Mango-Cointreau Cake

I admire the cake artists who have the talent to turn every piece of cake into a piece of art by decorating it with colourful frosting, marzipan and fondant. It is a talent I don't have. And I love looking at these cakes.

But on the other hand I must confess that I prefer my cakes more natural. I don't like using food colour or artificial flavours. I also don't like it if cakes are coated with enormous amounts of sugar or butter cream. For me that ruins the taste of the cake. All I taste is sugar.

If I decorate a cake I either give it a rather thin layer of plain chocolate or ganache or just a simple frosting or glaze. For me the less coating there is the better. And when it comes to cream fillings I also like them to be packed with flavour rather than sugar. That doesn't mean that I don't like pastries, gateau or cream tarts. I just don't like the artificial sugary stuff.

There needs to be a balance between the flavours in a cake. One of the worst things for me are these death by chocolate cakes which have a sweet chocolate cake filled with chocolate butter cream and than drowned in chocolate sauce. Truly death by chocolate as the overdose of it kills it all.

I rather have a strong chocolate flavour balanced with some fruit or spice. And as much as I love desserts, cakes and sweets I don't like them too sweet.

Take for example a Sachertorte. It is a classic and the apricot jam used as a filling gives it the perfect balance with the chocolate cake and coating.

The same goes for fruity cakes and pastries. For me the filling of a key lime pie or lemon meringue must be nice lemony sour to balance the sweetness of the meringue that covers it.

But than this is purely my personal taste. The other day for example I made a fresh plum tart (recipe will follow). As the plums were a bit sour I simply served it with a slightly sweetened cinnamon cream on the side to balance it out.

Just before the mango season ends I have another recipe that has that sweet-sour balance. It is a Mango-Cointreau cake. There is a lot of fresh orange juice in the dough so it is not very sweet but than you also have lots of chunks of fresh sweet mango baked into it.

                          Fresh out of the oven... not even put on a serving plate

To start with I pre-heat my oven to 180°C.

For the 24cm rose flower baking dish shown in the picture I take 180g egg and beat it with 120g sugar until I have a fluffy whitish coloured mass. In a bowl I mix 150ml freshly squeezed orange juice with 110ml vegetable oil and 40g yoghurt. If you have a problem with lactose you can replace the yoghurt with vegetable oil. In another bowl I mix 225g flour with 10g baking powder. I slowly add the liquid mixture to the egg mixture and mix it until it is well blend. Now I add the flour to it and mix it just enough to get a smooth dough. Make sure you are not over mixing it.

After pouring the dough into the greased baking dish I put about 300g of fresh diced mango on top of it.

I bake it at 180°C for about 60 minutes. While the dough is rising the mango chunk will sink into the cake.

After I removed the cake from the oven I pour 4 tablespoons of Cointreau over the cake while it is still on the baking dish. Now I let it cool for about an hour. Than I take it out of the baking mould and pour another 4 tablespoons of Cointreau over the other side of the cake. Let it cool down completely.

I like the cake just like this as the different shades intensify the flower effect. If you like to decorate it further I suggest a simple sugar icing with 250g icing sugar and 2-3 tablespoons orange juice. If you like a stronger Cointreau flavour replace 1 tablespoon of the orange juice with Cointreau.

Enjoy and have fun in the kitchen!

Love

Carola