Happy Easter!!

Earlier this winter Alexander and I got some frozen Mango to make smoothies. Alexander then had the great idea to make a mango cake.

We were already in the middle of making a lemon cake so we just defrosted some mango chopped it up, folded it in and viola it worked. Yum.

When my friend requested my Passion Fruit Curd recipe, I thought what a wonderful combination for Easter, Lemon Mango Cake with Passion Fruit Curd. I was originally going to make cupcakes, but was wondering how best to incorporate the curd. I thought about cutting out the middle of the cupcake and putting the curd in the center. Then when I opened the cabinet to get out the cupcake pan, I saw my mini Bundt cake pan! Perfect, just put the curd in the middle with some cut up strawberries and voila a beautiful dessert.

Now of course the cake I made earlier was my lemon pound cake which is made with butter and lots of sugar. So how was I going to make it healthier. First I switched from butter, a saturated fat which raises your blood cholesterol level, to Canola oil which is high in monounsaturated fat and the lowest type of vegetable oil for saturated fat. For example 1 Tablespoon of Butter contains 7g of saturated fat or 36% compared to 1 Tablespoon of Canola Oil which has 1g of saturated fat or 5%, big difference.

Next I cut down the sugar, took out the eggs, switched the milk to water and said a prayer. Not to mention that I couldn’t find frozen mango pieces only frozen mango purée and the fresh mangos were hard as rocks.

There is a quite a bit of food science that is involved with creating a baking recipe and it is learned over decades of experimenting, but it doesn’t always work out on the first try. My first batch was only a marginal success. It was a bit of a miracle it worked at all considering all the things I changed.

My husband’s first comment though was that he preferred it because it wasn’t so sweet. So success on that end.

What I could tell though that had not worked was the overall texture was tough and rubbery. The culprits too much liquid and flour with too much gluten.

Easy to fix. The mango purée acted as a liquid whereas frozen mango pieces cut up are very fiberous and act more like folding in something like a raisin as opposed to a liquid. Luckily I found Dole frozen mango pieces.

Too much gluten, simply switch from All Purpose Flour to Cake Flour.

Success! The cakes came out tender and delicious. Not to mention the recipe was now Vegan as well, no animal products. (Passion Fruit Curd Recipe below.)

Avec Amour, Victoria and Alexander

Lemon Mango Mini Bundt Cakes (Vegan)

Yield 16 Mini Bundt Cakes

2 teaspoons Lemon Zest (tightly packed, 2 lemons)

3/4 Cup + 2 Tablespoons Sugar

2 1/4 Cups Cake Flour

1 teaspoon Baking Soda

1/2 teaspoon Salt

1 Cup Hot Water

1/4 Cup + 2 Tablespoons Canola Oil

1 teaspoon White Vinegar

1/3 Cup Frozen Mango pieces finely diced

 

1. Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.

Rub the sugar and lemon zest together between your hands to mix.

This helps prevent against getting lumps of zest in your finished product.

2. Sift rest of dry ingredients and stir together with lemon sugar.

3. Stir together liquid ingredients and finely diced mango (it is easier to cut the mango when it is still frozen).

4. Gently stir together the dry

and liquid ingredients

until just combined.

Portion into prepared mini Bundt pan.

I just sprayed mine with Pam, if you don’t have Pam brush with melted butter. I do not recommend flouring the pan, because the flour will make the exterior of the cake unattractive and greasing is sufficient.

5. Bake for about 15 – 17 minutes, until a cake skewer comes out clean.

Let cool about 5 minutes then remove from pan while still warm. I used a small offset spatula to help.

 

Passion Fruit Curd Recipe

Yield – about 2 Cups

3 Eggs

1/2 Cup + 2 Tablespoons Sugar (5 oz)

1/2 Cup Butter, cold 1/3″ cubed (4 oz)

1/2 Cup Passion Fruit Puree

1. Whisk together the eggs and sugar in a small metal or Pyrex mixing bowl that fits well over a small pot of boiling water, or use a double boiler.

2. Whisk in passion fruit purée

and add butter.

Put bowl over boiling water and turn flame down to low so it doesn’t burn sides of bowl.

3. Continue to whisk gently every few minutes making sure to scrape sides of bowl.

( If you leave this unattended you could end up with a huge mess of scrambled eggs.)

Continue to whisk until all the butter melts,

and begins to thicken.

 4. When the mixture looks dark yellow and seems thicker, this may take a half hour,

dip a wooden spoon into mixture and then drag your finger through it on the back of the spoon. If the mixture stays seperated instead of running back together then the mixture is done.

5. Strain through a sieve into a plastic container

and put a piece of plastic wrap directly on top of the curd.

Cool in refrigerator.

 

To assemble dessert, spoon curd into Bundt cake, top with small diced strawberries and garnish with a halved strawberry.

Happy Easter!