This year we celebrated my mother-in-law’s 65th
birthday on August 21st and apparently it is 1st birthday
of our new home too, so double celebration.
She is a very pure, strong soul and has minimum expectations
from life and obviously from us. So to surprise her I wanted to bake a cake. However
with a 5 months old baby and a very inquisitive 4 year toddler around me, I had
very little time on hand. So quick cake was on mind. A new idea popped up and
that was icing and filling the two layers with my very popular Mango Mousse. I have
made layer cake with one flavor before so decided to try with two different
flavors this time. And that “quick cake” idea took a back seat. LOL.
Let’s see how I compiled this very beautiful and tasty layer
cake.
The cake consists of two layers. One is chocolate and the
other is sponge cake. You may find the Microwave chocolate cake recipe here. And
you will find the recipe for a quick Mango Mousse here.
Once you make the Mango Mousse and the Chocolate cake, please put them in the refrigerator. We want all the ingredients really cold when we start to layer the cake. This mousse has tendency to melt really quickly so we have to be extra careful while layering it.
Once you make the Mango Mousse and the Chocolate cake, please put them in the refrigerator. We want all the ingredients really cold when we start to layer the cake. This mousse has tendency to melt really quickly so we have to be extra careful while layering it.
The sponge cake recipe is given below.
Ingredients:
- All-purpose Flour/ Maida: 2 Cups
- Sugar: 1 ½ Cup
- Vegetable Oil: ½ Cup
- Warm Milk: ½ Cup
- Hot Water: 1-1 ¼ Cup
- Vanilla Essence: 1 Tsp.
- Baking Powder: 1 Tsp.
- Baking Soda: ½ Tsp.
- Lemon Juice: ½ Tsp
For Mango Icing:
- Mango Pulp: ¼ Cup
- Agar-agar: 2 Tbsp. dissolved in ¼ Cup of hot water. (Optional)
Tools:
- Microwave
safe container: 9 inch (round)
- 13
inch. Angled Icing spatula: 1
- Disposable
Decorating bag: 1
- Pastry
tube/ Nozzle (star): 1
- Butter
paper or parchment paper: 4 (cut in 5-6 inch wide)
- Sieve:
1 Big
- Toothpicks
- Cooling
rack: 1
- Whisk:
1
Method:
- Take a big bowl.
- Sieve all the dry ingredients in it.
- Now add warm milk and stir well.
- Add one cup of boiling hot water to the mixture and stir well breaking the lumps. You may require ¼ cup of boiling hot water to make thick paste.
- Now add vanilla essence. Stir well.
- Finally add lemon juice and stir well one last time.
- Take a 9inch greased, round baking pan and pour the batter in it.
- Tap the baking pan to air vacuum the bubbles. This step will make the cake very light.
- Pre-heat the oven on 350F.
- Bake the cake on 350 F for 35 minutes.
- Take out the cake with the help of oven mitten. Check it with tooth pick insert and if it’s clean, consider your cake is done. If it is not clean then bake it for couple of more minutes.
- Put the cake on a cooling rack for about 15-20 minutes.
- Now dissolve ¼ Cup sugar in 1 Cup hot water in a bowl.
- Let this syrup cool a little.
- Put the cake in a plate and put the sugar syrup on both the cakes (on chocolate and on sponge cake) with the help of a small spoon. Do not pour all the syrup at once. Once you think the cakes are moist stop pouring the syrup.
- Put the cakes in the refrigerator for ½ an hour.
How to layer the cake?
- Before you start the icing process, slide down 4 pieces of parchment papers under the cake forming a square. We will take these papers out once we are done with the icing. It will keep the cake surface clean.
- Carefully take out the sponge cake from the refrigerator and put it on the turn table.
- Take out ½ the amount of mango mousse from the refrigerator and with the help of a spatula (preferably with an icing spatula) spread it on the cake.
- Put the cake back in the refrigerator for 15 minutes.
- Now carefully take it out along with the chocolate cake which we made in the microwave (and kept in the refrigerator).
- Put the chocolate cake on the base layer and top it with remaining mango mousse. (Keep about ½ a cup of mango mousse aside for the final decoration)
- Layer it nicely with the help of spatula.
- Now pour the mango pulp and agar-agar mixture on the cake. Putting agar-agar in the pulp is optional. If you don't have agar-agar then pour super chilled mango pulp on the cake.
- Put it back in the refrigerator for another 15-20 minutes.
- Take it out. Take a decorating icing bag and put a star nozzle in it. Fill the decorating bag with the remaining mango mousse and start piping it down as per your liking and imagination. However, you have to be extra quick.
- Now pull the parchment paper out carefully.
- I decorated it with few blue berries and wrote the birthday message on a sugar-free crème wafer.
- Put it back in the refrigerator and take it out just before you want to cut it.
I won’t call it a quick recipe however I’m sure everyone will like it and
appreciate all your efforts.
If you like it give a thumps up and please share it with others. Don’t forget to enjoy this yummy and innovative “layer cake”. Happy Cooking!!!!
If you like it give a thumps up and please share it with others. Don’t forget to enjoy this yummy and innovative “layer cake”. Happy Cooking!!!!
Please leave your comments and suggestions
about this recipe. We welcome your feedback.