Shirley's Birthday Cake -Mango and Strawberry Mousse Cake

July 26 is my sister Shirley's birthday, and this year I have decided to make her favorite cake, the strawberry mousse sponge cake, which is also perfect for summer, with the additional treat of big mangoes on top! Although there are many ways of making fruit mousse, this one is particularly easy and has a more pure taste of the fresh fruit in season, so it is becoming a family favorite.


Ingredients:

Sponge Cake:
3 eggs, separated
6 Tbsp sugar
2/3 cup cake flour
1 Tbsp warm milk
1 Tbsp melted butter

Strawberry Mousse Filling
1 cup strawberry puree (from blending fresh strawberries)
2 tsp. dissolved gelatin
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup whipping cream

Mango Layer
1 1/2 cups mango cubes
1 Tbsp creme de pêche or apricot
1 Tbsp sugar
2 Tbsp hot water
1 tsp gelatin

Assembly:
1/2 cup whipping cream whipped with 1 Tbsp sugar


Steps:

1. Line a 7 or 8 inch cake pan with parchment. Preheat oven to 350F.

2. In a small to medium bowl beat the egg yolks with 3 Tbsp. sugar until thick and light yellow, similar to mayonnaise. Set aside.

3. In a separate bowl beat the egg whites with 3 Tbsp sugar until stiff and glossy, and not dry. Gently fold the egg yolks into the whites, keeping the air foam. Mix in the warm milk gently.

4. Sift the flour over the egg mixture in three additions, folding in lightly and thoroughly after each addition.

5. Take a little of the cake batter and mix it with the melted butter. Then add the butter mixture to the egg mixture and mix gently and thoroughly.

6. Pour mixture into prepared pan and bake cake for 25-30 min. until cake is springy and toothpick inserted comes out clean. Cool cake in its pan upside down on wire rack.

7. Strawberry Mousse Filling: mix the strawberry puree, sugar and gelatin together and refrigerate until slightly firm. Whip the cream and fold into the cold strawberry puree lightly. Refrigerate until needed.

8. Mango topping: Mix the gelatin in the hot water and then add the creme de pêche and sugar.

9. Assembly: Cut cakes into 2 layers and spread bottom layer with strawberry mousse. Place the second cake layer on top and spread entire cake with whipped cream topping. Place mango cubes on top of the cake and brush mangoes with the topping mixture.

10. Refrigerate cake for a few hours and best served the day made!







In the evening our family went to Pizza Express for dinner, and I love their really fresh salads and pizzas! Pizza Express is having more and more outlets in Hong Kong. Currently there are seven of them I believe. We had a Peking Duck pizza and one with meatballs. All of them were delicious!