Berry Chantilly cake is made with tender vanilla cake layered fresh mixed berries and frosted with a luscious mascarpone whipped topping.
The first time I tasted a berry Chantilly cake, it was from Whole Foods. I was hooked. I needed to know more about this delicious vanilla cake layered with fresh berry cake filling and a light and creamy mascarpone cream cheese frosting!
Apparently, I’m not the only one. The people who love Whole Foods Berry Chantilly cake are practically zealots, and I don’t really blame them.
What is a Chantilly cake?
So to me, a Chantilly cake is a vanilla cake decorated with fresh berries and a sweetened whipped cream (Chantilly cream).
But on our last trip to Hawaii, we made a stop at the famous Ted’s Bakery and had a slice of their famous Chantilly cake. Guess what the flavor was? Chocolate cake frosted with a rich kind of frosting that was similar to coconut pecan frosting but without the coconuts and pecans. So Chantilly cake can also be Chocolate cake depending on who you ask.
What’s the difference between a Chantilly Cake and a Gentilly Cake?
Sometimes a Chantilly cake is referred to as a Gentilly cake.
The main difference between a Gentilly cake and a Chantilly is the Gentilly cake typically has buttermilk rather than regular milk in the cake recipe. The frosting usually contains cream cheese and mascarpone frosting.
If you would like to use a buttermilk based cake rather than my vanilla cake, check out my white velvet buttermilk cake recipe.
What is Chantilly cream?
So here’s where it gets even more confusing. Chantilly cream is literally just whipped cream that has been sweetened and vanilla extract added. The name Chantilly actually comes from the place it was supposedly invented, Château de Chantilly in France.
I prefer the taste of the Chantilly cream made with mascarpone cheese and cream cheese. I use stabilized whipped cream in the recipe as well.
The history of Chantilly cream is actually pretty interesting if you want to read more about the inventor but I won’t bore you with all that here. I fully understand not everyone is a freakish food nerd like I am.
How do you make a Berry Chantilly Cake?
So I guess my Berry Chantilly Cake version is a cross between a classic Chantilly cake and a Gentilly cake because I like the fluffy vanilla cake with berries but prefer the cream cheese/mascarpone frosting over basic whipped cream.
Are you drooling yet?
Does Chantilly cake need to be refrigerated
Because this berry Chantilly cake contains fresh fruits and whipped cream, it must be kept refrigerated. The whipped cream is stabilized by the vanilla pudding mix though so it the frosting is stable for 1-2 days with no problems.
Berry Chantilly cake can be brought to room temperature before eating (1-2 hours) with no problems and actually tastes better when a little warm.
I know this might sound crazy but don’t keep this cake in the sun. It will melt.
Watch my berry chantilly cake video below if you’re a visual learner like me and need to see how it all comes together!
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Note: measurements are estimated based off the vanilla cake recipe using standard US cake pans and sizes. Measurements used are for 2" tall cake pans only. Your results may vary. Do not overfill cake pans above manufacturer's recommended guidelines.
Berry Chantilly Cake
Ingredients
Vanilla Cake Recipe
- 13 oz (368.54 g) bleached cake flour
- 13 oz (368.54 g) granulated sugar
- 3 tsp (14.79 g) baking powder
- 1/4 tsp (0.25 tsp) baking soda
- 1/2 tsp (0.5 tsp) salt
- 8 oz (226.8 g) butter unsalted
- 2 tsp (1 Tbsp) vanilla extract
- 1 tsp almond extract
- 10 oz (283.5 g) whole milk room temperature
- 3 oz (85.05 g) vegetable oil
- 3 large (3 large) eggs room temperature
Chantilly Cream Ingredients
- 16 oz cream cheese softened
- 8 oz unsalted butter softened
- 16 oz mascarpone cheese softened
- 22 oz powdered sugar sifted
- 1 tsp almond extract
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 8 oz heavy whipping cream
- 2 tsp instant pudding mix Or any other whipped cream stabilizer. See my post: https://sugargeekshow.com/recipe/stabilized-whipped-cream/
Berry Cake Filling
- 2 cups fresh or frozen berries
- 2.5 oz sugar
- 1 oz water
- 1 oz cornstarch
- 1 tsp lemon zest
- 2 tsp lemon juice
Equipment
- Stand Mixer
- Round Piping Tip and Piping Bag
Instructions
Vanilla Cake Instructions
- Note: It's VERY important that your cold ingredients are at room temperature or slightly warmed. See video for tips. Heat oven to 335º F/168º C — 350º F/177º C. I tend to use lower setting to prevent my cakes from getting too dark on the outside before the inside is done baking.
- Place 4oz of the milk and oil in a separate bowl or cup and set aside
- Combine remaining milk, vanilla extract, almond extract and room temp eggs in a separate measuring cup and set aside
- Measure out dry ingredients (flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt) and place them into the stand mixer bowl.
- Attach the paddle to the mixer, and turn on the slowest speed (setting 1 on Kitchen Aid mixers). Slowly add chunks of your softened butter until it is all added. Let mix until batter resembles coarse sand.
- Add milk/oil mixture into the dry ingredients and mix on medium speed (speed 4 on my KitchenAid) and mix for 2 full minutes. Do not skip this step or your cake will not rise.
- Add in 1/3 of your milk/egg mixture. Repeat 2 more times until batter is just combined. Don't forget to scrape your bowl.
- I always start by baking for 25 minutes for 8" and smaller cakes and 30 minutes for 9" and larger cakes and then checking for doneness. If the cakes are still really jiggly, I add another 5 minutes. I check every 5 minutes after that until I'm close and then it's every 2 minutes. Cakes are done when a toothpick inserted in the center comes out with a few crumbs.
- Remove the cake pan from the oven and "tap" it lightly on the counter once to remove air from the cake and keep it from shrinking un-evenly.
- Place cakes on a cooling rack and press down the dome immediately with an oven mitt covered hand. After cakes have cooled for 10 minutes or the pans are cool enough to touch, flip the cakes over and remove from the pans onto the cooling racks to cool completely. Wrap in plastic wrap and chill in the refrigerator.
- Once the cakes are chilled in the refrigerator (about an hour for this size, longer for larger cakes), tort, fill and crumb coat all at once. If you do not plan on crumb coating the same day, you can leave the wrapped cakes on the countertop. Chilling can dry out your cakes before they are iced, so avoid keeping them in the refrigerator longer than necessary. Cakes can be frozen in freezer bags for later use as well.
Chantilly Cream Instructions
- Cream together the softened butter, cream cheese and mascarpone cheese together until smooth.
- Add in the powdered sugar and continue creaming until combined
- Whip the whipped cream to soft peaks. Add in the pudding mix to stabilize the whipped cream and whip until just combined. Add in the vanilla and almond extract. Peaks should be firm but not curdled. This happens quickly so watch your cream closely! Check out the stabilized whipped cream recipe to see other options to use besides instant pudding mix.
- Fold your cream cheese mixture and whipped cream together to make your frosting.
Berry Cake Filling
- Place the berries in a medium saucepan with 2.5 oz of sugar and bring to a simmer.
- Combine the cornstarch with the cold water to make a slurry. Pour the slurry into the bubbling berries.
- Cook a few minutes until the mixture is thick (1-2 minutes). Remove the berries from the heat and stir in the zest of one lemon and your lemon juice.
- Cool berry filling before using.
Notes
Cake flour sources: UK - Shipton Mills Cake & Pastry Flour
This is possibly the most delicious cake I’ve ever made. I was looking specifically for the knock-off Whole Foods Berry Chantilly recipe and this exceeded my expectations. Thank you for the recipe!! I had one very minor issue with the stability of the frosting. It started drooping within a few hours. Environment was indoors with AC on in southern California. I refrigerated it after frosting for a few hours. I was thinking I might add a little shortening to help stabilize it. What are your thoughts on that?
Thank you! I’m so glad you liked the recipe. The Chantilly frosting is definitely very soft and has to be chilled after 2 or 3 hours. You could replace some of the butter with shortening to make it a bit more stable, but overall it’s going to be very soft.
Thanks for your recipe, videos and tips, your directions are on point. I used a cake mix box for the bread part and seedless strawberry jam just for simplicity, but I followed your recipe and instructions for the frosting and putting the cake together. Unfortunately my pudding mix box was ruined so I couldn’t use it to stabilize the whipped cream, nevertheless I didn’t have any issues with the frosting, and it’s been 2 days since I made it. I did have an initial crumb layer and put the cake on the fridge for an hour before finishing frosting it. The frosting got less liquidy by then (not that it really was runny or anything like that) and the whole cake flavor got even better by the next day. My husband, who isn’t big on cakes, like it a lot. Besides, it looks so beautiful! Thanks again! Will be following your videos and recipes!
I made this cake twice and it was a huge hit both times. Sometimes I dream that I’m eating this cake 🙂
So i want to make it again for my 1 year old nephew’s bday, so I’d like to color the frosting for decoration purposes. Do you think that gel color will ruin the delicate frosting?
Thanks so much for this recipe once again!
You should be able to color it just fine 🙂 So glad you like it!
Hello – the video mentions a berry jam but is that different from the berry filling in the recipe instructions? Also, do I need to have more berries to put on top of the Chantilly cream like the video? My apologies, the recipe and video seem to be a little different and wanted to make sure!
No it’s not different, and yes use some berries for the top of the cake
Thank you so much Liz for this great recipe. It was very delicious. The only difference was the cake itself. The cake in your picture looks like a white cake and sturdy but mine became a very yellow cake and crumbled. But the frosting was amazing.
Sounds like something was either not weighed correctly or not mixed quite right. Room temperature ingredients and careful mixing are important for the texture and color of this cake.
I used this recipe to make cupcakes for my daughter’s birthday. It was delicious! I hollowed out the cupcakes a bit and filled them with the berries. All components have a good flavor. I no longer live near a Whole Foods and have really missed their Chantilly cake. I will definitely make this again!
Liz you are the best!!! Thanks for sharing this recipe, it was delicious 😋
Hello,
What adjustments do I need to make for baking this cake at 5280’ or a mile high. I’m really new to baking but you inspire me to go beyond my abilities!! Thanks
Hi! Check out my high altitude baking hacks blog post: https://sugargeekshow.com/news/high-altitude-baking-hacks/
Can I use a boxed cake wedding cake recipe you have (Wasc) for this particular cake?
Sure thing! I’d recommend using almond extract instead of vanilla though 🙂
I made this cake for my daughter-in-law’s birthday. I have used your recipes before and they always turn out to be winners. This won was just as fabulous! The crumb of this cake is so velvety soft and it tastes so good by itself. I really liked the cream frosting, I did have a tad but of trouble with it though, it was a little too wet for me. I was going with simple berry decorations like your example, but would have liked the frosting to be a little firmer. I will give it another try though because the taste was very good. I did read some of your comments later and wish I would have before making the frosting, I will try to replace some of the butter for shortening next time to see if it sets a bit firmer. Thanks for sharing, this cake was already requested by my husband for his birthday and he is hard to impress because he eats a lot of my cake experiments.
This cake is delicious!! I’ve made it like 4 times these past 6 months and its so good!! I need your opinion please- could I use all raspberries for the jam filling for this cake? Would it still taste as delicious? OR- do you have a wonderful raspberry filling white cake recipe? Any suggestions? Hope to hear from you🙂
Thank you so much, I’m so glad you like the recipe! You definitely can use all raspberries for the filling, I have a recipe here if you’d like: https://sugargeekshow.com/recipe/raspberry-filling/ I also have a white cake recipe if you want to try that instead of the vanilla one to switch things up.
Amazing recipe!! Flavor was just out of this world. I made extra cream so my kids basically ate it out of the bowl with all the fruit we had at home. The rest was for the cake and it truly was spectacular. Presentation wise and taste wise. Thank you!