Peter & Heather's Wedding Cake

Recipes needed:
Roasted Pears (see below)
Caramel Sauce (scroll down to the bottom of post for recipe)
Caramel Mousse (see below)
Vanilla Butter Cake
Mascarpone Frosting (see below)

Roasted Pears
5 barely ripe pears
1/2 c sugar
1/2 c butter, sliced

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Peel pears and remove stem, core, and cut in half lengthwise.  Place pear halves, flat side up, in a heavy bottomed saucepan large enough to hold them in a single layer.  Sprinkle butter and sugar over them.  Roast for 25 minutes to 1 hour, until butter sugar mixture is golden brown and pears are soft when you poke them with a knife.  Remove pears, cool, and dice. (You can continue to caramelize the butter sugar mixture and toss a bit to coat the pears and use the rest for ice cream topping.)  Fold the pears into the Vanilla Butter Cake batter just before pouring into the cake pans to bake.

Caramel Mousse
*This recipe was saved in my favorites before our luggage was lost/stolen and our laptop seemingly forever lost.  I think I just folded the caramel sauce referenced above into stabilized whipped cream.  This is then immediately poured in between the layers (you need to use a cake ring for this) and then refrigerated until set. 

1 1/2 c caramel sauce
3 T water
1 envelope unflavored gelatin
1 1/2 c chilled whipping cream

Pour 3 T water into a ramekin or small glass cup and sprinkle with gelatin.  Let soften.  Place ramekin in a small skillet of simmering water and stir until gelatin dissolves and mixture is clear.  Mix into 1 1/2 c hot caramel.  Cool just to room temperature, stirring occasionally.

Beat chilled whipping cream in a large howl to medium-firm peaks.  Gradually pour cooled caramel/gelatin mixture over cream, folding constantly but gently. Use immediately.

Mascarpone Frosting
12 oz mascarpone cheese
1 1/2 c heavy whipping cream
3 T sugar (or more to taste)
1 T vanilla extract

Beat all ingredients in a large bowl until it holds soft peaks.  You will probably want to add more sugar, so be sure to taste the mixture at the beginning so you can add more if desired.  You can used granulated or powdered sugar.  This is a lovely, lovely frosting.