It's Ho's aunt's birthday on Wednesday. I know she loves mango so I decided to have a trial run over the weekend. I was going to make Cherry's mango opera cake but I didn't want to do the jello part. I thought, I have 3 mangoes at home, shouldn't it taste even better if I use fresh mango? Ha! It turned out one and a half of the mangoes turned black. I didn't have enough mangoes to fill the cake. I didn't have time to make jello either. Buttercream part? The sugar went hardened before I poured it on to the egg yolk! Luckily I have some fresh whipping cream at home, I just whipped the cream and folded in some mango puree. The cream could have been sweeter. Since it's fresh cream, it didn't hold the shape well. I may use whipped topping next time. As for the sponge cake, I picked Tony Wong's recipe. It tastes SOOOO GOOOOD!. I probably will use one and a half of his recipe to make a 9" cake on Wednesday.
My sister told me that the Indian grocery store on her street had 3 cases of mangoes available. So I went there to see if they're alphonso mangoes. The store keeper knew what I was looking for instantly. She said those were not alphonso ones. They wouldn't have any new stock until next week. I told her that I needed them for my cake on Tuesday. While I was leaving her my home phone number for her to call me when new mangoes arrive, she talked to a guy who just came in. Suddenly she said the guy was there to pick up his reserved case of alphonso mangoes, but he's willing to wait one more week to let me take them first. I was so surprised. Both of them reminded again and again that even though I'm making a cake with the mangoes, make sure I will cut one up to let people taste the fruitjust like that. Then I spent $20 on this case of 12 small alphonso mangoes.
When I went home, someone gave me wrong info (better not reveal the identity here on my blog), I cut up a greenish looking one to try. It's very sour, of course! It's green! But it has syrup come out from stem already. However, it's so fragrant that, it's almost like fake. I can imagine how tasty it will be when it has ripen. I can't wait! Here's a picture of the one I cut up.
The jello in the opera cake is actually very easy to do. It's just fruit puree and gelatin. The buttercream on the other hand is more difficult. You have to have the egg yolk ready in the bowl, lightly whisk it, before you add the sugar syrup in. You have to add the sugar in at 118 degrees or else the yolk will not cook and the cream will not be stable. You just need more pactise and you will get a hang of it.
ReplyDeletebut by the time i pour it out, it'd be cooled. guess i need a faster thermometer too. when it tested the temp, syrup evaporated quite a bit.
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