may need to make a few slight adjustments if you live at a lower altitude or sea level. The recipe card below notes adjustments for sea level bakers.

Can I cut this recipe in half?

With my white velvet cake recipe, I’ve experimented with making just half the batter, and the problem is this: since you use the creaming method of beating the butter and sugar, smaller amounts of the ingredients don’t fill the bowl sufficiently to allow the paddle to beat everything together. With only half the butter and sugar, the ingredients have the tendency to just stick to the sides of the bowl. So if I want to just make a smaller 6-inch cake, I make the full recipe, but divide the batter between six 6-inch pans, and freeze three of the cake layers for another cake.

What if I want to use peach jam instead of making homemade peach filling?

Use a good-quality peach jam or preserves for the best flavor.

Can I make the peach filling with frozen peaches instead of fresh peaches?

Sure, frozen peaches work just fine if fresh peaches aren’t in season.

What if I only have two 8-inch cake pans instead of four?

You need four layers of cake for this recipe so you can get in as much of the yummy peach filling as possible. If you only have two 8-inch cake pans (and you want to split the baked cakes into four layers), the pans need to be 3 inches deep; any shallower than that, and the cake batter will overflow while baking.

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