Mango Madness, Pt. 2

The mango cake rears its head again! Honestly, this is a reprise of the first mango cake I’d made, but with several changes.

Now, mangoes aren’t in season at the moment, and I’m only sorry that I couldn’t find any really ripe mangoes at the moment to take this recipe to the next level. That being said, it still came out really well, and the cake itself was the desired softness I really found lacking in the last cake. So for the sake of keeping the actual recipe I used in one spot (something that’ll help me at the very least), I’m throwing this on my blog. That way if I ever want to make it again, I can just go to one place, right?

We totally know I’m making this again…

Shoutouts to Natasha’s Kitchen and Make Fabulous Cakes for the fabulous recipes I ended up using to make this delicious concoction.

Chiffon Cake

(courtesy of Make Fabulous Cakes)

2 1/4 cups cake flour
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar (separate 1/2 cup sugar for egg white mixture)
1 1/2 tbsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
8 egg yolks
3/4 cup (180 ml) orange juice
3/4 cup (180 ml) oil
8 egg whites
1 tsp. (5 g) cream of tartar

Preheat oven to 325°F. Prepare cake pans (I used two 8″ pans and a smaller 6″ one for the leftover tier) by greasing and lining them with parchment paper. Melting butter and spreading it around each pan works, but otherwise cooking spray works just as well.

Sift cake flour in bowl and add 1 cup of the sugar, baking powder and salt mixture.

Mix orange juice, oil and egg yolks.

Make a well in dry mixture and pour in juice mixture. Mix together (I used an electric hand mixer) for about 2-3 minutes until light and fluffy.

In a separate bowl, whisk egg whites until frothy. Add in cream of tartar. Slowly add the remaining 1/2 cup of sugar. Beat the egg whites until stiff peaks have formed.

Gently fold the eggwhites in to the batter.

Pour batter in cake pans and bake for approx. 45 minutes.

Loosen the sides with a knife or metal spatula and invert to a metal rack almost immediately.

Mango Cake Filling

(courtesy of Natasha’s Kitchen)

2 mangoes cut into thin, uneven strips (honestly, this is a decoration choice)
2 medium fresh mangos (which was puréed to about 1 1/2 cups)
1 to 4 Tbsp sugar if needed

I used a hand blender to puree the mixture. The sweeter the mango, the less sugar you need to add. For this particular instance, I ended up putting the full 4 tablespoons because the mangoes were not sweet (sigh). Over the summer, I got away with not putting any sugar at all, and it came out fresh and delicious all the same!

Cream Cheese Frosting

(courtesy of Natasha’s Kitchen)

16 oz cream cheese (2 packages), softened
1 cup unsalted butter, softened
2 1/2 cups powdered sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract

Combine all filling ingredients in a large bowl and mix (I used an electric hand mixer). Mix on high to around 5/6 minutes until frosting is soft and retains shape.

And then, once all this is done, AVENGERS ASSEMBLE!

Putting the cake together is pretty much what takes up the most time for me, to be honest. I baked the cake the day before I had to put it together, just so I could freeze it overnight and then cut each layer in half easily. With chiffon cake, this step is particularly important, because it is a SOFT CAKE. Without the solidity of frozen cake, there’s a greater chance of ripping pieces of the cake on the sides. Each layer (four on the main cake in total) got a good slathering of frosting on the side, then a layer of puree, and repeat. What I would have liked to change was the amount of frosting in between. The cake could have used a bit more, to be honest.

In any case, I covered the cake up, decorated the sides with the uneven mango strips, and garnished it all with piped frosting and little pieces of mango.

It actually came out prettier than what I’d imagined in my head. But, ya know, I have my moments sometimes!

Verdict: The cake was made for my sister’s apartment-warming party, and it quite literally got finished within the next few minutes after it got sliced up. I’ve also got someone wanting an order of the cake for Christmas, so I’m guessing it was a success! It certainly tasted good, though again, much of its epic taste would have been heightened if I’d managed to find yellow mangoes as opposed to the red ones.