Mango Cotton Cheesecake with Mango Crown

Looked pretty from the top?

Please don't look at the sides. Hedious!!! Absolutely hedious!! Cos I did this in a regular pan and forgot to grease the sides. I tried to release the sides with a knife when it was fresh out from the oven to avoid cracking whilst cooling and I mutilated the cake's side.

This is not a first time baking with mangoes. My 2nd infact. My 1st experience was a birthday cake for Mike, a Baked Mango Cheesecake. He asked me to discard the whole cake. That's how bad it was.
Reason: The whole cake tasted and smelt green, green like grass. The colour was a dirty yellow, like clay in yellow ochre.
Why did this happen?
Because I used Chok Anan mangoes to do it.
Sure or not it's the mangoes fault??? Sure la.... Even the decorative top turned dirty yellow in just 3 hours.
The blog where I got this recipe from said her cake was ok, but she could not recall the type of mango she used, even when I sent her pictures. But she said, it was a Thai mango.

I've got a friend who tried my Orange Yogurt Muffin Cake, and she ran out of plain yogurt and used her cup of mango yogurt instead. She told me the cake turned into a dirty looking cake with a grassy smell. See... It's not me blaming it all on the mango. Chok Anans are one of the most common mangoes for sale here. And it's one of the cheapest too, so I'm not surprised that manufacturers will use this mango for their "real fruit yogurt".

So, it seemed that it's the type of mango used that will affect the cake, not any mango can be used for baking. So which type? I had to experiment.

This time, I used Golden Lily mango, another common Thai mango. And the result was better.

Oh why did I do a cotton cheesecake to try out the mango??
Cotton cheesecakes are easier to eat and finish off compared to regular creamy cheesecakes and the main reason is that it uses less cream cheese :)
I just want to know the outcome of baking with Golden Lily mango.

Mango Cotton Cheesecake

125gm cream cheese, room temperature
3 egg yolks
30gm flour
20gm corn starch
125ml mango puree

3 egg whites
70gm sugar
Pinch of cream of tartar

1. Preheat oven to 150/160C. Line the base of a 7 or 8 inch round pan, grease the sides
2. With a whisk or mixer, beat cream cheese until smooth.
3. Add in egg yolk one by one, beating smooth after each addition.
4. Mix in both flours until smooth.
5. Combine mango puree until everything is smooth. Set aside.
6. In a clean bowl, beat egg whites until frothy. Put in cream of tartar and beat until soft peaks.
7. Add in sugar gradually and beat until stiff.
8. Fold 1/3 of egg whites into cheese mixture.
9. Pour cheese mixture into remaining egg whites and fold until well combined.
10. Pour batter into prepared pan. Put pan into another slightly bigger pan filled halfway with boiling water.
11. Bake for 45 minutes. Cool cake thoroughly before decorating with mango slices. Chill in fridge until time of use.

Mango Crown Topping
Mango slices
1 Tbsp Instant jelly powder
100ml water
1 Tbsp sugar

1. Arrange mango slices on cooled cake. Put cake in freezer while you do the jelly glaze.
2. Mix instant jelly powder, sugar and water in a saucepan.
3. On medium heat, bring to a boil and let it simmer for 2-3 minutes. Turn off heat. No need to cool down.
4. Remove cake from freezer and brush glaze onto mango slices. The jelly will harden upon contact with cold mango.

Although not very,very good, but better. The decorative top lasted 18 hours before turning brown and the interior of the cake was orangy brownish, but definately not dirty looking. Taste wise, ok, but it doesn't taste exceptionally mangoey on its own. The mango topping is a must. 

I wonder what sort of mango will give bakes a lovely mango flavour. Maybe Thai mangoes don't work, because they have a faint fragrance, as I read somewhere on the internet that mango flavour and fragrance diminishes upon baking or cooking, and only certain mangoes are suitable, but what sort of mango??? There are hundreds of mango varieties in the world. Will Indian mangoes work? Alphonso or Wira? They certainly taste and smell much  much stronger than Thai mangoes. I can't get Philipines Mango here... so I don't know about them.

Anyone that had success baking with mangoes, please share with me your experience. I am desperate to know. I hope to don't need to buy every mango in the market and test each one out.