Saturday, 7 December 2013

mango layer cake

I have a friend who is rather partial to a mango so it seemed fitting to make a mango cake for her birthday.  The problem was, how to incorporate this very wet fruit into a cake without ending up with a soggy mess.

So I decided to start with a basic Victoria sandwich cake and man-go from there

225g stork
225g caster sugar
4 eggs
225g self-raising flour
2 tsp baking powder

Cream the stork and caster sugar together.   Beat in the eggs then add the flour and baking powder.  Divide the mixture between 2 greased and lined 8" (20cm) sandwich tins and bake at 180c for 25 minutes.  Leave to cool

300ml double cream, whipped
1 large can mango, drained with liquid reserved
1 sachet gelatin

Slice each of the sandwich cake width-ways so you have four layers.  Keep the best, most level layer for the top.  Blitz the mango to a pulp in a food processor and begin to layer up - cake, cream, mango pulp, cake, cream, mango pulp....etc.  Keep a couple of tablespoons of the pulp back.  End with the best layer of cake.

To make the mango jelly.  Pour half of the reserved mango juice into a saucepan and bring to the boil.  Sprinkle the gelatin on top and whisk in until blended.  Add a couple of tablespoons of mango pulp to give it a really vivid colour.

At this point I was wondering how the hell I was going to get this jelly on top of my cake without it either running off or soaking into the sponge.  I decided the best way was to line one of the sandwich tins I had used for the cake with clingfilm, pour the liquid in, and allow to set overnight in the fridge.  This is how I discovered that my fridge isn't perfectly level!

In the morning I had a perfect sized piece of vibrant yellow mango jelly to top my cake with.  I carefully placed this on top of my cake and smoothed any slightly rough edges of the jelly with a pallet knife warmed in boiling water.

Ta Da!