Mother's Day Mango Cake

Tomorrow is Mother's Day, so to treat myself... I made a Mango Cake!!

Anyone that knows me knows my favorite fruit is mango. If mango is an option, I will be getting it.

When we lived in Boise, there was a self-serve wine bar called Bodovino that we would go to. Along with copious amounts of wine to try, they had delicious food. One of my favorites was their Mango Cheesecake. It was silky smooth cheesecake drenched in an amazing mango sauce! Oh I miss that cheesecake! 

So for Mother's Day, I thought I would treat myself to a mango cake. After searching old family recipes, I came across a recipe for Whipped Cream Cake. I needed something moist, but also durable so I thought I would give it a try. It turned out AMAZING.

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What You'll Need:

- 1 cup heavy whipping cream

- 2 eggs

- 1 cup sugar

- 1 teaspoon vanilla

- 1 1/2 cup sifted cake flour*

- 2 teaspoons baking powder

- 1/2 teaspoon salt

FROSTING:

- 1 (8oz) package cream cheese, softened

- 1 stick butter, softened

- 1 cup+ powdered sugar

- 1 mango, diced + a few pieces set aside for topping, if desired

COMPOTE:

- 1 mango, diced

- 1 teaspoon lemon juice

- 1 teaspoon vanilla

- 1/2 cup water, more or less

Ingredients for your cake. 

*If you don't have cake flour, you can make your own. I didn't have cake flour so I searched the web and found an easy solution. For every cup of flour, you'll want to take out 2 Tablespoons and add in 2 Tablespoons of cornstarch. Sift together 5 times, and BOOM. Cake flour. (Since this recipe calls for 1 1/2 cups, I took out 3 Tablespoons and added 3 Tablespoons of cornstarch)

You'll want to whip your whipping cream until stiff peaks. With a stand mixer on high, this should only take about a minute or two. Then you'll want to add in one egg and half the sugar, mix, then add in remaining egg and sugar. Mix again. Once that is mixed, add in the vanilla.

When that is all mixed, you'll want to take your sifted cake flour and fold it in gently. 

BEAUTIFUL!

Cover two cake pans with parchment paper on the bottom, and spray generously with cooking spray so the cakes don't stick. Add in your batter and spread evenly! Bake these bad boys in a 350* oven for about 15 minutes (my oven runs hot... so mine were only in there 13 minutes). Make sure you keep an eye on them! They should be golden brown :) 

Once your cakes are out of the oven, start your compote. Take your diced mango and put it in a pot with vanilla, lemon juice, and water. Let it simmer so the mango juices can thicken and make it SO GOOD.

When your compote is simmering, start making your frosting! (I LOVE cream cheese frosting, but make whichever frosting you want) Take the softened cream cheese and mix it with the softened butter. Once that is mixed, add in about a cup of powdered sugar. You can adjust the sweetness to more or less. I don't like my frosting too sweet, so a cup was enough for me. Some people like it really sweet. If thats you, add closer to 2 cups. 

Once that is all mixed add a dash of vanilla and your diced mango. Give it a good mix!

Check your compote for consistency. It should be thickened, but not super thick. Once it's at your desired consistency, remove from heat and let cool.

Once your compote is cooled, its time to build the layers! Put your compote on top of the bottom layer. Once that is on, cover the compote with some of that delicious mango frosting. Next, pile on the other layer of cake. Frost the cake allllllll over. Get mango everywhere! You can add in the reserved diced mango for garnish on top, or I used the remaining compote for my topping. It was tart next to the sweet frosting... perfect combination! 

My husband doesn't like cake, so I will enjoy this whole. freaking. cake. Happy Mother's Day to me!

Strawberry Pie

You guys. It's almost summer. The days are getting warmer and warmer, and my cravings for fresh strawberry pie has already hit! I found this recipe in my Grandma Irene's old recipe box. This recipe is from her sister Leona. I LOVE looking at old recipe cards. People spent so much more time making and writing down recipes years ago. When I see an old card, spotty and well-used, I want to make it as soon as I can. That was one of the reason's I wanted to start this blog. I grew up with homemade food often, either from my mom, or my Grandma. It's such a beautiful way of showing people how much you love them.

Look how used this recipe was. Plus my Grandma's writing is so pretty.

Yes. Don't even bother cutting this. Just grab a fork and dig in.

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What You'll Need:

- 1 9" baked pie shell

- 1 to 2 quarts strawberries, washed and dried, diced to your size preference 

GLAZE:

- 1 scant cup sugar

- 2 Tablespoons light corn syrup

- 3 Tablespoons cornstarch

- 1 cup water

- Strawberry Jello

Rinse your strawberries and set them to dry. *Also, I just realized I should dry my fruit on a cooling rack. That way the bottoms get mostly dried, compared to drying them on a cookie sheet where it seems the tops only get dry. Does anyone else do this? I feel like that was probably the best idea I've had in about a year. (Babies will do that to you)

I pre-baked a pretzel crust for this pie. What goes better than sweet strawberries and salty pretzels?? Maybe drenching the top of the pretzel crust with chocolate first... hmm.. definitely going to have to try that next! Anyway, if you do choose to do a pretzel crust, make sure your pretzels are more finely chopped than coarsely chopped. If they are too coarse, it will be harder to cut into slices. Which won't be an issue if you choose to eat this straight from the pan :)

After you've selected the kind of crust you want for your pie, baked it and let it cool (or taken it out of the package, no judgements here!), mix the sugar, corn syrup, cornstarch and water in a saucepan and cook it until the sugar dissolves. Remove from heat and add in the strawberry jello. On the original recipe card, it says to add in red food coloring but I didn't do that, so I'm not sure how the mixture would look with it. Mine was already pretty red so I kept it how it was! 

After you let it cool slightly, you can either put the strawberries in the pie and pour the glaze over them (as the recipe reads) or put them in a separate bowl and let them merry in the glaze for a few minutes. I did the latter. Look how delicious those glazed strawberries look!

Once I let those delicious pieces to merry with the glaze, I scooped them out of the bowl on into my pie shell. I had some remaining glaze left over, so I drizzled some over the top. I didn't want to put too much, in case it made the shell too moist. This probably won't be such an issue if you do a regular pie crust. Regular pie crusts are a bit more durable than pretzel ones. 

Now, this is important. LET IT CHILL. As easy as it would be to dig in right now, let it chill in the fridge for at least an hour.

Top with some homemade whipped topping (heavy cream and sugar and a touch of vanilla) and booyah! I cut these strawberries on the larger side. You can choose how big you want your strawberry pieces. It's so good y'all! The sweet juicy strawberries with the crunch of the salty pretzel crust is insane. This will be a summer staple!