Mango Cake (recipe)
This month’s theme of Sugar High Friday is “tropical paradise“. Well seeing as I live on the very tropical island of Trinidad this should be a cinch! 
Currently, mangoes are in season and we are buried under several bags of the good stuff (courtesy of friends and neighbours) so I have been trying to use them in as many ways as possible. So far I have made my Coco-Mango smoothie, and a Tropical Mango hot sauce. So why not come up with a mango dessert?
Most mango desserts seem to fall into the fruit salad variety, and though I love these as much as the next person I wanted to take the fruit into a more unexpected direction. This recipe for Mango Cake (courtesy of Grace Foods) fit the bill. All too often I find that we here in the tropics kill ourselves trying to locate fruits from the temperate regions to recreate European/American cakes, tarts and pies when we have perfectly valid and delicious substitutes growing in our yards! That these fruits may not be ‘traditionally’ used in these manners doesn’t mean that they can’t be. The resistance I got from others when I decided to use the local fruit ‘five fingers’ to make what turned out to be an extremely well-received Carambola Bread, proved just how little ‘thinking out of the box’ there still is. There’s a fine line between tradition and caricature and I see no reason why a blueberry pie can’t be transformed into a guava pie, or why a strawberry cake can’t become a mango cake. Take a moment to rediscover the tropical fruits and vegetables you have on hand and you may be surprised at how much more they have to offer
This mango cake is very light and elegant in appearance, especially when topped with a dash of icing sugar. The batter is topped with brown sugar and butter which crystallizes to form a delicate stresuel topping and the slivers of ripe mango settles themselves throughout the batter forming succulent counterpoints of sweetness. The mango flavour intensifies the longer it sits so wait an hour or two before serving.
Mango Cake
Recipe from: GraceFoods.com
Makes 16 servings
INGREDIENTS:
2 cups (500 ml) all purpose flour (I used cake flour)
2 tsps. (30 ml) baking powder
¼ teaspoon (1 ml) salt
½ cup (125 ml) soft margarine
⅔ cup (150 ml) granulated sugar
2 medium eggs
¼ cup (60 ml) clear sweet unflavoured syrup
1 teaspoon (5 ml) vanilla
2 Tbsps. (30 ml) brown sugar
2 Tbsps. (30 ml) soft margarine
1 large mango, sliced
DIRECTIONS:
1. Preheat oven to 350°F / 180°C. Grease and flour one 8″×8″×2″ / 20cm×20cm×5 cm.
2. Sift together flour, baking powder and salt. Cream margarine, adding sugar gradually, blend thoroughly.
3. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add syrup and vanilla.
4. Fold in flour and scrape batter into cake tin. Arrange mango slices on top.
5. Sprinkle sugar on top, and dot with butter.
6. Bake until done or when skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean (approx. 60 – 70 minutes)
7. Cut into 16 squares
8. Dust with icing sugar before serving
Gorgeous! I’ve never cooked or baked with mango, but it always tastes so incredibly sweet when I get to sample it. This looks like an easy and delicious way to get started!
Mmm I want to try this! I also love when they use mango to top cheesecake.
That looks so good! I love how incredibly moist it looks. What a great submission!
T.W. – Mangoes are so lovely
If you only have one or two on hand feel free to enjoy them plain, but if you have a surplus then by all means give this a try hehehe 
Nicole – I’ve never used mango on top cheesecake, I’ll put that on my todo list
Kristen – Thanks!
You are so lucky to have access to all those yummy mangoes. Thanks for participating in SHF.
As a mango lover I applaud your cake! Up here in Canada it’s cherry and wild blueberry season and this weekend we made a very similar cake using these ingredients with a streusel top – an added bonus was the vanilla ice cream that topped the still warm cake.
Avi – ooooo vanilla icecream sounds like the IDEAL complement
Next time I make this cake I’ll add a scoop and thank you 
My husband is a huge mango fan, and he’s recently taken up baking. I am absolutely sending this recipe to him!
Lydia – awww
Looks wonderfully moist. Mango is not in season at the moment, but I would love to try making this cake since it’s so quick to make and I love mangoes in any form.
Hey.. just wondering if there is indeed a misprint. 250 F isn’t equivalent to 180 C.. unless you meant 350 F. Just wanted to make sure =)
wanted a mango cake recipe made by a baker in Port of Spain. I found this recipe but cant remember the website (one of the newspapers I think)
2 mangos diced
1 cup honey
1 1/2 cups cake flour
sugar
1/2 cup oil
eggs
cinnamon
nutmeg?
2 tspns bi carb
1 1/2 tspns baking powder
raisins
walnuts
made in a bundt tin
its delicious
can you help me out
regards
megan
Frances – ack! thanks for pointing that out… I have fixed it!!!
Megan – Hmm… sorry…don’t know how to help
Ummm..1) What exactly is “sweet unflavored syrup” as it relates to this recipe? Is it a homemade item? For those of us who may be unable to locate it in the store, is there a substitute that can be made at home?
2) What do you think the result would be if the mangoes were shredded and folded into the batter just before it goes into the baking dish?
I concur with Rup. I have been cooking for 47 years and have never heard of sweet unflavored syrup. Do you mean corn syrup? Can’t try the recipe if one of the ingredients is obsccure. Plus you didn’t answer Rup’s question posed in July and it is now February of the following year.
Margie & Rup – the ingredients are reprinted exactly as they appear on the Grace Foods website. I did not write this recipe. In my case I made a simple syrup of equal parts sugar and water. I rarely (close to never) cook with corn syrup. Just a personal preference.
Rup – I believe the mangoes in that manner would make for a heavier cake, but give it a try.
Margie – With over 450 posts and over 5000 comments, some questions inevitably fall through the cracks. Thus my disclaimer. Only so many hours in a day!
Hi! Do you think that butter can be used as alternative for margarine? Great recipe!
Hi Cel, yes, feel free to use butter!
Looks Delicious! Great Job!
Hi, I think I might make this for my husband for Father’s Day. Thank you so much for sharing. This is my first time visiting your blog. You are so beautiful!!! I’ll be back to read more. Have a wonderful day,
Suzanne
THIS LOOKS GGGGGGOOD!!!!!!
IS IT GOOD?
CASE IM MAKING IT 4 A 4TH OF JULY PARTY
Hey, just about to make this cake now (looks delicious!), just noticed though in the ingredients list, for baking powder, it says 2 teaspoons (30ml).
2 teaspoons is 10ml (5ml = 1 tsp), did you mean 2 Tablespoons, which is 30ml?
2 teaspoons (as written) sounds more likely, so I’m sticking with that. That is, 10ml.
Cheers!
PS. I’m also going to try adding some coconut to the topping, I think it’ll go down good.
PPS. I’m thinking lime zest would work well too, maybe next time!
=)
Jonathan – Sorry about that slip up
I do believe it is supposed to be 2 tsps, I haven’t made this in a while 
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