A scientist in the kitchen

Summer is gone, but the memories of luscious mangoes linger on. Everytime we harvest mangoes, we always make it a point to make this no-bake mango cake.

It’s so easy to make. Chop some ripe mangoes. Mix all-purpose cream and condensed milk according to taste. Dip graham crackers in milk and line a glass pan. Layer with mangoes and cream. Continue to layer graham crackers, mangoes and cream till you reach the top.  Decorate any way you wish. Refrigerate for several hours before serving.

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Yellow is not only a color of summer but a color of hope for the fight against cancer. This month’s Click Photo Event is Yellow for Bri, dedicated to a fellow food blogger Bri of Figs with Bri, stricken with cancer.

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This one you don’t need to go under alcohol rehab! I’ve always been fascinated with flambe, isn’t it dramatic to watch the alcohol go up in flames in front of you?

My sister and I were watching this tv show featuring Valentine date dishes and they had banana flambe. It seemed quite easy, we had some banana, a bit of brandy from the fruit cake curing, and some chocolates.

To make this banana-chocolate flambe, just chop a cup of bananas and put in a pan. Add 1/2 cup water and 2-3 tbsp sugar. Bring to boil to cook the banana and melt the sugar. Add 1/4 cup of brandy. Tilt the pan so that the fire from the stove would reach the brandy. Presto! The brandy starts to burn. Add the chopped chocolate and thinly sliced kaffir and there you go - banana-chocolate flambe!

Did I like it? Not much really. I should have used the lacatan banana, a much firmer variety. What I’m really hankering after is to make some mango flambe this summer.

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It must be a year of cookies as I read a lot cookie recipes in my Google Reader. So much that I am tempted to bake them myself, but baking cookies, for me, takes so much energy and so  much of my time, I’d rather have some cookie delivery at home.

Well anyway, last month, during my dad’s birthday celebration, my sister and I were planning to either bake a cake or make some birthday cookies. Take note make and not bake. We planned on ordering chocolate chip cookies from a friend and decorate them. Eventually, though, the cake won and here’s how it came up. It is a conglomeration of recipes I found from magazines with a cinnamon flavor. I like cream for frosting so I used that and the filling was made up of chocnut candies (a local chocolate-peanut candy), roasted peanuts and cream.

Dad’s birthday cake

1 and 2/3 cups sifted all-purpose flour
3/4 cup sugar
3 eggs
3/4 oil
1 tbsp vanilla extract
1 tbsp cinnamon powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt

1. Sift flour, cinnamon powder, baking soda and salt together for three times.

2. Cream eggs and sugar for five minutes. Add oil, vanilla extra and beat for another five minutes.

3. Add the dry ingredients and beat till dissolved.

4. Brush baking pan with butter. Pour the batter and bake at 300oF for 40 minutes. Cool down before decorating.

For the birtday cake, we baked two batches to have a layered cake.

The recipe for the frosting follows later.

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We have been having windy days lately which is quite unusual at this time of the year. But now as I look out my window (I usually keep the roller shades  up), it seems like summer is here. And with summer comes the season for mangoes. The tell tale signs start in early February, when the mangoes start to flower. By March, one of earlier varieties you can enjoy is the paho mangoes - around 2 inch mangoes with a pungent aroma that reminds me of cilantro. I usually use this mango for salsa instead of the usual cilantro. These days, green, unripe mangoes are also available. I love them sour, dipping in fish paste or salt - just the thought now is making my mouth water. But I would always look forward to the sweet golden mango varieties. Eaten fresh, shakes or in cakes, these are my favorite.

When mangoes are in season, we love to make this yummy dessert. Goes well with really lots of mangoes, which is no problem at all as we harvest our own mango in the backyard. Here’s the mango ref cake recipe which I plan (or rather, which I plan to ask my sister) to make a lot of once mangoes are in full swing. The picture below was from last year’s (or the other year’s) harvest.

Mango Ref Cake (my sister’s recipe)

1 box of graham crackers
2 cups of sliced mango
1 box of all-purpose cream
1 can of evaporated milk
condensed milk for sweetening

Mix all-purpose cream and evaporated milk. Add the condensed milk slowly, tasting the mixture for the desired sweetness. In a square glass pan, alternately put on a layer of graham crackers, cream and mangoes till almost full. At the topmost layer, make sure cream covers all the crackers and arrange mango slices to decorate the top. Cover with saran wrap and refrigerate overnight before serving.

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