Mango Cake

Our Sunday School class gets together once a month for a meal or some sort of outing. This month it was a "pot luck" evening meal in the church fellowship hall. I was on the mend from a migraine headache but I was feeling well enough to go. I figured I could get to town and buy something, but where's the fun in that? Before the headache knocked me flat, I had bought some mangoes and had planned to make mango bread. The mangoes were still in the fridge, but "bread" didn't seem quite right.

A Google search for mango cake recipes gave pathetic results: too fussy, too many ingredients I didn't have, too "meh." Aha! This one looked promising: Chunky Fresh Mango Cake. Hold the phone. This makes a 6" round cake? Who makes a SIX-INCH cake??

This is the cutey-patootey pic from Taste of Home.

Never fear. I'm pretty good at math. I simply quadrupled the recipe and had enough for two 9" round pans. If you only need a 6" cake, hit the link above. However, if you want enough so someone else can also have a piece or two, use "my" recipe below.

Chunky Fresh Mango Cake (makes two 9" rounds)

2 c. sugar

1-1/3 c. unsweetened applesauce

4 eggs

2-1/2 c. all-purpose flour

3 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. salt

1 tsp. cinnamon

1/2 tsp. nutmeg

3 c. peeled, chopped mango

1 c. chopped pecans

[Preheat oven to 375°]

In a large bowl, beat the sugar, applesauce and eggs until well-blended. In another bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Gradually beat the dry ingredients into the sugar mixture and mix well. Fold in the mango and pecans.

Pour into two 9" round pans [greased or sprayed with "baking" spray!] and bake for 45 minutes. Use the fabulous toothpick trick to make sure it's done. Cool on wire racks for 10+ minutes; then remove from pans to finish cooling on wire racks.

Sprinkle with powdered sugar before serving. Some whipped cream on top adds just the right finishing touch.

YUM! Enjoy!

A final word to Taste of Home.com - Thank You!

Happy St. Urho's Day!

Being half Finnish, about a fourth Irish, and 1/4 chicken noodle soup, I celebrate any and all holidays! Since it's St. Urho's Day (read about it here) I wondered if I had ever made a Finnish cake. I did the usual Google search and found a recipe that sounded good and had some favorable reviews. Another plus: I had all the necessary ingredients.

As I headed to the kitchen, I remembered that I have a couple of Finnish cookbooks. I decided to check them out before I got started.

Lo and behold, the older cookbook had the exact recipe I had just found online. And, surprise surprise, I had made Kermakakku before. Mmm :) The wonderful thing about having a really deficient memory is that everything is always new and exciting! Yay!

Fortunately I still had some cardamom seeds. I don't worry about grinding them in my coffee grinder because cardamom is pretty good in coffee, too.

Cake is pretty:

Tastes good, too:

It just needs a big, green plastic grasshopper on top. Maybe next year.