Bakeathon 2016, Day 6

I am here with my go to mango cake recipe. I have made this cake multiple times now to know that it cannot get easier than this. The cake is as simple as whisking the dry ingredients together, adding the wet ingredients to it and baking it!

For the first couple of trials, I used whipped cream with a tinge of sugar for frosting the cake. Later I figured out that a bit of puree added to the whipped cream takes the taste of the cake up a notch. I am a big fan of sugar syrup in cakes and all my cakes are syrup sprinkled abundantly. The cakes are moist even without the syrup, but I like it better with the syrup.

I have a cake regimen, depending upon the work involved. For a birthday on Friday night, I finish baking by Wednesday. I would then take the cake out of the pan, cling wrap it and return the cakes back into their pans until its time to decorate. The cling wrap ensures that the cake stays moist. Day 2 is for making the frosting and then leveling & layering the cake. I try to finish off the frosting job completely by the second day, leaving me enough time to decorate patiently on the day of cake cutting. For a simple cake like this without fondant involved, I am done with almost all the work on Day 2 itself.Its difficult to do everything on the same day, so I like it when its spread over a couple of days with a lot of breathing room in between.

Read on for the recipe.

Recipe source: Cook’s hideout 

Makes: two 8″ cakes

Ingredients:

Dry Ingredients:

• 3 cups flour
• 3 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon ground cardamom

Wet Ingredients:(and sugar)

• 2 cups mango puree
• 1 cup milk (or 1 cup mango puree)
• 2/3 cup vegetable/ sunflower oil
• 1 teaspoon vanilla essence
• 1 1/3 cup sugar

For mango glaze on top:

• 1/2 cup mango puree
• 1-2 tablespoons sugar
• 2 teaspoons corn flour

For frosting the cake:

• 2 cups heavy whipping cream
• 1/4 cup powdered sugar
• 1/4 cup mango puree (or left over mango glaze from above)

Simple sugar syrup:

• 1 cup water
• 1/2 cup sugar
• Heat the sugar water  until the sugar melts into the water, mixing in between. Take off the heat and let it cool completely. Refrigerate until needed, this can be prepared ahead.

Method: 

In a big bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients : 3 cups flour, 3 teaspoon baking powder, 1/2 teaspoon baking soda, 1/2 teaspoon salt and 1 teaspoon ground cardamom. Whisk to combine everything well.

In a medium bowl, whisk the rest of the ingredients: 2 cups mango puree, 1 cup milk (or another cup of mango puree itself), 1 1/3 cups sugar, 2/3 cups oil and 1 teaspoon vanilla essence. Combine well. Now, add the wet ingredients to the flour mix.

You can add the sugar to the dry ingredients as well instead of with the wet ingredients.

 

Whisk everything together carefully so that no lumps remain. Pout into two 8″ pans and bake on a preheated oven at 350F/ 180C for about 35-45 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the middle of the cake comes out free of crumbs.

For the glaze, add the mango puree, sugar and corn flour into a pan. Mix well to make sure there aren’t any lumps. Now cook this mixture over low to medium heat stirring all the time, bringing it to a boil until it thickens. The color will change and the puree turns “glassy” in appearance.

For frosting the cake, whip 2 cups of heavy cream with 1/4 cup confectioner’s sugar. Add a little mango puree or some of the glaze. I have used the glaze here. (You can also fold in 8oz of whipped cream cheese if you want a stabilized whipped cream). Mix it in carefully with a spatula making sure not to over beat the cream. Cut each cake into two layers and sprinkle the base layer with some sugar syrup (1 cup water + 1/2 cup sugar, heated until the sugar melts completely. Use only after its completely cooled down)

Fill with the prepared fresh cream and lay another layer of cake on top. Repeat the sugar syrup, whipped cream and cake layers. Once you are done with your layers, frost the cake completely. Add the mango glaze on top. Decorate as you wish. Refrigerate until the time of serving.

This is part of the Bake-a-thon 2016