So I’m sitting here eating cake (because of course I am), and I thought to myself: “I never actually did write a post about the mango cake I made a few weeks back…”
And because I haven’t actually got a book review ready for today, I figure, WHY NOT talk about the loveliness that is mangoes and cake?
Isn’t that scrumptious?
So I decided on mango cake because it was my father’s birthday, and he does love mangoes. Normally, we could easily get really good mango cake at the local Filipino bakeshop, but come on. I bake, and I wanted to try to make some kind of mango cake at some point.
Lucky for me, I found the perfect recipe to emulate! I found this mango sponge cake recipe at Natasha’s Kitchen, and she really does do a good job with the recipe, so I won’t go too much into it!
The recipe did call for thinly sliced mangoes, but with my oafish fingers, that wasn’t going to happen. Instead, I decided to cut a bunch up into cubes (or as close to cubes as I could) and then deal with the decorations by overcompensating with frosting. Oh, hah, but let me tell you about that frosting.
I’ve decided that I’m no longer a big fan of buttercream frosting. Too much buttery taste, which, if you paired it with something else, could actually taste good. All in all, though, there is a time and place for buttercream, and for all else, I usually like the touch of plain ole’ whipping cream.
In this case, though, the cream cheese frosting really did highlight the flavor of the mango and the cake! It wasn’t super sweet, it was lighter than I’d expected (and this is surprising, considering how dense cream cheese can be), and it was tres delicieuse!
In hindsight, the only thing I would change is the actual cake. I don’t know if it was because of my oven, which burnt the cake a bit, or if it’s the nature of sponge cake to be dense, but I would have loved it a bit more if it was a softer texture. Next time, I might try a mango chiffon cake with cream frosting…just the thought of it makes me drool.
That being said, this cake was still really good, especially once I started stacking each layer with the cream cheese frosting and the mango puree. (Side note: I actually didn’t add any extra sugar on the puree. The mangoes themselves were pretty sweet as is, and sugar seemed overkill.)
The cream cheese frosting, though…I may have run out of cream cheese frosting by the end of it. Silly me for wanting to go crazy on cream cheese frosting decorations!
Still, totally worth.
Verdict: All in all, it was a crowd-pleaser, to a point my picky dad even had more the next day. Again, the cake itself could have been chiffon softer, and I would make note not to add any extra sugar in the mango puree, if only to make the actual mango flavor shine. The cream cheese frosting was absolutely delicious!
Story and Somnomancy 
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