Pulling your own weight /-/ Ombre mango madness cake

Once in everyone life they should of have to be part of team. Pairing, group work, or group activity; we have all been sent to work with others who we will not normally socialise with. I am not dissing the system here. In general my experience with  group work has been surprisingly uncomplicated.  Sure in University I did end up getting one of the worse groups for a team assignment in my life; none the less that experience did not leave permanent scars. At least it was only once in a blue moon right?

I am not against team work. For me it can incredibly rewarding as you get to voice your ideas, get feedback , hints and tips that you might not know about and sometimes you may form a friendship from it. However bear in mind the problem I have with group work will always remain unsolved; due to that stupid psychological phenomenon. The problem is when one person falls into the mental trap of being lazy; not just lazy but overtly avoiding work as much as possible to take advantage of others.  



Working the kitchen now; I have pretty much always pulling my own weight when it comes to clean up at the end of day. I might need a break if I had a troubling hard day where, for example, your cake falls flat on its face and the cream you beat for it has spilt twice. We all deserve some sympathy right?

I can not speak for others, but I am sure some of the people I am working with are giving a half ass attempt at almost everything that is not fun. I am taking about cleaning, assignments, assessments, and common courtesy. Only today did I experience one of the rudest displays of work ethic for such damn easy job too.  



O.k. When you start a task you finish it right? When a the chef ask you to listen now, you stop what you are doing ( an exception with boiling sugar tasks, dangerous!)  If someone looks like they need a hand carry ingredients, you offer to help them. Sure they my decline but isn’t it better knowing that you at least gave a damn about another person??

My manners are not perfect, reflecting on pass experiences I could of have been nicer to others and had a bit of empathy. They might have had something terrible happen to them beforehand, but I am not playing the fool. I will be damned if I have to pick up AFTER THE SAME PERSON again especially for a job like cleaning! *puffs out* Sorry needed to write this….
On to a happier topic of cake!



After what I happen between me, mangoes are on the barest edge of being a fruit I will NEVER touch or eat again. While making this cake; I found a gap in the cake world. Besides the Asian style mango jelly sponge cake, not many people have used this fruit to make party cakes. Mangoes just used for decoration but to me that is no help to over population of mangoes I have. You can only want to put so many slices in mango cake before it becomes a soppy mess. 

Any way to solve this I made a cake for an order that got raving reviews by the customer and her friends. Simply if want a cake that taste like mango; smells of mango and is almost enough mango to make it mango!

Here is the cake for you.
Light and tender crumbed mango layers, sandwiched with an intensely flavoured mango curd guarantee that you will not be wondering where the mango is. The cake also stays moist and improves the density when you soak it in light coconut syrup. It is basically reduced down coconut juice.  



A few tips when going about cooking curds with lots of fruit puree. I find it helpful to reduce it by at least 1/2; I am not an expert at it but I did find that the colour was a lot more attractive than one I made with purely massed up mango. The colour was more orange/ yellow than a confusing shade of yellow tan.

You have to take my word for it that this cake will fulfill your tropical cravings for cake. The icing is made according the Swiss method for butter cream which helps the structure here. Not lying you needs ALOTs of mango; but it not call a mango madness cake for nothing! Ombre is something she requested but any pattern would be very pretty. 



Mango madness cake'

This cake makes 6 layers of cake about 1-1.5 cm in height for a 22cm pan. You may need more mixture depending if you choose to do 6 individual pan or 3 cake layers that are cut.
 
250g un salted butter, soft
50g coconut butter, soft (the white stuff)
450g caster sugar
5 eggs
430g flour
8g baking powder
2g salt
230g mango reduction
40g milk powder
1 tbsp coconut cream
I vanilla bean , scraped of seeds.


Pre heat oven to 190C. Grease 3 22cm spring form tins and line with baking paper
Shift your milk powder, baking powder flour over large bowl twice.
Line your greased 22cm spring form pan with baking paper.
Combine coconut oil and butter in a stand mixer and whip until lightened about 3 minutes. Add the sugar and vanilla scraps and continue to beat on high for a further 4 minutes. You must scrape the in between.
Add eggs one at time beating well between each addition until fully emulsified.
Sieve over flour, alternating with mango puree and cream.  Fold these into the butter mix until complete combined.
Pour into your lined pans, try to get them as even as possible.
Once in the oven turn the heat down to 160C and cook for 25-30 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean.
Once fully baked, invert to cool on a wire rack.
Level off each cake and cut in half to get two layers per cake.

Mango curd
Adapted from Treatology

200gm mango reduction ( you will need 350g mango puree, un reduced, to get this amount)
60g sugar
4 egg yolks
2 tbsp. lemon juice
80g butter, cold in cubes.

Reduce mango puree over medium heat for 20 minutes on low. Stirring occasionally to prevent burning. Cool.
In a clean sauce pan add the mango, sugar, eggs and lemon.
On low heat whisk the mixture for 5 minutes and it will thicken. Swap to a spoon and continue to mix until it coats the back of the spoon. Stir in cubes of butter one at a time.  Remove from heat and strain into a clean bowl. Cover with cling and fridge until needed.

Finishing

Mango cakes
Coconut juice reduction ( boil 400ml coconut juice until it about half the volume)
Fresh mango slices (for in between layers after)
Swiss butter cream dyed 3 shades of yellow and one white.
 
For layers, first coat each one in coconut juice reduction.
Using the white butter cream, pipe a ring on one layer. Paint on a layer of simple syrup in the middle of this ring.
Spoon on 1/3 cup of curd and spread to even layer with small of set spatula. Place slice of mango on this. Place another layer on top.
Repeat for all layers but the top layer.
Crumb coat outside of cake with butter cream. 
Chill in fridge for at least 15 minutes. Starting at the bottom, spread the dark yellow butter cream over the bottom third of the cake using an offset spatula. 
Repeat with 2 other shades of yellow allowing each colour to have one fourth of the cake. Using a small spatula blend the colours were they meet. 
Scrape one finial time to achieve the flat finish.
Transfer to fridge for 10 minutes