Mango season has arrived, mango season is my favourite season, I LOVE MANGOES. So I wanted to make a mango cake to embrace this season.
I recently made a mango cheesecake, and also Hong Kong style mango pancakes, so I felt like I should make a cake too.
This cake was so light and fluffy and the mangoes added an amazing flavour, plus a lot juiciness. I loved it so much!
Video Tutorial
Chiffon cake
This cake has 4 different parts to it, we got the cake layers, a sweet milk that I poured onto them, whipped cream, and then also the mangoes.
For the cake layers, I decided to make a chiffon cake batter for them.
I feel like chiffon cake is the fluffiest kind of cake, and for this cake I wanted lightness and fluffiness. So chiffon cake is what I went for.
Here are the ingredients you are going to need to make this cake batter:
- Eggs – we’re going to whip the egg yolks and egg whites separately. These eggs are going to give the cake it’s fluffiness.
- Cream of tartar – this helps stabilise your whipped egg whites, which will then give you a fluffier cake. If you didn’t have it, you could replace it with 1 teaspoon of lemon juice. But I recommend using cream of tartar, it works better.
- Granulated sugar – caster sugar works too. In the recipe card, the sugar is written twice in the ingredient list. This isn’t a mistake, it’s just because we are going to whip 125g of sugar with the egg whites, and then 125g with the egg yolks.
- Oil – any flavourless oil works, but I like to use vegetable oil.
- Cold water – honestly I don’t know why the water needs to be cold. Every chiffon cake recipe I see uses cold water, so I use it too.
- Vanilla – for flavour.
- Plain flour – also known as all-purpose flour.
- Baking powder – to help give the cake an extra lift as it bakes.
- Salt – to enhance the flavours.
A few tips when making the cake layers
Chiffon cake is pretty easy to make, however there is a risk of your cake deflating.
We don’t want this to happen, so here’s a few things to do to avoid this:
Don’t grease your cake tins
Instead of greasing your cake tins, just add a circle of baking paper to the bottom of them.
With chiffon cakes, you don’t want to grease your tins because as the cakes bake, the batter grips onto the sides of the tin. This is what helps them rise.
If you grease them, the batter won’t be able to do this, so make sure not to grease the tins.
Don’t worry about them not coming out of the tins after they have baked, it’s not a very sticky cake. So if you just run a knife around the edge of the tins after the cakes have cooled, they will come out easily.
Don’t open your oven door too early
Opening your oven door too early can make the cake layers deflate.
I baked my cake layers for around 40-45 minutes. Try not to open the door before the 30 minute mark.
Cool your cake layers upside down
Most chiffon cakes are cooled upside down, this also helps prevent them from deflating too much.
To do this, as soon as your cakes have come out of the oven, turn them upside down onto wire racks. DON’T take them out of the tins, leave them upside down in the tins.
The reason why I use wire racks is because you want air to be flowing under the tins, you don’t want to turn them upside down on your counter.
If you don’t have wire racks, find something to prop the tins up with. For example metal straws or chopsticks will work, you just want there to be a gap so that air can get under.
The sweet milk
The next thing I made was a sweet milk.
For this it is just milk, some sugar and vanilla extract. I just heat this until the sugar has dissolved, then pour it over the cakes after they have cooled for about 30 minutes.
This is completely optional. you don’t need to add it if you don’t want to.
All it does is add some extra flavour and moistness to your cake layers.
I find that chiffon cakes are very fluffy but sometimes they can be a little drier than other kind of cakes. So this sweet milk is a great way to add some moisture to them, and then the extra flavour is a nice bonus.
But again, you don’t need to add this, the cake will still taste great without it!
The whipped cream
I filled and iced this cake with a whipped cream. In my personal opinion, when you are making a light fluffy cake, whipped cream is the best thing to pair it with.
It just adds to the lightness and fluffiness.
But of course you can fill and ice this with whatever you want, a buttercream, a ganache…anything you want.
Here are the ingredients I used to make this whipped cream:
- Double cream – also known as heavy cream. If you live in a place where it is hard to find this, whipping cream works too.
- Icing sugar – also known as powdered sugar. I added 120g of this, but this amount is adjustable. If you want a sweeter whipped cream, add more. If you want a less sweet whipped cream, add less.
- Vanilla extract – for flavour
How to fix over whipped cream
To make this whipped cream, all we are doing is adding the ingredients into a bowl and then just whip until you get a smooth mixture, that has medium peaks.
If you whip this too much, you will notice that it is not very smooth. Especially when you spread it.
If this happens, don’t worry it is easily fixable.
Just pour some more un-whipped cream into this, and gently mix this in. Keep repeating this until the cream goes back to being soft and smooth.
The only time where this won’t work is if you have whipped the cream to a point where it has turned into butter. So try not to get to this point.
The mangoes
Use your favourite kind of mangoes for this cake, I used Pakistani mangoes but any work.
But you do want to use soft juicy ones, if they’re not soft and juicy, this cake won’t be as good.
When it comes to cutting them, I think it’s better to cut them into slices, instead of cubes.
When we are filling and icing the cake, we are going to add a layer of these mango slices to the centre of the cake.
It’s a lot easier to fully cover the cake with slices of mangoes, than it is to cover it with cubes.
I don’t know if that makes sense…but in my mind it made sense.
The coconut
I also added some desiccated coconut to the outside of the cake, this is completely optional.
I just think mango and coconut is a nice flavour combination.
If you are using coconut though, I recommend toasting it first. I didn’t, because it seemed like too much work, but I do kind of wish I did. The toasty-ness would’ve been a nice addition.
Here are few more cake recipes I think you should also try:
Mango Cake
Ingredients
- For the cake layers:
6 egg whites
1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar
125g granulated sugar
6 egg yolks
125g granulated sugar
80ml vegetable oil
100ml water, cold
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
200g plain flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
- For the sweet milk:
250ml whole milk
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- For the whipped cream:
600ml double cream
120g icing sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- Extras:
3 mangoes, cut into slices
Plus some desiccated coconut for the outside of the cake (optional)
Directions
- Making the cake layers:
- Start by pre-heating your oven to 180c/350f. Also line the bottom of two 8 inch cake tins with some baking paper. DON'T grease these tins, just add a circle of baking paper to the bottom of them.
- In a large bowl, add the egg whites and cream of tartar, start whipping this. Once the egg whites become foamy, slowly pour in the first 125g sugar, whiles still whipping. Once all the sugar has been added, whip until you get stiff peaks. Leave this aside.
- In a separate large bowl, add the egg yolks and the second 125g of sugar. Whip these together until the mixture lightens in colour and increases in volume.
- Add the oil, water and vanilla into this, whisk until combined. Now add the flour, baking powder and salt, whisk just until you get a smooth batter.
- Add half of the whipped egg whites into this batter, gently fold until incorporated. Now add the rest of the whipped egg whites and fold until you can no longer see any lumps or streaks of egg whites.
- Pour this into your cake tins then bake at 180c/350f for around 45-50 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the centre comes out clean.
- As soon as these come out of the oven, flip them upside down onto a wire rack. Don't take them out of the tin, just leave them in the tin, upside down. Leave them like this for 30 minutes.
- Making the sweet milk:
- In a pot, add the milk, sugar and vanilla. Heat this until the milk is warm, we don't want this to come to boil, we're just heating it so that the sugar can dissolve. You can also just do this in your microwave. Leave this aside.
- Once your cakes have cooled upside down for 30 minutes, turn them over and pour the sweet milk over them. Now leave them to cool completely.
- Making the whipped cream:
- In a large bowl, add the double cream, icing sugar and vanilla.
- Whip these together until the mixture thickens and you get medium peaks. Leave this in the fridge until you're ready to use it.
- Assembling the cake:
- Once your cake layers have cooled completely, you can put the cake together.
- I started by cutting the tops of my cakes off, just to get more even layers, but you can skip this step if you want.
- Place one of your cake layers down onto a plate or board, spread some whipped cream over this, then add the mango slices. Spread some more whipped cream over the mango slices, then add the second layer of cake on top.
- Now you can decorate the cake however you want. I just iced it with the rest of the whipped cream, added some coconut to the sides, then piped whipped cream on top and added pieces of mangoes.
- Once decorated, leave your cake in the fridge for about 20 minutes so the whipped cream can set up a little, then cut into it and enjoy!
Heyy I was going to follow your strawberry and cream cake recipe but do you think I should use this recipe instead since it’s newer and just replace the mangoes with strawberries?
Author
yessss i like this recipe better!