Recipe: Mango Mousse Cheesecake Entremet

Mango mousse & vanilla cheesecake entremet on a crunchy caramel cookie

Makes: 12 mini dome cakes (6cm in diameter)

Time required: 3 hours in total, over 2 nights

Difficulty: ★★☆☆☆

Inspiration:

Inspired by another one of my favourite chocolates – the Mango & Vanilla chocolate from Koko Black back home in Melbourne. Every time I used to visit Koko Black I would buy at least five of these Mango & Vanilla chocolates in addition to several of the Passion flavour (I have also baked a cake inspired by this chocolate with recipe here!) and then try a range of other truffles and chocolates.

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Trying all the chocolates from Koko Black and Xocolatl in Melbourne

The elements of this cake include:

  • Vanilla cheesecake centre
  • Runny mango jam
  • Mango mousse dome
  • Mango mirror glaze
  • caramel biscuit base

Ingredients:

Vanilla Cheesecake centre:

  • 225g cream cheese
  • 200g caster sugar
  • 1 egg
  • 100ml thickened cream
  • 1 tsp vanilla
  • 1/2 lemon

Caramel Biscuit base:

  • 1 pack caramel flavoured biscuits (can use other flavours, e.g. Arnott’s Nice biscuits are a good alternative)
  • 150g melted butter

Mango jam:

  • 200g mango puree
  • 200g caster sugar
  • 2 gelatin leaves

Mango Mousse:

  • 200g mango puree
  • 250ml cream, whipped
  • 200g sugar
  • 3 gelatin leaves

Mango glaze:

  • 200g mango puree
  • 200g sugar
  • 4 gelatin leaves
  • 200ml condensed milk
  • 150g white chocolate

Instructions:

Vanilla Cheesecake centre:

  1. Preheat over at 150C
  2. beat the cream cheese with sugar until smooth
  3. whisk in the egg until well combined
  4. fold in cream, vanilla and lemon until just combined
  5. pour into a 8 x 8 inch square tin (or any other baking tin of similar size)
  6. bake for 20 minutes
  7. once cool, cut out 12 circles, around 2-3cm in diameter

Caramel Biscuit base:

  1. blend the biscuits in a food processor until there are not big lumps
  2. stir in melted butter
  3. spread over a large flat tin (ensure this is spread evenly enough to be able to cut out 12 x 6cm circles for the cake base) and bake at 150C for 10mins
  4. while still warm, cut out the 12 circles and set aside to cool. The 12 circles will be used as the base of the mousse dome, however do not discard the rest of the cookie base as this can be used to decorate the dome

Mango jam:

  1. heat mango puree and sugar over low heat until the sugar dissolves and the mixture thickens
  2. while the mixture is still hot, stir in bloomed gelatin and set aside
  3. once cool, place the mixture into a piping bag

Mango Mousse:

  1. heat mango puree and sugar over low heat until the sugar dissolves and the mixture thickens
  2. stir in gelatin and set aside to cool
  3. once the mixture is at room temperature, fold in the whipped cream to form the mousse

To Assemble:

  1. gather 12 circle dome moulds, each around 6cm in diameter
  2. fill half of each dome with the mango mousse mixture
  3. carefully pipe around 2 teaspoons of the mango jam on top of the mango mousse (be gentle as we don’t want to jam to sink to the bottom of the mould)
  4. push a piece of vanilla cheesecake into each of the domes on top of the mango jam. We want to push the cheesecake in just far enough that the edges of the cheesecake are surrounded by mango mousse. Add a bit more mousse into the dome if needed
  5. lastly, place a disc of the caramel biscuit onto each of the domes, sitting the biscuit base on top of the mousse
  6. set aside in the freeze for at least 3 hours, preferably overnight to harden

Glazing the cake:

Mango glaze: (make this the following day once the mousse domes are frozen)

  1. un-mould each of the mousse domes and place back in the freezer
  2. place mango and sugar over medium heat until the mixture thickens
  3. remove from heat and add the bloomed gelatin
  4. stir in the condensed milk
  5. while still hot, pour over white chocolate and stir to melt and incorporate the chocolate
  6. when the glaze cools to 35 degrees, pour over the mango mousse domes
  7. crumble the off-cuts from the caramel cookie base and coat around the base of each of the cakes
Mango mousse & vanilla cheesecake entremet on a crunchy caramel cookie
Mango mousse & vanilla cheesecake entremet on a crunchy caramel cookie

 

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Ideas: Christmas baking – macarons and cakes

Christmas baking: reindeer macarons

Christmas is always an exciting time of year … work is quieter … people are in ‘holiday mode’ … the weather in Melbourne is lovely … AND I have more excuses to bake (and plenty of time to bake since the footy isn’t on).

Leading up to Christmas the past two years, I’ve baked for family dinners as well as charity fundraisers which both present their own challenges. This post showcases the cakes I baked for Christmas dinner in 2015 and as well as the macarons baked for a fundraiser leading up to Christmas in 2014.

For Christmas 2016 … check out the posts on my Gingerbread House and Croquembouche journeys.

Christmas themed macarons:

I really enjoy baking macarons and will find an excuse to bake more macarons whether it’s for a wedding, Christmas, Easter or just any party. Here’s my selection of Christmas macarons for a Christmas charity fundraiser:

  1. Christmas pudding macarons: decorated with tempered white chocolate
  2. Christmas coloured macarons: raspberry and matcha flavoured
  3. Reindeer macarons: red m&m’s for the nose and pretzel antlers

Christmas cakes:

Being in charge of dessert for my family’s Christmas dinner is always a challenge – trying to keep all 9 people happy which includes: my parents who don’t like anything too sweet, my sister who always requests something coffee flavoured and a brother-in-law who wants nothing but a tart (more specifically … the Strawberry and Berry Tart from Le Petit Gateau in Melbourne).

Given these requirements, I came up with the following desserts:

  1. Opera cake: to meet the request of a coffee flavoured dessert
  2. Matcha mousse cake: something not too sweet for the parents
  3. Raspberry & passionfruit tart: not quite the same as the tart from Le Petit Gateau, but still a tart with berries
  4. Mango Cheesecake: At this stage I may as well keep baking and use up everything I have in the fridge
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All the cakes after four nights of baking

Opera cake:

A decadent cake made from layers of almond sponge soaked in coffee liquor syrup, chocolate ganache and coffee buttercream – this cake is always one of my favourites to bake (recipe to be posted soon).

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Opera cake – one of my favourite cakes to bake and always a crowd pleaser

Matcha Mousse cake:

Following the matcha trend – I decided to bake a matcha and white chocolate mousse cake for my ‘not too sweet’ dessert. Sitting on top of the matcha almond sponge is a layer of white chocolate mousse which adds a hint of sweetness to the bitter matcha cake.

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Matcha Mousse cake

Raspberry and Passionfruit tart:

Although the tarts from Le Petit Gateau look amazing, I opted for a more ‘traditional’ tart … baked in a tart pan with plenty of custard and topped with fruit. I made a passionfruit curd to add a bit more flavour to the custard and topped the tart with raspberries, raspberry jam and chopped pistachios. Not quite Le Petit Gateau standard … but still relatively happy with the finished product given it was my first tart or pastry crust attempt.

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Raspberry & passionfruit tart

Mango Cheesecake:

I wasn’t joking earlier when I said that I was using up the ingredients in my fridge. We had several ripe mangos in the house and cream cheese in the fridge. The bright colour of the mango also looked great with the red/green/brown of the other cakes.

This was a very simple cheesecake to make, comprised of a Arnott’s Nice biscuit base, vanilla cheesecake (recipe to be posted soon) and a mango jelly.

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Mango cheesecake

I’m always looking for new ideas and challenges for Christmas themed baking, so if you have any great posts or recipes, please share below 🙂

 

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