Birthday cake!!

I have always baked a cake for Arun's b'day and i would like to think that i have improved with each of them. In fact the first cake I ever baked was for Arun's first b'day after our marriage. I over baked that chocolate cake and it was just a tad bit less crunchy :P.

The second one was better, a layered chocolate cake with chocolate frosting and strawberry filling. Taste wise it came out okay, but it had sunk in the middle a bit. :(

So this time after having baked quite a lot in the past one year I knew i would be able to bake a good one. With that confidence I also decided I am going to try my best at decorating the cake too. So I bought a decorating tips and frosting bags. After searching the entire blog land for a good cake recipe, I finally decided on a Mango custard cake with Mango pudding filling and Mango cream frosting. I combined recipes from two blogs to create this one.

Eggless Mango Pudding

Recipe from Ria’sCollection

Ingredients

1 1/2 c heavy whipping cream

1  c sweetened mango puree

4 tbsp sugar or to taste

1 tbsp gelatin dissolved in 3 tbsp water

Method

 Whip the cream to stiff peaks along with sugar and then fold the puree in. Melt the gelatin, cool it for a minute and then fold it into the pudding / mousse.

Mango Custard Cake

Adapted from “One bowl vanilla cake” recipe from Ria’s Collection

Ingredients

1/2 c unsalted butter,room temperature

1 1/4 c sugar

1 egg

1 3/4 c all purpose flour

1/2 c custard powder ( I used mango custard)

1 tsp salt

3 1/2 tsp baking powder

1 1/4 c milk

1 tsp vanilla extract

Method

Pre-heat the oven to 350F/180C .Line and dust a 9" round cake tin.

Using a whisk, cream the butter and sugar till light and fluffy.

Add in the egg and whisk till incorporated and fluffy.

Add in the remaining ingredients one by one and whisk together for 2 mins.

Pour into the tin and bake for 55-60 mins or till done.

Cool in the tin for 10 mins, remove and cool completely.

Mango cream 

Recipe from Manju’sEating Delights

Ingredients

Heavy whipping Cream – 1 cup (Use 2 cups for bigger cake)

Confectioners’ Sugar (or powdered sugar) – 3-4 tblsp

Sweetened Mango Pulp – 5-6 heaped tblsp

Method

Beat the heavy whipping cream in a chilled bowl until soft peaks form using an electric hand mixer or a whisk.

Add powdered sugar and continue to beat for one minute.

Add mango pulp in intervals and keep beating until desired texture and taste is obtained (add more or less pulp as you prefer)

Vanilla Buttercream

Recipe from Sally’sBaking Addiction

Ingredients

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened to room temperature

3-4 cups powdered (confectioners') sugar

1/4 cup heavy cream or half-and-half (see note above about substituting milk)

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

salt, to taste

Method

Beat softened butter on medium speed with an electric or stand mixer. Beat for about 3 minutes until smooth and creamy. Add powdered sugar, cream, and vanilla extract with the mixer running. Increase to high speed and beat for 3 full minutes (the longer you beat, the creamier the frosting). Add more powdered sugar if frosting is too thin or more cream if frosting is too thick. Add salt if frosting is too sweet (1/4 teaspoon).

Assembly

If you have a serrated knife, then you can bake one cake and cut it horizontally to get two 9” round cakes. Or if you don’t have one like me or if you want a taller cake like I wanted, bake two cakes.

Let the cakes cool and refrigerate for some time. Once the cakes have become cold, put one cake back into the baking tin. Add a layer of pudding on top of the cake. Refrigerate the tin for 4 hours.

After the pudding has set keep the other cake on top of the pudding layer and carefully invert the cake onto a cake base.

Cover the sides and top of the cake with Mango cream. Add a very thin layer of Mango pulp on top so that you have a beautiful and bright top to write your message on.

Decorate the cake using Vanilla Buttercream frosting.

Birthday boy was really impressed with the cake. He couldn't believe that I baked such a tall two layered cake. And he was impressed by the cake decorations too. It was a surprise for him when he came from office on his birthday. We, as in Ritu and I,  had put up birthday banner, blew balloons, set the table with cake, gifts and other decorations. According to him we celebrated his b'day as if he turned three :D