The Diary of a Displaced Housewife is now Life In Fuchsia…


'The Diary of the Displaced Housewife' is now 'Life in Fuschia'

Tuesday, May 4, 2010

Luscious Mango Cake

First off… Thank you Rebecca for pointing out this recipe to me!

The minute I realized that it involved mango, I had to try it out. It’s a dense, pudding-like, gorgeous cake that is great even without that decadent frosting (but tell me, when has frosting ever been a bad thing?). I warn you, it’s not a crumby cake by any means. It’s perfect with cool vanilla ice cream but I’m obligated to point out, it’s even better warm and fragrant right out of the oven.  As it bakes, it fills your home with scents of mango and cardamom, enticing anyone who walks in to head straight for the kitchen…

The stunning yellow from the mango is a perfect foil for the creamy white frosting studded with the bright jewel green of the pistachios on top.



Luscious Mango Cake

What you need:
2 1/2 cups peeled and mashed ripe Mangoes or canned Mango Puree
2 cups Sugar (adjust sugar as per the sweetness of the mango)
2 Eggs
2 cups All-Purpose Flour
2 teaspoons Baking Soda
1 cup chopped Pistachios
1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
½ teaspoon powdered Cardamom Seeds

Icing:
4 ounces Cream Cheese, softened
1/4 cup Butter, softened
1 1/2 cups sifted Powdered Sugar
1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract

Garnish:
Chopped Pistachios

Getting Down to Business:
For the cake:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour a 13 by 9 inch baking pan.
Combine the flour, salt, and baking soda. Keep aside.
In a mixing bowl, add in the mango puree, sugar and eggs. Stir to combine well.
Add in the flour, salt and baking soda. Now mix in the pistachios, and vanilla. Fold in the dry ingredients gently. Do not over mix.
Pour batter into the prepared baking pan.
Bake in the preheated oven for 35-40 minutes or until pick comes out clean.
Cool the cake in the pan and when still slightly warm you can invert onto a cooling rack.

For the icing:
In another mixing bowl, combine the cream cheese, butter, sugar and vanilla extract.  Beat till well combined.
Spread over the cooled cake.


Notes:
You can get canned Indian mango puree at any Indian grocer. In my opinion, it’s a much better alternative when you don’t have access to Indian mangoes.
I cut the sugar by almost half because my canned mango puree was extremely sweet.
I also did not want a cloyingly sweet frosting, so I cut the original 2 cups of powdered sugar to 1-¼ cups. Add the powdered sugar a little at a time until you reach the desired sweetness.
You can add pecans or walnuts to the cake instead of pistachios or if you wish to carry the Indian theme, toasted chopped cashews would be great too.


Modified from ‘Mango Cake recipe #102221’ from recipezaar

10 comments:

  1. so here i am back with my silly doubts.. do we get cream cheese in chennai? can u recommend a brand?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Yes, Amul makes a cream cheese! I think even Malai Chaska will work. Your last option would be to try in Amma Nana. Hope this helps! :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. (Let's try this again! :P)
    I looked at the title and my insides caved!! The only thing I look forward to in the crabby heat are the mangoes!!!
    Sadly, I won't cook to save my life!

    ReplyDelete
  4. The smell must have been divine out of the oven! Looks so moist and tender.

    Thanks for visiting my blog. I hope you will visit again :)

    ReplyDelete
  5. Smriti - Come on! You should give it a try! And yes, i love mangoes and really really miss the Indian Mangoes. There's nothing better in the world than a juicy banginapalli!:D Nothing really measure's up!

    Biren - Hey Biren! Your blog is lovely! :) As you said, one of the best things about baking is that divine smell wafting out of the oven! Planning to post some more baked goodies.. so stay tuned!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Slurp! Ya sounds like a plan! Umm stupid question...can I make this in a microwave? Not an oven (apparently the two are different..who knew?? :P)

    ReplyDelete
  7. Hey Smriti! You know I tend to avoid baking the microwave because in 1950(!) I tried to bake something in it and it was really a disaster! Now that technology has improved much, I'm sure you can give it a shot. Good question though...I'll try making a cake in the microwave and let you know how it goes!

    ReplyDelete
  8. "The minute I realized that it involved mango, I had to try it out" - yep, I thought the same thing the second I saw your cake had mango in it. Mangoes are so wonderful, one of my favorite fruits. This sounds so good!

    ReplyDelete
  9. Hi Heather! I love mangoes too and in any form... I promise I'll post more mango recipes!

    ReplyDelete