Mango and Raspberry Entremet

Things have been busy lately, very busy. I am on my 2nd trimester and the nausea and vomiting are definitely much better, though it is coming back now and then. My belly is growing fast too! Having some of the energy back, puts me in the mood of baking. Nevertheless, I baked a lot since the last time I posted. I had wedding cake to make, bridal shower, multiple birthday cakes, wedding anniversary cake, and other simple cakes for snacks.

I went through my cake folder today and I didn't realize how many cakes I made that I had forgotten! Which means, they didn't appear on the blog either. I spent some time to sort them through for blog posts, so you will see some of my old cake pictures (by old, I mean about 1 year ago).

This one cake was one of them, maybe about 6 months back or so. I made this cake for my friend, D (her real name starts with A but we call her D). Her boyfriend had booked my time to make a cake for her way in advance just to make sure that my schedule was still empty at that time. He requested a very simple cake, a nostalgic Indonesian Cheese Cake, which was not a problem at all for me because I could make it in no time. No need a few nights of making different components and many refrigerating times between each layer.

Only a few days before, he told me that D didn't want Indonesian Cheese Cake as she just had had it a month before (also made by me, requested by someone for a birthday too that she attended). Err... I hate last minute change as it usually takes me some time to figure out the new cake flavor and combination, and shopping for ingredients. Even though he was kind enough and tell me that it didn't have to be anything fancy as long as I am the one who made the cake (talking about sweet-talking here :D). So I said okay but I can't promised anything super fancy and he understood.

I only had two nights to do it so not much time to brainstorm and all. I just opened my fridge/freezer to see what I had on hand and decided to make this mango and raspberry cake. Most if not all my friends and family LOVE mango, so I didn't have to guess whether she would like the flavor or not.
I didn't have mango puree, but that's the only thing I needed to buy (and fresh raspberry for decor) as I had raspberry garniture, milk, heavy cream, and base cake. All I needed to make was bavarian cream, mango mousse, and mango glaze. Not bad.

I used raspberry garniture from Hidemi Sugino's recipe that I still had left, Kirsch bavarian cream from Hidemi Sugino as well. I don't remember what I used for the base cakes, but judging from close-up picture, I am pretty sure it was a joconde in the bottom, and dacquoise in the middle layer. I brushed the cake with Kirsch simple syrup as well.

I couldn't attend the birthday party but I heard that she loved it!

I needed to make another birthday cake for my brother's MIL just days after. She did say that she didn't want a cake or anything but since we were coming over to their house anyway to celebrate it, there had to be a cake! Since I was again in a hurry, I decided to make similar cake. I had frozen mango mousse leftover from D's cake so I just switched the layering, making mango mousse in the middle layer, and the bavarian cream on top and covered the whole thing with whipped cream. I wasn't very satisfied with the overall look, but I seriously only had one day to make everything.

For someone who didn't want a birthday cake, she raved about it and told me that everyone fought for the leftover and that I should make this cake again. I told you mango is the foolproof flavor :)

I ended up making this cake as one of the wedding cake flavors I made a few weeks ago. Stay tuned for the post.

Mango Raspberry Cake
Make: one 8" square cake

2 layers of  base cake (you can use chiffon, sponge cake, dacquoise, joconde, etc)
Raspberry Jam - refer to this recipe
Kirsch simple syrup - refer to this recipe (change the framboise to kirsch)

Kirsch Bavarian Cream
180ml milk
1/4 vanilla bean (scrape the seeds)
60g egg yolk
60g sugar
5g gelatin leaves (or 1.25tsp gelatin powder dissolved in 1 Tbs. water)
160g heavy cream, whip to soft peak, refrigerate until needed
15ml Kirsch liqueur

• Make creme anglaise with above ingredients. You can see the instruction for pistachio mousse here if you are not familiar with the process
• Use immediately

Mango mousse
150g mango pulp
20g sugar
5g gelatin leaves (or 1.25tsp gelatin powder dissolved in 1 Tbs. water)
150g heavy cream, whip to soft peak

• Boil the mango pulp and sugar
• Melt the gelatin in a microwave for a few seconds (probably 5-7 seconds) and mix it with the mango mixture
• Cool in an ice bath until cool
• Fold in the heavy cream

To Assemble

• Layer one cake in an 8" square cake ring, moistened with kirsch simple syrup
• Spread a thin layer of raspberry jam
• Pour the kirch cream on top
• Layer the 2nd cake layer, moistened with the syrup (you can refrigerate it at this point while making the mango mousse)
• Pour the mango mousse on top