Mini Mango Charlotte Cakes

Oh ! Can't wait to indulge these lovely mini Mango Charlotte cakes ....

I love to admire the lovely and pretty designs of charlotte cakes displayed at some bakeries whenever I walked past them. But never have I thought of buying a charlotte cake from the bakeries (cos expensive). I thought ... why not bake it since it's not too difficult to make a simple nice one.

According to Wikipedia Charlotte (cake)

A charlotte is a type of dessert or trifle that can be served hot or cold. It can also be known as an "ice-box cake". Bread,sponge cake or biscuits/cookies are used to line a mold, which is then filled with a fruit puree or custard. It can also be made using layers of breadcrumbs. Classically, stale bread dipped in butter was used as the lining, but sponge cake or ladyfingers may be used today. The filling may be covered with a thin layer of similarly flavoured gelatin.

So last year (Jan 2014), I'd baked a first birthday cake for myself .... used a basic simple sponge cake and decorated it like a charlotte cake. 

My frosting skill sucks ... I can't frost a cake well with buttercream, whipped cream or cream cheese :(  So, to decorate a charlotte cake, at least I've peace of mind ... hee ... hee ... whatever the mess from the frosting, can be camouflaged with Ladyfingers (biscuit) [often called savoiardi and in British English sponge fingers] and then loaded with fruit toppings ! Hmm ... lovely transformation ... sounds great that I could pass off like a pro, ya?! .... ha ha!

Here, I've made 4 mini cakes with fresh mango topping.
Recipe source from  Cookpad for the sponge cake with slight modifications made.

Mini Mango Charlotte Cakes
For the Sponge Cake
Ingredients :
3 Eggs (the size of my egg is 60g each with shell)
120 grams Caster sugar (I reduced to 85g)
100 grams Cake flour
15 grams Vegetable oil
10 grams Unsalted Butter
30 grams Fresh Milk

Method:
1) Line the *cake pan with parchment paper. Preheat the oven to 170ºC. Position the rack in the middle. The temperature of the oven may vary, do adjust the temperature and timing to suit your oven.
*I've used an 8x8-inch square pan as I wanted to cut it into 4 mini squares. Can also use a round 7 inch cake pan for 1 big cake instead.

2) Sift the cake flour and set aside.
Separate the eggs into yolks and whites.

3) Melt butter and milk in a heatproof dish. Once melted, add the vegetable oil and mix well.

4) In a clean mixing bowl, whisk the cold egg whites till foamy using the electric mixer. Gradually add in caster sugar in 3 separate additions and beat till stiff peak, formed into a firm meringue.

5) Add the egg yolks to the meringue and whisk on low until evenly combined (about 1 - 2 minutes).

6) Next, fold in the sifted flour in 3 separate additions, folding gently with a spatula until combined.

7) Mix in the melted butter mixture in 2 separate additions with a spatula.

8) Pour batter into the cake pan. Tap the pan lightly on a table top a few times to get rid of any trapped air bubbles in the batter.

9) Bake for about 30 minutes or until the cake surface turns golden brown, and a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.
(I tent it with aluminium foil in the last 10 minutes of baking).

10) When the pan was removed from the oven, I used the suggested technique to drop the pan at a height of 20~30cm onto a table top. This action helps to keep the springy texture of the cake when it is left to cool.

11) Invert the cake pan onto the wire rack. Lift the pan and peel off the parchment paper.  Cover the cake with the pan for 2 minutes. Remove the pan and leave the cake to cool completely.

For the filling :
1 large ripe mango - peeled skin, stoned and cut the fruit into small cubes. (Do adjust the amount to your preference).
About 2 tablespoons of mini chocolate chips.

Mango whipped cream:
200ml Whipping cream
20 grams caster sugar
80 grams of fresh mango puree#(#alternatively, to omit this and add some finely chopped mango on the sandwich layer of whipped cream)

To make the whipped cream :
Make mango puree - blend the pulps in a blender until smooth. Strain the mango puree mixture if you want a fine/smoother texture but I preferred the taste of mango bits.

Freeze the cleaned mixing bowl for about 15 minutes.  Take it out from the freezer, immediately put all together the cold whipping cream and caster sugar in the cold mixing bowl. Use the electric mixer to whisk till stiff peaks form.
With a spatula, mix in the mango puree to the whipped cream till evenly combined.

To make the glaze (my preference for light glaze without using gelatin):
In a small bowl, dilute 1 tablespoon of Apricot jam with 2 tablespoons of warm
water. Mix well and set aside.

A pack of store bought Savoiardi (sponge fingers).

To assemble the mini cake :
1) Prepare 4 pcs of size 6-inch cake board. Cut the big cake into 4 mini squares. Slice horizontally half for each mini cake.

2) Frost the bottom slice with some whipped cream.

3) Sandwich the 2 slices of cake and frost the whole cake with whipped cream.

4) Half each of the sponge finger. Total 16 small pcs of the sponge fingers for 1 mini cake. With the sugar coated side, "glue" it gently around the cake.

5) Top with some mango cubes.  Lightly brush the mangoes with the apricot glaze. Sprinkle some mini chocolate chips.

6) Tie a ribbon gently round the cake to keep it "structurally" in shape. Refrigerate the cake until served.

Ta dah! ... Yummy sweet dessert served right after our dinner ^-^! We loved the soft cake texture, complement well with the natural sweetness of mangoes !

Here's the remaining for our next day's brekkie ^-^ ... ♡ Enjoy!

Happy baking and have a great week ahead!

♡♡ ~~~~ ♡♡♡♡~~~~♡♡

 

Linking this post to the event Little Thumbs Up (November 2015 Event: Mango) organised by Zoe (Bake for Happy Kids) and Mui Mui (My Little Favourite DIY) and hosted by Jozelyn Ng (Spice Up My Kitchen)