Mango Chiffon Cake

I know, this is an odd time for mangoes. However, my dad bought a box of mangoes last week and they are about ripe now. Just in time for his birthday! This one project took a lot of thought: my parents do not have a sweet tooth (Gasp! I know... where did I get mine from?) and do not like buttercream, icing, or anything with too much sugar.

So, I decided to try a delicately light chiffon cake. The Chinese bakeries around here sell them wrapped in paper (also known as paper wrapped cakes - essentially Chinese cupcakes in my books). Despite it being my first attempt at chiffon cakes, that wasn't enough for me, I wanted to incorporate mangoes as well. So I looked through my collection of cookbooks and stumbled upon one (and I had all the ingredients on hand) in The Martha Stewart Living Cookbook: The Original Classics. Except this one was for lemon chiffon cake. No problem! I'll just substitute mangoes for lemons!

My parents really enjoyed the cake. They liked the texture, the taste, and even had two slices! There is about 1/4 of the cake left. But - yes there is a but - they said it was still too sweet. So instead of 3/4 cups of sugar, mom suggested I use 1/2 a cup next time. Also, feel free to add more mango puree or extract if you want a more distinct taste, this was more on the chiffon side.

Happy Birthday Dad! I'm also using my new cake stand, I just bought it from the William Ashley warehouse sale! Well, I can handle the sugar, so I dusted mine with powdered sugar and drizzled some caramel along the edges.

Mango Chiffon Cake

Adapted from Martha Stewart Living's lemon chiffon cake

(mine made one round 8-inch cake about 2-inches high)

3/4 cups of cake flour

1/4 teaspoon of baking soda

1/4 teaspoon of salt

3/4 cup + 1 tablespoon of granulated sugar

3 large eggs, separated

1/4 cup of canola oil

2 tablespoons of pureed mangoes

1 tablespoon of fresh mango juice

1/2 teaspoon of pure vanilla extract

1/4 teaspoon of cream of tartar

1/3 cup of water

1. Preheat the oven to 325F. In a medium bowl, whisk together the cake flour, baking soda, salt, and 3/4 cup of granulated sugar.
2. In a large bowl, whisk together egg yolks, oil, water, mango puree and juice, and vanilla extract.
3. Stir in the medium bowl's dry content into the large bowl's wet content. Mix until smooth.
4. With a mixer, beat the egg whites on medium speed until foamy. Add the cream of tartar and then beat on high until soft peaks form (about 1 minute). Add the remaining 1 tablespoon of granulated sugar and beat on high until stiff peaks form (about 2 minutes).
5. Gradually mix the egg-white mixture into the batter. Then pour the batter into a pan. Bake for 45 minutes or until a cake tester comes out clean from the center. Remove the cake from the oven and set to cool. (In the book, they say that the cake must be cooled upside down, but I kept it right side up and it turned out fine. I didn't want to ruin the nice light brown top.)
6. Serve with fresh slices of mango. Or in my case, drizzle caramel!

This photo was featured on Photograzing!