Mango Cheese Charlotte -No Bake Cheesecake #3

MIL suddenly asked us out for dinner with a newly wed couple who are relatives. And asked me whether I can make a cake for them. 22 hours notice!

To make a cake for the newly wed couple as a simple dinner celebration, is not like a birthday cake or a regular cake, I have to incorporate romantic elements into it. I can only make do with whatever I have in hand. I have mangoes, limes, chocolate, coffee and no berries at all in the fridge. So, it's either I make a mango cake or a mocha flavoured cake.

1st cake, pale bland mangoes..... yucks

Scratch my head, my brains and scoured the internet for cake with romantic elements that I can make with a short period of time and the limited choice of ingredients. Lastly... I went with a mango charlotte, and decided to pipe chocolate hearts as deco. A Charlotte always looks elegant, I won't  need to think too much about last minute touch ups and the cake is already ready and chilling a few hours ahead.

My mangoes weren't sweet and fragrant, and so I marinated them with sugar, lots of sugar. Still they weren't  very sweet and the flavour was missing. But the looks of the charlotte is considered ok.
Feeling very dissatisfied, I hunted for better mangoes and then made it a second time few days later. This time I added lime to the mango to give the fragrance a lift. Feedback.... much better than the first cake.

2nd cake gone in one sitting when I brought it to Mike's office.

2nd cake :)
Feeling better about it

Mango Cheese Charlotte
Recipe by  WendyinKK 

Sponge Fingers (refer here) or you can use store bought ones
Bake as per the recipe.
Line sides and base of an 8inch spring form pan with sponge fingers.

Filling
250gm cream cheese (1 block), room temperature
100gm sugar (depends on how sweet the mango is)
200gm whipping cream (1 small pack), cold
150gm plain yogurt (1 small tub)
150gm mango puree (fresh)
½ cup mango mini cubes (5mm)
2 Tbsp lime juice
Zest from 2 limes
2 Tbsp gelatin
50ml water

1. Place water into a heatproof bowl. Sprinkle gelatin in and let it bloom for 2 minutes. Melt it, method refer here. Let it cool down while you do the following steps.
2. Mix mango puree, mango cubes, lime juice and zest together.
3. Whip whipping cream until stiff and place in fridge. No need to wash beaters.
4. In another bowl, beat cream cheese until smooth (no lumps) and put in sugar and beat for a while. Put in yogurt and beat on low speed until well incorporated. Remove cream from fridge and beat in on low speed. Then the gelatin, beat in on low speed too. Finally, the mango mixture, beat in too.
5. Pour the cream cheese filling into the prepared sponge in pan. Chill for 3 hours and then do the next step.

Topping
1/2 Tbsp gelatin
2 Tbsp water
1 tsp sugar (add more if mango is not sweet at all)
2 cups diced mango, cold

1. Place water into a heatproof bowl. Sprinkle gelatin in and let it bloom for 2 minutes. Melt it, method refer here. Let it cool down while you do the following steps.
2. Remove mango fruit from fridge, peel and cut into cubes. Marinate with sugar if it’s not sweet enough, skip the sugar if it’s sweet. (if it’s more than 18 hours before serving time, it’s best to add in some lime juice to prevent discolouration)
3. Mix the cold mango cubes with melted gelatin and toss to get them evenly coated with the gelatin. Let it sit for a while (1-2 minutes) so the gelatin will thicken a bit.
4. Spoon the mango cubes over the half set cake (top has set) and chill for another 2 hours minimum before serving.

I didn't like the ribbon bow, and so I removed it, but that was the only ribbon at home :p

how it looked like inside