Mango Buttermilk Cake for Geetu's Birthday

Today is Geetika's birthday, my cousin sister...... Happy Birthday Sis :) We fondly call her Geetu...... We've had loads of fun growing up and at weddings of cousins....

She stays in Jaipur ans was visiting Delhi at the same time as my brother Chetan from Australia and Gautam was over from Mumbai....... We gave her a surprise by landing up at Kanika's(Geetu's sibling) place in Gurgaon at some 1am with a Mango Cake.

It was so much fun meeting up after 5-6 months... We catchup from where we left off..... All of us put together is a Mad-Mad-Mad party... :)

Poor Gautam had such a long day.... Up since 4 am and on his feet till 3am the next day and beyond cause he got locked out of his cousin's house where he was suppose to spend the night... It was hilarious..... We tried waking up Abhinav(Gautam's cousin) from the window and ended up waking his parents n the neighbours at some 3am.... still laughing at how funny it was....

Geetu's an extremely talented person who along with working with her dad also paints and makes candles..... A glimpse of her work...

I decided to make her a Mango Buttermilk Cake made out of real mango pulp and not any synthetic essence. This picture may look like I've done some photoshop work on it.... But believe me.... The mangoes were so luscious n pulpy that I didn't have to do any processing on the pictures... They are just-as-they-were-clicked.

Mango Buttermilk Cake
Adapted from Bright Morning Star

Mango Custard
[I halved the quantity of these to get 1 tin]

Ingredients:
5 yolks + 2 whole eggs
2 cups sugar [ d mangoes i used were pretty sweet, so if using tart mangoes you may need to decrease or increase as per taste]
75 grams salted + 50 unsalted,at room temperature [ you could use all unsalted butter and add a pinch of salt ]
3 cups mango puree with juice of 1 little lime.


1. Simmer a large pan of water

2. Place a glass/ steel bowl[that fits into the pan just right to make it a double boiler] with 1 cup of sugar and 100 gms of butter [ mix of both if using both]. Simmer whisking well till butter and sugar dissolves.

3. Whisk till sugar dissolves and cool a bit.

4. Add 5 well whisked egg yolks and 2 whole eggs to the puree and whisk away.

5. Add to the butter and sugar and whisk again and Keep the bowl back on the flame on the pan of simmering water.

6. Keep stirring till its real thick and sticks well to the spoon and it took me almost 2 hours for this quantity.
But you could keep it directly in the pan , instead of double boiler, but never let it boil , and let the flame be really low. Watch it carefully.

7. The consistency , will be thicker than that of Lemon curd, clings very thickly to the spoon.
Almost Custardy than liquidy and very wobbly , as if its set kinda.

How to check its Done?
What i did,and it quite worked ,is that, pop in a few little bowls in the freezer when u begin , and as and when u think its getting done, heap a nice Teaspoon full into the bowls and pop back in the freezer for a few seconds:-)
Well check the consistency and flav, and yeah u can add a bit more sugar if u want too ,too:-))

Mango Buttermilk Cake
[I halved the quantity of these to get 1 tin]

Ingredients:
5 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 cups (4 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
4 1/2 cups sugar, plus 1/2 cup for sprinkling
4 large eggs [or 6 if u skip the mango curd]
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract [i used 3 whole vanilla beans]
Finely grated zest of 4 lemons (for lemon cake, but i do love what it did to the mango cake]
Juice of 1 lemon (for lemon cake-optional]
1.5 cups Buttermilk
1.5 cups Mango chunky mango bits with juice
[as i chopped a few mangoes, i had pieces from the cups and thick puree from the seeds]
3/4 cup mango curd



Mia's Notes
~~~this quantity makes quite a bit of cake, i halved it and still had lods of cake
~~~if making a few cuppys too, tip the tops with some mango Curd ...delicious!
~~~love the crust that forms atop with the sprinkled sugar:-)
~~~the original called for 6eggs but since i had mango curd ,i cut it down to 4:-))

Method:

1.Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Butter and flour two 10-inch round cake pans.
[I buttered a heart shaped cuppy cake too.[post coming up later for this one :) ]
Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.

2.In another bowl, cream the butter and 4 1/2 cups of sugar until fluffy.
Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.
Stir in the vanilla or scrape the vanilla seeds into the batter.
Add the lemon zest and juice and the cubed mango pieces and puree mash.

3.Add the dry ingredients to the egg mixture, alternating with the buttermilk and mango curd.
Scrape batter into prepared cake pans.
A few cakes , were half filled, a mango slice/puree in between and then covered with batter again!

4.Sprinkle the remaining 1/2 cup of the sugar on top of the batter or a mango slice if u want too or both! [I didn't do this as the mangoes were already very sweet]

Bake until set, when a cake tester inserted in center comes out clean (about 1 hour).

5.Let the cakes cool in their pans, and then invert them onto a rack.

Delicious and butterly so.....flavor sure develops the next day, as per Rashmi Aunty(Geetu's mom) who ate it in Jaipur the next day.

A buttery mango batter with a layer in between and topped with mango mango batter and some mango curd.
This wonderfully crumbly and textured cake is sure to make any Mango loving person go into raptures of delight....

Happy Birthday, Geetu..... All the best.....