Mango Mousse Cake

This is such a late posting. I made this cake on request of a friend for her friend's birthday last year and I just realised that I had not posted it yet. As this was a gift, sorry the cake was not cut to show the inside.

Ingredients

Chiffon Cake Base recipe:

Ingredients:
4 egg yolks
1/4 tsp salt
40g castor sugar
drop vanilla extract
75ml corn oil
110ml warm water

150g cake flour

3/4 tsp baking powder

4 egg whites

1/2 tsp cream of tartar
40g castor sugar


Method :
1. Preheat oven to 165C.  
2. Mix the egg yolks with sugar until smooth. Add oil and water and combine very well. Sift in cake flour, incorporate all ingredients well until you get a smooth batter. 
3 Use an electric mixer to beat egg whites first for a while until bubbles form. Add cream of tartar. Add one third of the 40 grams of sugar at a time. Combine well between the adds, until stiff peaks form. 
4. Fold in the egg whites into the batter. Add one third of egg whites at a time in order to easily incorporate the egg whites. 
8. Pour batter into clean baking pan and bake for 45 minutes or until cooked.
9. Invert cake and leave to cool. Then cut cooled cake into 2 or 3 layers.

Mango Mousse recipe

Ingredients

350ml Non Dairy Whipping cream

300ml Mango Puree, unsweetened

180g Mango, diced into cubes

1 tbsp + 2 tsp gelatin powder

60ml hot water

Mango Puree Topping Recipe

Ingredients

100ml mango puree, unsweetened

2 tsp gelatin powder

50ml hot water

Method

Dissolve gelatin in 60ml hot water. Keep warm for use later.

Whip cream till 70% stiff or mousse state.

Add gelatin solution into mango puree and mix well.

Add mango gelatin mixture into whipped cream and combine well.

Prepare a cake ring or a springform pan or a cake pan with removable base.

Put 1 layer of cake on to cake pan and top it with mango mousse filling. Add in the mango cubes and top it with some mousse just enough to cover the mango cubes. Chill in fridge for 10 - 15 mins.

Put in the other cake layer and pour all the mousse over it. Chill for 45 mins - 1 hour.

In the mean time, dissolve 2 tsp gelatin in 50ml hot water for mango puree topping. Add gelatin to mango puree and mix well. Strain mixture.

When the mousse is set, arrange sliced fruits on cake and spoon the mango puree topping over fruits and cake.

Chill cake for 3 hours before serving.

Notes

I trimmed my cake to be smaller than the pan so that the mousse will flow down and cover the whole cake

Rainbow cake

Baked this cake for my grandson's 3rd birthday. His mum didn't have any special request and I have been wanting to try and make this cake for some time, so it was the perfect time to do it.

Didn't know which recipe to choose, so in the end used a sponge cake recipe. I had to double the quantity to get my 7 layers of the rainbow because I only had 3 tins, had to bake it 3 times to get the 7 layers.

Ingredients:
200 gm butter, softened
200 gm caster sugar
4 eggs, beaten
200 gm self raising flour
For the filling:
400 gm icing sugar
150 gm butter, softened
2 tsp single cream
For the icing:
500 gm icing sugar
a little water to bind the icing sugar

Method:
1. Preheat the oven to 180 deg C/Gas or 160 deg C/fn. Grease 2 deep 20cm sandwich cake tins. Line the base of each with greaseproof paper.*
2. Put the butter and sugar in a bowl and cream together until light and fluffy. Add the eggs a bit at a time, sprinkling in a bit of the flour to stop the mixture curdling. Sift and fold in the remaining flour. Divide the mixture into 4 bowls equally and add in your chosen colours.*
3. Then pour into baking tins and bake for about 15 mins then test with skewer. Leave the cakes in the tins for 5 mins, then turn out onto a wire rack and leave until cold.
4. Make your 2 batch of cake and repeat. You will have 1 extra layer - go on have that! :-)
5. While the cakes are cooling down, make the filling. Put all the ingredients into a bowl and beat with an electric mixer until smooth and fluffy, then use to sandwich all the layers together.
5. Make the icing. Sift the icing sugar into a bowl, then mix in 2-3 tbsps cold water to make a smooth icing. Pour the icing onto the top of the cake and quickly spread it over the top and sides. Leave the icing to set before serving.

Starting from bottom layer:
Violet, indigo, blue, green, yellow, orange and ending with red on top.

James's 2nd Birthday

This is such a backdated post. I am so way behind in my posting as I have been so busy everyday, but then again, no excuse right?

James celebrated his 2nd birthday on 14 June and his parents held a party for him on 17. I offered to bake him a  Thomas the Tank Engine Cake and some cupcakes, so here they are!

Pat's birthday cake

Pat's birthday

Baked a coffee walnut cake for Pat for his birthday!
And little James was there to share the cake!

Cupcake Bouquet

Cupcake Bouquet

In tomorrow's post, I will tell you about a party for a friend. This is a cupcake bouquet that I baked in addtion to the birthday cake.

Cupcakes
Ingredients
125gm Castor sugar
125 butter
125 self raising flour
2 eggs
1/2 tsp vanilla essence
2-3 tbsp milk (optional, just in case mixture is too stiff)

Method:
Preheat oven to 200 deg C
Cream butter and sugar till creamy, then add eggs and finally flour and vanilla essence.
If mixture is too stiff, add a tbsp of milk or 2.
Spoon into cup cake cases and place in oven for around 12 minutes depending on size of cup cake, turning the cake trays halfway through and bake for another 8 - 12 mins.

Vanilla butter cream
125 gm butter
250 gm icing sugar
5 ml vanilla essence
1 tbsp of water as required

Method:
Cream the butter and then slowly add in the icing sugar and vanilla essence and mix till it is light and fluffy.

Chocolate Fudge Cake

Chocolate Fudge Cake

This is the cake that I made for a friend's birthday party to be held on Friday.

This recipe is from Lindy Smith. I made previous cakes also using her recipe but it was the mud cake recipe. So this time as I was making a cake for a colleague and she wanted a chocolate, I thought I would try this and yes, this is good too and moist and it is heavy enough to be covered with fondant.

Ingredients
225g (8oz) unsalted butter
225g (8oz) good quality chocolate
1 (15ml) tablespoon instant coffee
450g (1lb) caster sugar or soft brown sugar
150ml (5 fl oz) water

4 large eggs
35ml (1.1fl oz) vegetable oil
100ml (3.4 fl oz) sour cream or you can use natural yoghurt or Crème fraiche

125g (4 .5 oz) self raising flour
125g (4 .5 oz) plain flour
50g (2oz) cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon (2.5ml) bicarbonate of soda

Method:
1.Preheat your oven to 160 degrees C (315 degrees F, gas mark 2-3)
2.Line the 20cm (8in) deep cake tin with baking parchment
3.Slowly melt the butter, chocolate, coffee, sugar and water in a pan, once melted allow to cool.
4.Add the eggs, oil and sour cream to the chocolate mix and stir well
5.Sift all the dry ingredients into a large mixing bowl and make a well in the centre
6.Pour the chocolate mixture into well and mix until thoroughly combined.
7.Pour the batter into the lined tin and bake for 1 hour 45mins or until a skewer inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean
8.Leave the cake to cool in the tin

1st Birthday cake

1st Birthday Cake

Another colleague requested me to make a 1 year old birthday cake as she wanted to share it with the other toddlers at her daughter's nursery.

As I had always wanted to make a pull apart cake and never had the chance to do it, I thought, hey, here's my chance to make one now! So here it is, tada!

Pull apart cakes are just cupcakes held together by frosting.

A very simple but yummy vanilla cupcake cake!

Birthday cake and cuppies

Birthday Cake and Cuppies

When I gave my TA her chwee kueh, she told me her daughter was going to celebrate her 18th birthday soon and they were going to have a little party. So I offered to make a cake for her.

The request for her cake was a little unusual as she wanted the front cover of her book which was published when she was 6. She had won a competition organised by Reader's Digest. Cool! This is the front cover of her book.



And this is the cake that I made. It is a little different as on the inside page, it does show the shadows of the animals as shown in the cake.




These were the cuppies to go with the cake. I have to add that Liana made all the flowers/designs for the cuppies!

Sugar craft rose cake

Sugar Craft Rose Cake

Was invited to Pat's cousin's 60th Birthday lunch, so thought I'd make a cake to give as a present. My 2nd go at making roses and I am so glad of the end result.