{"id":6651,"date":"2017-06-07T09:00:36","date_gmt":"2017-06-07T03:30:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/food-dee-dum.com\/?p=6651"},"modified":"2017-06-07T01:14:05","modified_gmt":"2017-06-06T19:44:05","slug":"mango-milk-cake","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/food-dee-dum.com\/2017\/06\/07\/mango-milk-cake\/","title":{"rendered":"Mango & Milk Cake"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Rich, milk-soaked cake, filled and topped with fresh mangoes.<\/h2>\n

Yesterday was one of the best days of the past\u00a0month for me. In\u00a0the middle\u00a0of a\u00a0sweltering Delhi summer day, I broke my mini-hiatus from baking and decided to turn on the oven. Just. Because. Sometimes you need absolutely no reason at all.<\/p>\n

I know I rant and rave a whole lot about the Delhi summer heat and how I can’t bear to be in the kitchen for long. But sometimes, a girl’s just got to bake. To be honest, I actually broke the hiatus over the weekend by baking a batch of Jamie & Gennaro’s Focaccia<\/a>, but since I’m not going to be blogging it anytime soon, let’s pretend it didn’t happen. Until I can’t resist, and I do!<\/p>\n

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If you’ve been following this blog for long, you probably already know that I am not a mango-crazy person. Which is a shame,\u00a0according to AK. But he is obviously the opposite. So for a few weeks, ever \u00a0since mangoes hit the fruit vendors, there has been mango+ice cream for dessert and mango milkshake for breakfast almost every day. There have been a few attempts at Mango Sorbet & a no-cook Mango Ice-Cream as well. But that list is never ending!<\/p>\n

One of the exceptions to my being not-so-crazy-about-mangoes is this cake. I first baked a variation of it a few years ago, on a Sunday for a summer lunch dessert. It’s inspired by the Tres Leches Cake<\/a> – the Mexican three-milk-soaked cake. I just found it online, having never actually tasted it from a store or bakery. When I made it for the first time, it reminded me of the flavours of the Indian Sweet “Milkcake”, which is by far my favourite Indian Sweet. It seemed like a relatively shorter-cut to having my beloved milk cake, without the endless hours spend in reducing, evaporating and thickening milk until it became solid enough to shape! I fell in love!<\/p>\n

Over time, I’ve made variations and combinations of various recipes from TPW<\/a>, Bon Appetit<\/a>, Brown Eyed Baker<\/a> and many more. Some make it using a sponge cake recipe, others using a butter cake. But eventually, I found the easiest thing to do was to use my favourite Yellow Cake recipe from Real Simple<\/a> and go from there.<\/p>\n

A few weeks ago, I made this cake to take to a friends house for dinner, but AK didn’t get more than 1 serving! Which seemed unfair to him. So he’s been bugging me to make it again, ever since.<\/p>\n

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Normally, I just bake it in a 9×13 pan, cool it and\u00a0pop it back in to the cake pan to soak up the milk mix and top with chopped mangoes. But this time, I thought to try and up the presentation a little. Just for fun. And I’m so excited with the result\u00a0– it looks pretty as a picture and tastes delicious too.<\/p>\n

If you just don’t feel up to making the effort, try the bake-and-serve pan version – it will taste just as good. I promise.<\/p>\n

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Here’s what I used for an\u00a08″ round, layered cake:<\/h3>\n

1 cup (200 gms) unsalted butter at room temperature, plus more for the pans
\n2-1\/2 cups all-purpose flour, spooned and levelled, plus more for the pans
\n1-1\/2 tsp baking powder
\n1\/4 tsp baking soda
\n1\/4 tsp salt
\n1-1\/2 cups castor sugar
\n2 tsp vanilla extract
\n3 eggs, at room temperature
\n1 cup whole milk
\nFor the milk-soak:<\/em>
\n1 x 400 gm tin condensed milk
\n1 cup whole milk
\n1 tbsp Malibu (coconut flavoured rum), optional
\nFor the filling & topping:<\/em>
\n3 mangoes
\n200 ml double cream
\n2 tbsp icing sugar<\/p>\n

Here’s how I made it:<\/h3>\n

First, I turned on the oven to pre-heat at 177\u02daC \/ 350\u02daF and centred my rack. Then I prepped 2 x 8″ round pans by lining them with parchment paper and greasing them with a little butter and dusting with flour.<\/p>\n

Next: dry ingredients. I placed the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a bowl and whisked them to combine.<\/p>\n

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Setting this bowl aside, I placed\u00a0the butter and sugar in the bowl of my stand mixer and beat them together on high, using a paddle attachment, for about 5 minutes or until pale, fluffy and increased in volume.<\/p>\n

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Then I added in the eggs, 1 at a time, beating between each addition on medium speed to incorporate well. Along with the last egg,\u00a0I also added in the vanilla extract.<\/p>\n

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Next, I added the flour mix and the whole mix alternately. Flour, milk, flour, milk and finally flour. At this time, I reduced the mixer speed to the lowest because a) the flour and milk will fly and splash all over the kitchen and b) we don’t want to over-beat the cake at this stage.<\/p>\n

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For the final flour addition, I removed the bowl from the stand and folded it in using a spatula, mixing only until no floury streaks remained.<\/p>\n

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Dividing the batter between the two cake pans, I popped them into the oven to bake for about 25-30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted right in the middle came out clean.<\/p>\n

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While the cake was in the oven, I worked on the soak and the filling+topping. First, I mixed the condensed milk, whole milk and Malibu in a glass measuring cup to make it easy to ladle and pour\u00a0later.<\/p>\n

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Popping this into the fridge, I\u00a0prepped the mangoes. Of the 3, I needed some to fill the cakes and some to top. So I chopped 1 mango and mushed it up roughly with a fork. You don’t have to mush up the mango, but it’s going to be a moist, soaked cake anyway and big chunks of mango may obstruct the knife when slicing the cake through all its layers.<\/p>\n

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From the other 2 mangoes, I scooped out balls using the smaller side of a melon baller. I set these aside in the fridge as well.<\/p>\n

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Now for the whipped cream. Into the clean bowl of my stand mixer, I poured in the chilled double cream and the icing sugar. Using a wire whisk, I beat the cream until it formed\u00a0soft peaks.<\/p>\n

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I set this aside in the fridge as well.<\/p>\n

Once the cakes were done, I pulled them out of the oven and allowed them to cool in the pans for 15 minutes before transferring them to wire cooling racks and slicing off the dome from the top. Once they cooled a little more, about 20-25 minutes, I ladled the milk-soak over the cakes and allowed them to absorb it all.<\/p>\n

Note: (1) I poked one of the cakes with a fork but it was unnecessary and I suggest you not do it. By slicing the dome off the top of the cakes, there’s no crust to obstruct the milk and the cake soaks it in very easily. By pricking the cake with the fork, I made it more brittle and it soaked up too much of the the milk and it flowed all the way to the bottom. (2) The milk mix is actually a lot and you can use 1\/2 cup less — reserve the discarded amount and use it to make iced coffee or milkshake.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

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I placed the bottom layer (the more brittle one, in my case) onto the serving plate and spooned the mushy mangoes over it, followed by the second cake to sandwich it in.<\/p>\n

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Then I spooned the whipped cream over it – you can pipe out pretty designs too, but I like the rustic look of roughly spooned whipped cream.<\/p>\n

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I finished it off by piling the mango balls in the centre, leaving a little border of cream on the side.<\/p>\n

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All done! And you have a pretty, moist, rich, tropical fruit cake!<\/p>\n

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Garnish with a sprig, or many, of fresh mint if you like.<\/p>\n

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Slice it up and serve at room temperature or cold.<\/p>\n

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Can you see all the gooey-ness at the bottom of the cake? That’s all because of my fork poking! It made the cake a little more fragile but it tasted fantastic all the same.<\/p>\n

Because of all the milk and whipped cream, this cake needs to be stored in the refrigerator and is best consumed within 2 days. Sooner the better.<\/p>\n

PS – if you’re super observant and noticed a pair of hands in the photos that isn’t mine, then let me give you a little hint. I have a little helper in the studio for a few weeks and she’ll be working on a few recipes with me over the summer! More on that in the next post…<\/em><\/p>\n

Have a favourite mango or tropical fruit cake recipe of your own? Share it with me by leaving a comment below.<\/p>\n

Liked this recipe? Try some other fruit based cakes and desserts from the archives:<\/em> Citrus Syrup Cake<\/a>, Eggless No-Bake Strawberry Souffle<\/a>, Easy Breezy Lemon Bars<\/a>,\u00a0Strawberry Crumble<\/a>, Amrood Cesar Kulfi<\/a>, Sponge Flan with Caramelised Plums<\/a>, Spiced Pineapple Upside Down Cake<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Same time, last year:<\/em>
\nOne year ago: Home-made Dulce de Leche<\/a>
\nTwo Years ago: Chilled Spinach and Cucumber Soup<\/a>
\nThree Years ago: Ruggedly Loaded Brownies<\/a><\/p>\n

[wpanchor id=”mango”]Recipe for Mango & Milk Cake | Printable Version<\/h3>\n
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Mango & Milk Cake<\/div>\n
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Recipe Type<\/span>: Cakes & Dessert<\/span><\/div>\n
Cuisine: Mexican<\/span><\/div>\n
Author: Praerna<\/span><\/div>\n
Prep time:
Cook time: