Chocolate mango mousse cake

It was my one of my girlfriend's birthday, and we were all meeting to celebrate the belated birthday of her and another girlfriend's birthdays. so I decided to make a little something just because she's special. (:

I knew the girls probably don't really like sweet stuff muchos, so I made a small cake, then cut it smaller still to bring and share among the six of us. Haha. I was afraid if I brought the whole thing, they would have to stare at it and will themselves to finish it. And we were already meeting for dinner, so it would be silly to bring a huge cake cos our stomachs will be full already from said dinner.

I chose to make something with mango, because a few months ago, Daddy went Thailand for business, and came home laden with a kick ass box of fruits. Correction. Kick ass box(ES). Totally madness. He bought like a few excess boxes of mangoes to give out, but afterwhich, we were left with like a full box of mangoes, mangosteens, jambus, rambutans and some other stuff I might have missed out (me having a lousy memory). We were eating mangoes daily to the point that we were kinda scared of them. So I decided to cut a few mangoes and freeze them for future use. ;)

Chocolate mango mousse cake

I was searching for a good chocolate lemon combination, and used Tartelette's recipe as an idea palette for my cake. I had tons of feuilletine and so, I definitely want a layer of crunchy chocolate base. I used Tartelette's recipes for the vanilla and chocolate genoise, mango mousse and lemon glaze. I decided to leave the coconut out of my cake cos I wasn't sure whether a coconut cream will sit well with my mates. For the chocolate mousse, I used the previously awesome chocolate mousse recipe that one of my girlfriends had given me. I swear by its ease of making and taste man. Heh.

And obviously, I suck at decorating, as usual. I'm like no way on par with Tartelette the pastry mistress herself. Heh. I'm usually more focused on getting clean edges and straight cuts. Trying hard here people...

Layers dissected

In the end, I was quite embarrassed by how plain looking the cake looked, that I went out and bought myself a box of raspberries, just to add colour to an otherwise plain looking canvas. I was just too tired after assembling the cake to think of how I wanted to play around with decoration.

I think there's something to be learnt every time I embark on a cake making session. While making the vanilla  genoise, I kinda dumped the flour mixture in the batter and didn't really fold it properly, so when it came out of the oven, there were still bits of uncooked flour!!! I hurriedly scraped off the unbaked flour bits with a spoon. I learnt my lesson and was careful to fold the flour in properly when making the chocolate genoise. 

I bought the cake out to the mates and we happily pretended there were "candles" and sang the obligatory birthday song for the two girlfriends. Then it was cake time! Hope I didn't disappoint anyone with the cake. Hee. I'm learning. I'm still learning. Hopefully one day my cakes will be without any mistakes!