The second bake for Home Bakers Challenge this month is Chocolate Mango Cake and we were give an egg & an eggless version, which was chosen by Spicy Treats. I picked the eggless cake which is also butter less. I baked the cake couple of weeks ago but am late posting it on the blog. I was supposed to post it between 10th & 12th of the month.

As soon as I saw the recipe for this month, I knew I would like it  as has both chocolate and mango in it. And yes, we both liked and in fact, I baked it twice in a span of 3 days. In the past, I tried baking eggless cake and was never successful but this cake came out well. First time I under baked the mango chocolate cake but we did finish it off though.  And the second time I baked it a little longer for 57 minutes and it was perfect, moist and spongy.  Mr. U liked it a lot.  In fact this evening he asked me when I was going to bake this cake again.

Total Time: 70 – 75 minutes
Preparation: 10 – 15 minutes
Baking Time: 57 minutes
Makes: 8 ½ “ Loaf

Ingredients:

• 2 cups or 250 grams All Purpose Flour
• 1 ½ tsp. Baking Powder
• ½ tsp. Baking Soda
• ¼ tsp. Salt
• ¾ cup Sugar
• ¼ cup Unsweetened Cocoa Powder
• 2-3 tbsp. warm Water to mix cocoa (recipe called for 2 tbsp. but I had to use 3)
• 5 tbsp. Oil (I used Olive Oil)
• 1 tsp. Vanilla
• 1 cup Mango Pulp (I used stored bought mango pulp, Ratna brand)
• ¼ cup Milk (I used non-fat)
• ¼ Buttermilk (I used non-fat yogurt)

Method:

• Pre-heat oven to 350 F.
• The recipe says grease and line the pan with parchment paper but I did not grease the pan. I just lined it with a parchment paper.
• Add all the dry ingredients, except sugar in a bowl and mix them.
• In a large mixing bowl, mix sugar and oil.  I used an hand held mixer but can also  use a whisk for mixing the batter.
• Add mango pulp, yogurt, milk, vanilla and mix well.
• Gradually add flour mixture to mango mixture mixing it well to combine the dry & wet ingredients. Transfer half of the mango batter to another bowl.
• In a small bowl take warm water, add the cocoa powder and make a paste. Add this cocoa paste to one bowl of mango batter that was kept aside and mix it well.
• Transfer the batters to the loaf pan. For the marble cake, there is “n” number of ways to make a swirl. The first time I baked the cake, I made a checker pattern, dropping a tablespoon (tbsp.) of mango batter and cocoa batter in the pan as shown in the picture below.  For the second layer, I placed the tbsp. of mango batter on cocoa batter and a tbsp of cocoa batter on mango batter.  Complete rest of the batter alternating the batters to make a checker patter. Then make a swirl. For the swirl, I drew a vertical line from left to right, next line right to left an inch apart from the previous one and then left to right again, an inch part from the previous line. You get the idea. Similarly draw horizontal lines top to bottom, bottom to top, top to bottom an inch apart from each line.The second time I baked the cake, I alternated a layer of mango batter followed by cocoa batter. I think I did 3-4 layers of mango and 2-3 layers of cocoa batter. Then swirl the cake drawing lines vertically from left to right & then right to left. Similarly draw lines horizontally.
• Once the swirls are made, tap the pan once and bake the loaf cake in a pre-heated oven for 50-55 minutes or longer until a tooth pick inserted comes out clean. I baked for 57 minutes. Remove from the oven and let cool.

Note:

• There are many videos on YouTube on how to get swirls on a marble cake.
• I used a loaf pan but can use any pan; round, square or even a blunt pan. Baking times vary depending on the pan used. Also, over temperatures vary from oven to oven and hence insert a tooth pick or a knife to check if the cake is done.

Recipes I posted this month in 2008, in 2009, in 2011 and in 2012.