Mango Cream Cake

It was Manoj's birthday yesterday, time for yet another celebration. Though the day went by as usual, we had a few friends over for dinner. I cooked a simple meal and of course there was cake for dessert.

The last cakes I baked were for Anushka's birthday and there were a lot of sleepless nights and fussing and swearing involved, so when I asked Manoj what kind of cake he wanted, the only thing he asked was to keep it simple :).

Mangoes are everywhere now and the ones I bought this weekend were so juicy and sweet, they seemed perfect for a cake. I decided to stay away from spatulas and icing bags and to just keep things really simple. Once the layers were baked and cooled, it just took a few minutes and the cake was ready and I loved the way it looked.

I have been looking for a good vanilla cake recipe to use with such cream cakes, one that uses oil so that its moist even straight out of the fridge and one that's not too sweet. I did not find one so I tried out this cream cake from Sky High. It uses heavy cream instead of butter, it's light and it's delicious and so moist, just what I was looking for. This recipe makes three layers, but I used only two. If using all the three layers, you will have to make some more of the filling, just double or increase the quantities by 50%.

Mango Cream Cake

Cake:

Ingredients:

1 3/4 cups cake flour

3 3/4 tsps baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1 cup heavy cream

2 tsps vanilla extract

1 1/4 cups sugar (I used 1 1/8 cups)

2 whole eggs

2 egg yolk

3 tbs buttermilk

Method:

Grease and line three 8" pans with parchment paper.

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C/ 350 degrees F.

Sift the flour, baking powder and salt together and keep aside.

Combine the cream and vanilla in a large bowl and whip until soft peaks begin to form.

Reduce the speed gradually to low and beat in the sugar, but do not whip until stiff.

Add the whole eggs and egg yolks and whip until the batter forms soft peaks.

Sift about a third of the dry ingredients over the batter and fold in by hand. Repeat 2 more times until all of the flour mixture has been added. Finally fold in the buttermilk.

Divide the batter among the three pans. 

Bake the cake layers for 18-20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Allow the cakes to cool in the pan for 10 minutes, then invert them onto wire racks. Carefully peel of the parchment paper and allow to cool completely.

Sugar Syrup

Ingredients:

2 tbs sugar

1/2 cup water

Method:

Heat the sugar and water until the sugar has dissolved. Keep aside to cool.

Mango Cream

Ingredients:

1 tbs water

1 1/2 tsps gelatin

1 cup mango puree

1/2 cup heavy whipping cream

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

2 - 4 tbs sugar, as needed depending on the sweetness of the mangoes

Mangoes, Berries and Chocolate Shavings for topping 

Ingredients:

Sprinkle the gelatin over the water and keep aside for 5 minutes for the gelatin to bloom.

Take the cream and vanilla extract in a chilled bowl and sprinkle sugar over it. Whip until it forms stiff peaks.

Heat the gelatin for a few seconds in the microwave or on a double boiler until clear and melted.

Stir the gelatin into the mango puree. Fold in the whipped cream into the mango.

Store in the fridge until the cream thickens and almost sets.

To Assemble the cake:

Level the layers if needed. Brush one cake layer with the sugar syrup until moist.

Spread half of the mango cream over the layer. Moisten the other cake layer with sugar syrup and place on top of the cream. Spread the remaining cream over the cake.

Top with fruits.

Refrigerate covered for a few hours and serve.