Saturday, July 3, 2010

Island Style Wedding

This weekend I had the enormous pleasure of making a big showy display of cupcakes with a cutting cake for a guy that I've known for a while. He was our honored team-mate on our bike team, and I've ridden on teams with both his parents, so it was great to be involved in his wedding cake and to see him so healthy and happy.


The couple wanted a hawaiian theme to their wedding and it was more on the tasteful side, so I learned to make frangipane flowers and got some moulds to make little frangipane flowers and hibiscus for each of the cupcakes.


I was so happy with how well this theme came together, it all looked really professional and the flavors were just divine. It sounded like they were all gone with no leftovers so that is a success!! I can never find a general consensus on how many cupcakes should be provided for guests, my intuition tells me around one and a half per guests as some people often take a couple!


There were four flavors, mango macadamia with mango buttercream, chocolate mocha mudcakes with poured chocolate ganache, guava chiffon cakes filled with guava, and topped with guava buttercream and a delicious hummingbird cake packed with pineapple, coconut, pecan and banana, topped with cream cheese. The cutting cake was the mango macadamia flavor.

This cake is a wonderful cake, the original recipe is for strawberry, but I've made it with mixed berries, and it worked very well with mango and macadamia. Keep in mind that this is an extremely rich cake!

Mango Macadamia Butter Cakes adapted from Sky High Irresistable Triple Layer Cakes by Alicia Huntsman and Peter Wynne

Makes around 24 cupcakes

2 1/4 cups cake flour
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
6 ounces (1 1/2 sticks) soft unsalted butter
1/2 cup mango puree
4 egg whites (100g)
1/3 cup milk
1 diced mango
1 cup chopped toasted macadamias

Preheat the oven to 350f and prepare cupcake pans

Sift the flour into a mixing bowl with the sugar, baking powder and salt and mix briefly. Add the butter and puree and beat for a couple of minutes until fluffy.

Meanwhile, whisk together the milk and the egg whites, adding to the batter in 3 additions. Mix for another 20 seconds until combined, then add the madadamias and diced mango, mix just to combine.

Scoop into cupcake wrappers until 2/3 full and bake for around 20 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Top with your choice of topping, I used a standard swiss meringue buttercream with mango puree added, and topped with a fondant flower!

7 comments:

Joanne said...

AWESOME! They look fantastic and the flavors sound soooooo good! :)

caninecologne said...

Hi JW - those cupcakes look utterly gorgeous! the plumeria (frangipane) flowers look so cute! wonderful job!

have you also considered passionfruit flavors for future island style cupcakes?

Jennywenny said...

Thanks!
CC I think passion fruit would be just as delicious and easy to make, I could just take out the guava and add passion fruit instead!

kirbie said...

Everything looks gorgeous as always. And this recipe for mango butter cakes looks yummy. I'm going to have to try it out soon.

Jenniffer said...

Oh wow, that Mango Macadamia sound sinfully delicious!

caninecologne said...

hi jw - you can find passionfruit puree in the frozen section I(flat plastic bag, not in acan) at north park produce. the brand is by GOYA; a Latin foods brand. I havne't used mine yet. am contemplating making them in to cookie bars/cupcakes but the recipe calls for only a few table spoons and i don't want to open up the package just for a tiny amount. am waiting for the right time to use it. maybe i shall make the leftovers into punch? anyhow, i ramble! sorry!

Alice Q. Foodie said...

Absolutely beautiful Jenny!