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As you may or may not know, I live in the great white north. Just in the past month, we’ve gotten 90+” of snow, to give us an October-February total of over 300″ (give or take). That’s a lot of snow, but since we tend to average about 300″ we’re not at record levels of snow yet. The blizzard this past weekend was a doozy though.
With all this snow, I find myself dreaming of spring and spring flavors. Flavors like lemon, lime, coconut…so good. I’d found a recipe for a mango and lemon mousse cake at Pastry Workshop and decided to try it out. I discovered that there is definitely a such thing as too much poppy seed in a cake. I also discovered the most amazing lemon mousse I’ve ever had. It was so lemony, so light…I could eat it forever.
This amazing mousse became my jumping off point for the entremet cake. I liked the combination of mango and lemon, but wanted something in a different texture, and decided on a gelée layer. I adapted the gelée recipe from my chocolate entremet cake. I’d been watching a lot of Instagram stories, and kept hearing the term “cremeux.” I looked for a recipe for a mango cremeux. I found the cremeux as well as some other layer ideas at Once in a Blue Moon and decided to go for it.
The best part about making an entremet cake? You can make the layers separately, and many of them can be made ahead of time. I made the gelée first, since it needed to freeze anyway. Because I was working with mango already, I made the cremeux too. After freezing overnight, I wrapped everything in plastic wrap, and put them back in the freezer.
Next up was the ambrosia of lemon curd for the mousse. I loved that my kitchen and my hands smelled like lemons. It took a little longer than I expected for the curd to thicken. Once the right thickness, I poured the lemony deliciousness through a strainer and into a container. After straining out out all of the zest, I spread the zest on toast as a snack. Yum.
My next baking day was lime-based. I made the dacquoise, croustillant, and lime-infused ganache. These layers stack in the entremet cake, so I layered them and refrigerated the ganache until set. Once the ganache set, I took the layers out of the cake ring, and wrapped them tightly in plastic wrap. Now all I needed to do was make the mousse.
The only part of an entremet cake that can’t be made ahead is the mousse. So, the day before the mirror glaze goes on, I make the mousse. This lemon mousse is light, fluffy, and incredibly lemony. It all starts with an Italian merengue. Then I folded in the lemon curd, and then the whipped cream. Now it’s time to assemble!
Make sure you have all of the layers of your entremet cake shaped and ready to go before you start the assembly process. For my cake, that meant cutting out the gelée with the cake ring. I stacked the gelée and the cremeux to make sure they’re the same size. Then I compared those to the dacquoise layers. I was ready to start. First, I poured the mould about half-way full of lemon mousse, and gently pressed in the mango layers.
I poured the mousse most of the rest of the way in the mould, and pressed the dacquoise layer into that. You don’t want any air gaps between the mouse and the edges of the dacquoise, so if you see any, smooth the mousse back over the cake. Then cover everything with plastic wrap to seal the exposed end of the cake and pop it into the freezer.
I prefer to freeze my entremets overnight before glazing them. I chose to use the mirror glaze recipe from Sugar Geek Show, because it uses powdered gelatin and I was out of sheet gelatin. The glaze got divided into 3 bowls and colored yellow, orange, and white and then layered back in the large bowl. After checking the temperature, and making sure it was 96F, I poured it over the entremet cake.
After letting the glaze set for about 5 minutes, I sprinkled shredded coconut in a line along one side of the lemon mango entremet cake. It was just about the most perfect thing I’ve ever seen. I’m ridiculously proud of how this sucker turned out.
Lemon Mango Entremet Cake Recipe
I have assembled all of the recipes with the alterations I made to them to make this cake. I sourced the recipes from Pastry Workshop, Once in a Blue Moon, and Sugar Geek Show.
Ingredients:
Mango Gelée
- 3 ½ sheets gelatin
- 12 oz. mango purée
- 2 oz. granulated sugar
- ½ oz. lemon juice
Mango Cremeux
- 80 ml mango puree (juice works too)
- 2 g gelatin + 10 ml cold water
- 50 g white sugar
- 2 egg yolks
- 10 g cornstarch
- 60 g butter, softened
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
Coconut Dacquoise
- 2 egg whites
- 30 g white sugar
- 1 pinch salt
- 1 tsp lime zest
- 30 g shredded unsweetened coconut
- 30 g almond flour
- 60 g powdered sugar
Coconut Croustillant
- 40 g flour
- 40 g ground coconut
- 40 g unsalted butter – cold and cubed
- 10 g sugar
- pinch of salt
- dash of vanilla
- 30 g white chocolate
- 20 g shredded coconut
- 2 tsp apricot or orange jam
Lime Infused White Chocolate Ganache
- 150 g white chocolate, chopped
- 100 ml heavy cream
- 20 g butter
- zest from 1 lime
Lemon Curd
- 5 egg yolks
- 215 g sugar
- 100 g butter
- 15 g lemon zest
- 90 ml lemon juice
Lemon Mousse
- 160 ml lemon juice
- zest from 2 lemons
- 1 recipe lemon curd
- 14 g gelatin (plus 70 ml cold water)
- 4 egg whites
- 200 g sugar
- 90 ml water
- 560 ml whipped cream
Mirror Glaze
- 300 g sugar
- 200 g sweetened condensed milk
- 5 oz water
- 32 g powdered gelatin
- 4 oz water
- 360 g white chocolate
- food coloring (I prefer Americolor)
Method:
Mango Gelée
- Bloom gelatin sheets in cold water until softened.
- Heat gelatin and 2 oz. mango purée until warm and fully melted.
- Add melted gelatin/purée, sugar and lemon juice to remaining purée.
- Pour into ¼ sheet pan, yielding a ½-inch layer.
- Freeze until solid.
- Cut into disk, using a cake ring, to fit into middle of cake mould (I used a Silikomart Goccia mould)
Mango Cremeux
- Bloom the gelatin in cold water
- Bring the mango purée or juice (whatever you use) to the boiling point in a saucepan.
- In the mean time, whisk the egg yolks with sugar until pale. Add the cornstarch and mix well.
- Pour the hot mango purée/juice over the egg yolk mixture, then turn back on heat and cook on low until just thickened and it reaches 185ºF
- Remove from heat and stir in the gelatin.
- Allow to cool down to 104ºF then add the butter and mix well.
- Pour the cremeux into the same size cake ring you use to cut the gelée and freeze for a few hours.
Lemon Curd
- Combine all the ingredients in a heatproof bowl.
- Place the bowl over a hot water bath and cook the mixture, stirring often, until thick and creamy. It might take around 20 minutes so be patient.
- If you don’t have the time to wait, the alternative is to cook it in the microwave, 30 seconds at a time, mixing well after each 30 seconds.
- When the curd is done, strain it through a fine sieve.
- Place aside to cool down completely.
Lime Infused White Chocolate Ganache
- Bring the heavy cream to the boiling point in a small saucepan.
- Remove from heat and stir in the lime zest. Let the mixture infuse until it is completely chilled.
- Strain through a fine sieve then bring the cream back to the boiling point.
- Remove from heat and stir in the white chocolate.
- Mix until melted and smooth then stir in the butter.
- When the ganache is at room temperature, pour it over the croustillant and place back in the fridge to set.
Lemon Mousse
- Mix the gelatin and water in a small bowl and allow it to bloom at least 10 minutes.
- Combine the lemon juice and lemon zest in a small saucepan and bring to the boiling point. Remove from heat and let the mixture cool, then strain through a fine sieve.
- Warm up the lemon curd in the microwave for a few seconds and combine it with the lemon juice. Set aside.
- Mix the sugar and water in a saucepan and bring to a boil. Cook the syrup for 5 minutes until it begins to thicken.
- Whip the egg whites until stiff then gradually add the hot sugar syrup, mixing well with an electric mixer until the egg whites are stiff and glossy.
- Stir in the melted gelatin then add the lemon curd.
- Allow the mixture to come to room temperature then fold in the whipped cream.
Coconut Dacquoise
- Mix the shredded coconut, almond flour, and powdered sugar in a bowl.
- In another bowl, whisk the egg whites with a pinch of salt until stiff.
- Slowly add the sugar and lime zest and continue whisking until fluffy and glossy.
- Fold in the coconut mixture, then smooth onto a small baking tray lined with parchment paper.
- Bake in the preheated oven at 350ºF for 15-18 minutes or until golden brown and crusty.
- Set aside to cool down, then cut the dacquoise to size using the cake ring.
Coconut Croustillant
- Preheat oven to 340ºF.
- Place the first 6 ingredients in a food processor and process until a dough is formed.
- Roll out the dough thinly between two pieces of parchment paper.
- Bake in the oven until golden brown – about 10 minutes.
- Cool slightly until you can touch it and break up into crumbs with fingers.
- Combine warm crumbs with coconut and melted white chocolate and jam.
- Immediately spread a thin layer on the coconut dacquoise and cool completely in the fridge.
Cake Assembly
Pour about 1/2 of the lemon mousse into the cake mould. Gently press the mango gelée and cremeux disks (gelée side up) into the center of the mousse, then cover with remaining mousse. Gently press the ganache/croustillant/dacquoise into the remaining mousse, and clean up any spills or overflow. Freeze overnight.
Mirror Glaze
- Add the sugar, sweetened condensed milk, and first quantity of water to a medium sized saucepan and heat over medium-low heat, stirring occasionally.
- Pour the second quantity of water into the powdered gelatin and mix with a spoon and bloom.
- When the sugar, milk, and water mixture begins to simmer, remove from the heat and add the bloomed gelatin. Stir until the gelatin has dissolved.
- Pour the hot liquid on top of the chocolate pieces and leave to sit of 5 minutes to melt.
- Use a whisk or immersion blender to stir the glaze until the chocolate has completely melted and mixed with the sugar and milk mixture.
- Pass the glaze through a fine strainer to remove any lumps. If coloring with more than one color, strain into separate bowls.
- Add the gel food coloring and stir until well-mixed. Let cool to about 96ºF. If using more than one color, pour into a large bowl or pitcher in reverse order of the colors you want (if you want white on top, it needs to go in first).
- Once the glaze is between 90ºF and 96ºF, pour over the frozen cake which is on top of a cup or can in a tray or plate with an edge to catch drips.
- Leave the glaze to set for 5 minutes before using a hot knife to remove the drips.
I hope you enjoy this Lemon Mango entremet cake recipe as much as I do, and let me know if you try it out!
