On the weekend, I bought a beautiful book that I’ve been secretly lusting after for a while, Grand Livre De Cuisine: Desserts: Alain Ducasse’s Desserts and Pastries. It gave me tingles. And inspiration to make a spectacular mango dessert. There was going to be a crispy chocolate layer, macadamia praline, moulded mango jelly shapes, creamy mango centre, maybe a hint of rum, chocolate glaze, and the distinct possibility of gold flecks. I needed the oven to bake my base. I haven’t been allowed near the oven for almost a week because it’s been so hot and humid. There was some debate. I lost. So I ended up making a mango version of a zuppa inglese instead with a packet of savoiardi. I’d already made the mango cream and it was a shame not to use it. Delicious? Well, yes. Spectacular? Hell. No.
And now I’m a little more time poor. My day job kind of gets in the way of important stuff like kitchen lab experiments. I needed something simple and quick but divine. And it had to be mango. Mango season is in full swing and I’m officially mango mad while it lasts. I love mangoes. Doesn’t everyone love mangoes?
Choose your loveliest, sweetest, most perfumed mango for this moist, flourless cake to get the best flavour. The banana adds extra sweetness without being sickly and it doesn’t overpower the mango. It’s very easy to make. I mixed it up in a food processor. You could easily just puree the fruit and toss all the ingredients in a bowl and mix. Dead simple.
It’s really good on its own for afternoon tea, dusted with icing sugar. It’s also yummy served with mango slices and cream, ice cream, or yoghurt as a dessert. If you love frosting (I don’t), swirls of mango or rum buttercream might be your thing. Go ahead, layer it with buttercream. It would be fabulous. Otherwise, it’s actually quite a healthy treat. But don’t tell anyone, because it doesn’t taste healthy.
Makes: 1 x 18cm round cake
Ingredients
1 ripe banana
1 large mango
1/2 cup coconut sugar* or brown sugar
3 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste or extract
1/4 cup macadamia nut oil or coconut oil
250 grams almond meal
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 cup chopped macadamia nuts (optional)
* Coconut sugar is sold in organic or health food stores. Granulated coconut palm sugar is used in this recipe.
Method
Preheat the oven to 180°C.
Line the base and sides of a 18cm round cake tin with baking paper (unless using the non-stick variety).
Chop the banana and mango pulp and place them in a bowl of a food processor with the sugar, eggs, vanilla paste, and macadamia or coconut oil. Pulse until well mixed.
Add the almond meal and baking powder and pulse again for a few seconds until well mixed and the batter is smooth. Remove the bowl and stir in the chopped macadamia nuts.
Pour the batter into the prepared cake tin and smooth the top. Bake at 180°C, in the centre of the oven, for about 45 – 50 minutes or until golden.
Remove from the oven and allow to cool in the tin for 10 minutes. Place on a serving dish and cool before serving.
I’ve updated this post with some new photos but for posterity, I’ll keep the original photo (via dodgy phone cam!):
I was wondering how one can make a flourless mango cake? So now I know how to!! Great job! The picture looks fabulous!!
http://cosmopolitancurrymania.blogspot.com
Thank you! I hope you enjoy it, it’s really good. If you love chocolate, drizzle a little melted chocolate or chocolate sauce over the top. it’s wonderful.
Wow. Its so beautiful. I agree, who doesn’t like mangoes? I am excited to try this one, I am now going on a search for coconut sugar.
Thank you! Coconut sugar should be easy to find…probably in health food or organic stores. You can do a search online too. If you can’t find it, brown sugar is a good substitute.
Enjoy!!!
This cake looks delicious, I love that it is flourless and something other than chocolate.
Thank you! Well, you know it would be superb drizzled with some melted chocolate, or a chocolate sauce…but it’s also great on its own
Enjoy and thank you for the lovely comment.
It looks delicious. I have some mango at home and I might need to put them to use
Thank you! I hope you enjoy it
Does this cake have any taste of marzipan? The last time I used almond meal mt tart tasted way to much marzipany :/ I think I have to make this cake anyways, because it looks so delicious and decadent!!
Well, no, there is no marzipan and not too much sugar in the recipe so definitely no marzipan taste. My guess is you are no keen on the taste of almonds. Mostly this cake tastes very much of MANGO as the dominant flavour. So, if you like mango, maybe you will like this too?
The almonds are not there for a strong flavour, they are there to replace flour and give a much more moist cake, which as a lovely texture.
give it a try, let me know what you think!! it’s very nice served with some icecream or yoghurt and definitely lovely with some chocolate or choc sauce on it. Or on its own
HI
I made this cake as upside down mango cake !!!If you love mango do it this way. I also used some dry mango slices in the batter (after soaking in some rum). Mango Madness for you.
This sounds so lovely. Mangoes are one of my favorite fruits!
Yeah I love this cake…OK I also really love mango
Thanks, I hope you enjoy it!!
Tried with tinned mangoes, will use fresh next time. This cake is not too sweet but definitely classy! Thank you.
Really? I would generally steer clear of tinned mango for this cake….frozen mango cheeks would be fine but tinned just won’t have the same flavour. Please do try it with fresh mango…it’s lovely. Thank you for the feedback! So glad you tried it and liked it. Yay!!
This looks fabulous! I can’t wait to try this one!!
ohh, I can’t wait to try out this recipe. it is after all mango season at the moment. just a quick question, is it alright if I used olive or canola oil in this recipe?
Thanks! I hope you like it, it’s great served with fresh mango or a mango icecream for dessert!
Yes, you can use another oil…I’d probably opt for olive over canola. But a lovely nut oil does impart a great flavour, if you are willing to give it a go. Macadamia nut oil is full of healthy fats and gives a lovely buttery texture and flavour.
This sounds really good. I think I might have to give it a try.
It is, Diane…it’s really lovely served with either icecream or yoghurt as a dessert
As my daughter is allergic to bananas what could I use instead ? maybe another mango ?, or would that be too sloppy. Thankyou.
Replacing it with mango would be fine. You probably need only half a mango, depending on the size. To replace it by weight, you will need about 110 – 125g mango flesh. That should work fine. I do that when I run out of bananas. it’s awesome.
Wow, that sounds delicious! I love flourless chocolate cake so bet this would be scrummy!
Hi this looks so delicious. Can you use can mangos? Just don’t want to wait till mango season to cook/
I have never used tinned mangoes before but I have used frozen mangoes (I stock up for the winter … making like a squirrel!)
It worked fine with frozen mangoes so it should be OK with tinned mangoes.
I just made this. It’s REALLY great. I had to use turbinado sugar, and I scraped a whole Madagascar vanilla bean inside instead of the paste, and I milled my own soaked and dehyrated cashew meal instead of almond. I used coconut oil, which was good, but I look forward to trying macadamia oil and maybe butter in the future too. I might also substitute more mango for the banana; I like the banana, but my husband hates banana and the banana is definitely noticeable.
I also baked it in a Pyrex loaf pan, which took about an hour and 20 minutes.
I wanted to use honey, but I thought it might make it too wet; it’s already a very moist cake. I think the flavor would be very nice, though. I might try dehydrating the mango a bit, putting honey in, then diluting the batter down if it’s not moist enough.
I’m also tempted to make this with macadamia meal, haha.
all of the above sounds great! We never notice the banana flavour because the mangoes are so strong…maybe the mango wasn’t fully flavoured? but I’ve made this with just mango many times, awesome. with macadamia meal it would be great…you could definitely omit or lessen the oil in that case as the fat content is higher.
don’t dehydrate the mango. Use less honey than sugar as it will be stronger. Just watch the baking as honey will make it brown a lot more and the baking time might differ.
Fabulous. thank you for coming back with all the wonderful tips and variations! Next time you make it, post pics and what you did to the FB page, would be great!
Hi there, I absolutely love the idea of a GF mango! And the fact that it has no chocolate is actually a plus. Would you know how much of almond meal is necessary in cup/spoon measurement? I don’t have a kitchen balance to weight the ingredients.
Looking forward to make this recipe. (Mangoes are sitting at my counter for two days, getting ready)
Hope to hear from you soon.
Daniela.
Hi Daniela,
For the almond meal, 250g will equate to about 2.27 metric cups (250ml by volume) and 2.37 American cups (240ml) approximately for the almond meal.
That’s about 2 1/4 metric cups and 2 1/3 american cups by volume.
I hope this helps!
Glad you like the recipe. If you like, you can substitute more mango for the banana but the banana does add something in the way of sweetness and texture.
When you make it, post a pic to the FB page.
Yummm! This looks delicious. I love how much fruit is in this. I can’t wait to try it out. I just need to pick up some mangos.
Where do you buy almond meal?
Nancy, you should be able to buy almond meal at any supermarket. Also, health food stores.
You can make your own by grinding and sifting almonds in a food processor as well.
I loved it, I baked it today. The mango flavour was not that strong as I expected, but I guess this is the mango quality in the Netherlands. I used honey and it stayed a tiny bit softer than I expected but just still perfect in fact, I would use honey again. I made mango pasta to serve it with (just fresh mango pulp), all in all it is a big hit! Thanks for sharing!!!
That’s wonderful!! Yes, the flavour of the mango is everything for this cake as it would be for anything one makes with mango. You can substitute the same weight of mango pulp for the banana in the recipe to give it extra flavour, given you have to rely on the quality of imported mangoes you get. This will give you a stronger flavour.
For the honey, you might want to reduce the amount a little bit and watch the baking time as it will affect the texture (being liquid) and will make the cake brown more quickly.
I have found the flavour isn’t quite as good with honey as with sugar for this cake but it’s personal preference
Thank you for the fabulous feedback!! I really love this cake too.
I made this last night for dessert and it was a delicious surprise! So moist and delicious and not too sweet! My boyfriend went back for seconds….Thank you for this great recipe!
That’s lovely, Karen!
Is it okay if I don’t blend the mango?
HI Joy, if you wish to make this cake as per the recipe, then I’d have to say no.
Is there a reason why you don’t wish to blend the mango?
You don’t have to but if not, you will need to add something to replace the mango in the recipe – more banana perhaps or some yoghurt, milk etc.
In that case, it will essentially be a banana cake so entirely different.
It’s cooling now…..
Yay … and mangoes are in season
Reblogged this on Gal About Town and commented:
Not a strict paleo, but low FODMAP and gluten-free isn’t bad!
not low FODMAP for everyone as it does contain mango which is high in fructose
thank you for reblogging the post and recipe!!
Love this recipe. Great as I am allergic to dairy. I also added some dried pawpaw to the mix as well. Yum
thank you for the lovely feedback, Trish. The pawpaw is a great addition! I love this cake very much too
How many grams of mango would you suggest? I plan to make this one tonight! Thanks.
Hi Ebe,
ha, when I wrote this up I had forgotten to weigh the mango flesh before adding to the recipe! My oversight.
I’d be selecting a large mango that weighs about 420g – 450g in total weight (before removing outer skin and bone).
The honey golds are really good now and would be awesome in this cake. I hope you like it! If you want more mango and no banana, substitute and extra 80-90 grams of mango flesh for the banana.
Beautiful and this sounds absolutely divine!! (: So gonna try this! Thanks for sharing the recipe dearie!! xx
It’s an oldie but a goodie. You can sub mango for the banana. For a large banana substitution, it’s about 100 grams or so extra mango. xx
My cake has not risen like your picture. Any thoughts?
Hi Anne,
well my first logical guess would be that you may have forgotten to include the baking powder?
This recipe is pretty much foolproof so that is the only thing I can think of.
You haven’t given me any details so I can’t offer more than that right now.???
made this cake 3 days ago. The bestest most delish, moist, light, tasty cake ever. It didn’t last very long. everyone loved it…
I also made your date walnut bombs..also a huge success…Im getting ingrediants for your Le 400 chocolate cake for this weekends baking.
Love this site, your as amazing as your recipes x x x x x
Wow.
Thank you so much, Tanya! I’m so glad you are enjoying them
You have made my day!!!
Yes I must confess, the classic orange almond cake was in my mind as I made the mango cake