Saturday, May 7, 2011

Chocolate and mango layer cake

When I started trying new recipes and after a few disasters, my lovely neighbour and friend came to see me, she said "I have something for you" with a big grin on her face that made me smile... she gave me a small but very consistent book called "Chocolate & Baking"...hmmm! it sounded fabulous....just what I needed!, 508 pages of great recipes, couldn't be a better present!. I have tried a few and they're really good....almost as good as "BBC Good Food".
I mrked all the recipes I wanted to try, all too many I suppose, but someday I' will try them all, yay!.
One of those recipes I marked with a bit of paper, was this one....and OMG is good!. This is probably the fifth time I make it, but the first time I take a picture of it.

The sponge is very firm, so after trying it so many times, I decided to pour a bit of the mango juice mixed with sugar, on the sponge layers before I put the filling.
The original recipe doesn't add any sugar to the cream and mango mixture, but I have done (1/2 cup of sugar) otherwise is not sweet at all.

Ingredients:
-50g cocoa powder
-150ml cup boiling water
-6 large eggs
-350g cup caster (superfine) sugar
-300g self-raising flour
-2 x 400g cans of mango
-1 tsp cornflour (cornstarch)
-425ml cups double (heavy) cream
-75g dark flock chocolate or grated chocolate

1. Grease a deep 23cm/9 inch round cake tin (pan) and line the base with baking parchment.

2. Place the cocoa powder in a small bowl and gradually add the boiling water; blend to form a smooth paste.

3. Place the eggs and caster sugar in a mixing bowl and whisk until the mixture is very light and foamy and the whisk leaves a trail that lasts a few seconds when lifted.
Fold in cocoa mixture.
Sieve (strain) the flour and fold into the mixture.

4. Pour the mixture into the tin (pan) and level the top.
Bake in a preheated oven, 170C/ 325F/ Gas Mark 3, for about 1 hour or until springy to the touch.

5. Leave to cool in the tin (pan) for a few minutes then turn out and cool completely on a wire rack.
Peel off the lining paper and cut the cake into 3 layers.

6. Drain the mangoes and place a quarter of them in a food processor and puree until smooth.
Mix the cornflour with about 3 tbsp of the mango juice to form a smooth paste. Add to the mango puree. Transfer to a small pan and heat gently, stirring until the puree thickens. Leave to cool.

7. Chop the remaining mango.
Whip the cream and reserve about one quarter. Fold the mango into the remaining cream and use to sandwich the layers of cake together.
Place on a serving plate.
Spread some of the remaining cream around the side of the cake. Press the flock or grated chocolate lightly into the cream. Pipe cream rosettes around the top. Spread the mango puree over the centre.
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