If you ask me how I feel about cake, I will tell you that I don’t like cake. #TeamPie all day long. But then I remember the birthday cakes of my childhood… light, fluffy, no buttercream, and filled with fruit. The standard was strawberry, but Mango Cake was supreme. I love mangoes way more than I dislike cake. With the Great Philippine Mango Surplus of 2019 and 2020, I have been experimenting with all sorts of tarts, mousses, pies, curds, and cakes. The Champagne, Atulfo, or Alphonso mango is the only correct mango to use for this recipe. You can find a link for mango puree in my Merkado.
THE Mango Cake
I love mangoes. I love them unripe, sour, and dipped in bagoong. I love them in a chutney, with sticky rice, or dried with tajin. But nothing is as glorious as a Mango Cake. Unlike most American cakes, this one is light and not super sweet which means you should totally have seconds!
Equipment
- 3 9-inch cake pans
- Stand mixer or hand mixer
Ingredients
Chiffon Cake – egg yolk mixture
- 230 grams cake flour, sifted
- 250 grams granulated sugar
- 15 grams baking powder
- 1 tsp Diamond Kosher salt
- 5 egg yolks (large eggs)
- 3/4 cup room temperature water
- 1/2 cup vegetable oil
- Zest from 1/2 lemon (about 1.5 tsp)
- 1 tsp Vanilla Extract
Chiffon cake – egg white mixture
- 264 grams egg whites, room temperature (about 8 large egg whites)
- 1/2 tsp cream of tartar
- 50 grams granulated sugar
Mango Whipped Cream
- 2 cups Heavy whipping cream
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 3 tbsp Powdered sugar
- 1 cup mango curd
Topping
- 2 Mangoes, finely chopped
- 3 Mangoes, halves only. Add the extra mango flesh around the pit to the finely chopped mango mixture
Instructions
Chiffon cake
- Pre-heat oven to 325*F. Line the bottom of your cake pans with parchment. Do not use any non-stick or grease since the cake needs to stick to the sides of the pain to rise).
- Whisk together your dry ingredients in a large bowl.
- Add the egg yolks, water, vegetable oil, citrus zest, and vanilla to your mixing bowl. With the paddle attachment, mix on medium-high speed until well combined.
- Whisk the egg mixture into the flour mixture until well combined.
- To prepare for the egg white mixture, wash your bowls and attachments, ensuring no grease or moisture is present. Use lemon juice and a paper towel to wipe down all the equipment and let it dry.
- With a whisk attachment, beat your egg whites and cream of tartar on medium speed until soft peaks form. Increase to high speed while slowly pouring in your granulated sugar. Beat until stiff peaks form (5-6 minutes).
- Using a spatula or whisk, fold one third of your egg whites into the batter until well combined. Repeat again for each third. Be careful not to overmix and deflate your batter since the air in the egg whites will help your cake rise.
- Divide the batter equally into your 3 cake pans. Bake for approximately 30 minutes or until the top springs back when you press down gently.
- Remove from oven and cool upside down over wire racks. Cooling them upside down prevents the cake from sinking in the middle.
- Once completely cooled, run a knife along the edges and remove from the cake pan. Don't forget to peel off the parchment from the bottom of the cake!
Mango whipped cream
- Combine whipping cream, powdered sugar, and vanilla in a mixing bowl and whip on medium high speed until medium peaks form.
- Add mango curd and continue whipping until stiff peaks form.
Assemble the cake
- Mix slightly less than 2 cups of your whipped cream with the chopped mangoes. Divide mixture in 2.
- Spread the mango and whipped cream mixture on top of the first layer of cake. Repeat with the remaining layer of cake.
- Create a "crumb layer" of whipped cream by covering the cake in a thin layer of whipped cream. Place in the refrigerator for 15 minutes to set.
- Time to prepare the remaining mango halves. Using a knife, carefully peel away the skin on each half. You can also use a large spoon to scoop it out into one intact piece.
- Cut half of your mangoes into thin strips longwise. Cut the remaining mangoes into thin strips on the shorter end. This will give you different sizes of mango strips to decorate the cake.
- Remove the cake from the refrigerator to decorate.
- Layer the mango slices around the cake, starting from the outside and working your way towards the center using the longer mango slices first. Overlap each mango slice slightly onto the next. Continue layering until you have a 1 to 1/2 inch sized hole in the center
- Roll up a mango strip into a rosette and place it into the center.
- Let the cake set for at least an hour before serving.
Notes
Japanese chiffon cake recipes call for cold egg whites while omitting the cream of tartar. It is very different from Western recipes, but it creates smaller bubbles that are supposedly stable enough without the cream of tartar addition.
For the whipped cream, if you don’t have mango curd, you can do the following:
- Bloom 1 packet of gelatine in 1/4 cup water for ten minutes without stirring. In the meantime, prepare your whipped cream by whipping your cream, granulated sugar, and vanilla in a stand mixer with a whisk attachment. Microwave the gelatine for 15 seconds then whisk until smooth. Whisk this into 1 cup of mango puree. While the mixer is still running, pour the puree/gelatine mixture into the whipped cream. Continue whipping until stiff peaks form. Cover and store in refrigerator until ready to use.
- ***Full disclosure, I use this method OFTEN because I don’t always have mango curd on hand. BUT, once I open the can for this method, I make mango curd out of the remaining puree. The circle of life.
