Mango Cream cake

 I baked this cake just like that, no special occasion. I bought this new baking pan and had to use it, so baked a sponge cake and layered it with mango whipped cream. As simple as it sounds, it tastes amazing. This cake will make you want more.... My idea was to make a mousse cake, turns out, to make mousse we need gelatin. I don't like to use gelatin and the fancy gelatin substitutes like, pectin and agar-agar are not readily available where I live, so dropped the mousse idea and made it work as cream... I almost never use food colour in my cream or cakes or decorations as we eat lot of chemicals unknowingly, why should I add some with my knowledge. I don't like to use a lot of icing and fondant coz, they have a lot of sugar and some fondants have gelatin as well.... So it is up to you to make the cake decorations and fillings, however, baking the cake must be followed as it is given.

Prep time: 20 minutes

Bake time: 15 to 20 minutes

Serving: 8 to 10

Ingredients:

For sponge cake:

1. All purpose flour - 1/2 cup + 2 heaping tsp (for later use, not with the half cup)

2. Baking powder - 1/2 tsp [measure flat, not a heaped]

3. Sugar - 1/2 cup

4. Eggs - 2

5. Egg yolks - 2

6. Oil/molten butter - 2 tbsp

7. Vanilla essence - 1 tsp [substitute with the flavour of your choice. Vanilla blends with almost anything]

For whipped cream:

1. Heavy Cream - 1/2 pint

2. Mango puree - 1 cup

3. Sugar - 2 tsp

Method:

To bake the sponge cake:

1. Stiff* flour and baking powder into a big bowl and set aside.

2. In two small bowls, separate the 2 egg yolks from whites. In order to do so, crack the egg's shell, gently and slowly break the shell with out piercing the yolk over a bowl. Let the white flow out of the shell into a bowl, transfer the yolk into another half of the shell and let the remaining yolk flow out. Repeat the some process with the other egg. Put the whites away. Add these yolks to a large bowl. Crack the other two eggs into it, add vanilla and beat them till they get frothy.

3. Add some sugar and beat till it gets dissolved. Repeat the process till all the sugar is used and when you lift the beater, the egg-sugar mixture must form ribbons.

4. Now add 1/4 of the stiffed flour, and beat till it blends completely. Repeat the process till all the flour is well incorporated.

5. In a small bowl, pour the oil and add 2 tsp heaps of all purpose flour, mix it well incorporated and add to the cake batter. Beat till it gets well mixed.

6. Preheat* oven to 400F for 15 minutes. While the oven is heating, grease* and dust* the baking pan you want to use. ( 9inch rectangle or an 8 inch round) pan. Pour the batter in and bake for 15 to 20 minutes. You will know the cake is done when u insert a stick in the middle of the cake and it comes out dry. Cool completely before you taking out of the pan.

7. You can bake the batter in 2 separate pans, if you do not want to cut the same cake into half.

8. After the cake cools, take it out of the pan, cut it in to half horizontally with a sharp knife. Be very careful not to break the layers while doing so.

9. Pour some mango pulp on the inside of bottom layer, spread it around with a spoon and add dollops of mango whipped cream (method given below). Spread it evenly. Place the other half of the cake on top, repeat the same process. And cover the sides of the cake with remaining whipped cream. Or you can pipe it into nice design on top and sided of your cake.

10. Place the cake covered in the fridge 4 hours before you can serve. 

Method to make Whipped Cream:

1. In a big bowl, pour heavy cream and sugar and beat till it forms soft peaks. You will know when the cream turns fluffy soft and when you pull out the whisk the cream should point up.

2. From the reminder of mango pulp and 1 tbsp of it and fold* it into the whipped cream. Repeat the process till you incorporate 3 to 4 tbsp of mango pulp. and the whipped cream is ready.

Serving suggestions:

You can serve this cake with some chocolate syrup drizzled all over. Or with some mango slices or some chopped nuts drizzled on top or all of it.

Tips:

1. To whip the cream, use a ice cube bed i,e. In a large plate which can hold up to 10 ice cubes, put the ice cubes and place the cream bowl on top and whip for faster results, Never put whipped cream on warm or hot cake. It will melt. The cake has to be 100% cool to work with whipped cream.

2. You can use mango Ice cream instead of mango whipped cream and make an ice cream cake. Decorate it the way you want. It will make a great birthday or any special occasions cake. Not only mango ice cream, you can layer any ice cream between these cake layers. Make more layers for more fancy cake. This is a basic cake recipe and can be used to make a wide range of cakes. Shall post all the recipes when I make them.

* Refer Glossary

Cannoli Cake

Cannoli is a sweet cheese filling usually filled in a deep fried tubes. Cannoli can be of different kinds and flavours. I baked a orange flavoured cake and layered this filling and frosted the cake with some whipped cream for my husbands birthday... He loved it. There are many ways to make this cake, my husband loves the citrus taste, so i used a lot of orange in the cake. So here goes the recipe, bake and enjoy.

Prep time: 45 mins

Bake time: 40 mins

Decoration time: 40 mins

Servings: 12 to 16

Ingredients:

1. Eggs - 4
2. Sugar - 3/4 Cup
3. All-purpose flour - 1 cup
4. Butter or margarine - 1/2 cup /(1 stick) melted and cooled

6. Orange juice - 2 tsp

7. Orange zest* - 2 tsp

8. Baking Powder - 2 tsp

9. Salt - 1 pinch

10. Orange\vanilla\Almond essence - 2 tsp

11. Orange chopped into little bits - 3 tsp (optional)
12.  Ricotta Filling - given below

13. Whipped Cream Frosting - given below


Read here on how to chop orange from.

Ricotta Filling:

1. Ricotta Cheese (Skim milk)- 2 cups (15 oz.)
2. Sugar - 3 Tbsp.
3. Vanilla essence - 1-1/2 tsp.
4. Heavy cream - 1 cup, whipped
5. Semi sweet mini chocolate chips - 1 cup

Whipped Cream Frosting:

1. Heavy cream - 2 cups
2. Powdered sugar - 2 Tbsp.
3. Vanilla essence - 1/2 tsp.

Method:

To bake the cake:

1. Take flour, baking soda and salt, sieve them twice and keep aside. 

2. Break the eggs into a big container in which you can prepare the cake batter, beat them till they get very frothy. 

3. Add little sugar and beat till it's well incorporated, do it till all the sugar is mixed well. Now Add the essence and zest*, beat well. Add the butter in small portions and beat well till all of it gets well incorporated.

4. Now add the flour mixture in 4 batches. Every time you add, make sure you mix it well in the liquid mixture. Grease* and dust* a 8 inch round baking pan and pour the cake batter into it. Do not rub the mixture down in the pan to spread it evenly. Instead, hold the pan with both hands and pat it down on a flat surface so that the mixture spreads evenly. Preheat* the oven to 350F/ 180C, place the pan on the middle rack of the oven and let it bake for 40 minutes. You will know it is done when you insert a tooth pick or a thin stick into the middle of the cake and it comes out dry and clean.

5. Let the cake cool completely before you do any thing else with it.

To make Ricotta Filling: Beat Ricotta cheese, sugar and vanilla on medium speed in bowl with electric mixer 3 minutes. Fold in whipped cream and chocolate chips.

To make Whipped Cream Frosting: Beat cream on high speed in bowl with electric mixer until soft peaks form. Beat in sugar and vanilla.

To layer and frost: Cut cake in half horizontally using sharp serrated knife. Cut each layer in half again horizontally. Place 1 layer on serving platter; spread with one-third Ricotta filling. Repeat procedure, ending with cake layer. No sooner than 6 hours before serving, frost sides and top of cake with all but 1 cup frosting. Decorate with remaining frosting, chopped chocolate and fruit. Refrigerate until serving time. 

Tips:

1. You may add a few orange fruit bits to the cake. To do that, chop the orange into small bits, take a tsp of flour and lightly mix these bits into it. This will ensure all the bits are evenly spread in the mixture, or all of them will deposit in the bottom of the cake.
2. Do not use egg substitute for this cake, makes the cake slightly hard and it also has a funny chemical taste.

* Please refer glossary