Mango Mousse Cake

It's OCT's birthday today, I promised to make him a mango cake as his present.

the shepherd playmobil featured here is OCT's current favorite. He is posing with the present our friends gave him for his birthday. Initially I asked him to pose with the present, but he refused. Instead, he sent his playmobil buddy to represent him...

This is the first birthday cake I make for OCT. I am a bit nervous, because I never made a mousse cake before. To complicate things, the mangos I bought on Saturday were not fully ripe by the time I need them. So I was not too optimistic about the outcome eventhough I really wanted to make this perfect.

In the end, I pureed some fresh mango with some frozen one for the filling. Ironically, the inexpensive frozen mango was sweeter than the fresh one. I think I will use the frozen one next time should I need to make a mango cake again. I suddenly miss home, where we never run out of juicy, sweet mangos. I am sure the mousse will turn out ten times nicer using those mangos.

No wonder I don't see many places offering mango related desserts in their menus. The mangos here simply do not make the cut.

Anyhow, OCT was touched by the gesture and ate 2 big pieces of the not-very-tasty cake.
This is how the interior of the cake looked like

For dinner, we had sesame chicken chow mein, something that symbolizes longevity, according to the Chinese tradition. OCT has noodle every year on his birthday. It's a little tradition he keeps. Because we have run out of the chinese longevity noodle he usually eats, I used thin spaghetti instead. Both of us like this version of chow mein very much, this is going to be in my repertoire. Please pardon its appearance, I guarantee that the photo doesn't do my chow mein justice.

A quiet evening for the birthday boy, just the two of us eating a simple home-made dinner followed by the birthday cake and candle blowing. Just the way OCT wants it. Happy Birthday OCT!