I’ve always wanted to do a Charlotte cake after seeing such pretty pictures at FoodGawker and Tastespotting and I finally had the opportunity to do so for my sister A’s 12th birthday.

Since she wanted a chocolate mousse filling, I wanted something fruity to accompany it and since we all love mangoes (Philippine Mangoes FTW!), it was a no-brainer. For the ladyfingers, I used the recipe from Desserts by Pierre Herme and Dorie Greenspan which is really, really good, light and fluffy and I suggest you to try it if you haven’t! You can use it as a sponge cake layer instead of piping it in the traditional ladyfinger shape which I did for the cake layers.

Unfortunately, when we sliced the cake, the mousse wasn’t chilled enough as I had hoped (since I made it on the afternoon the same day) so I took this cross-section shot the next day, just to give you guys a visual of how the cake looks inside. As you notice, we love mangoes so much that there aren’t any left on top anymore.

The mousse was really good, tasty, not too sweet and I’ll definitely be making it again in the future. Overall, the cake was great! Slightly bitter from the chocolate mousse and sweetened by the mangoes.

So to my young minion sister, enjoy your last year as a kid for you’ll officially be a teen next year! I’ll be leaving soon and won’t see you til next year and God knows you’ll be taller than me by then (NOO!!!). I love you to bits and remember to keep your feet on the ground and think before you do. OK?

For the chocolate mousse recipe, click here.

So basically, the layers went on like this (from top):

Mango, chocolate mousse, ladyfingers, chocolate mousse (just enough to cover the mangoes), mango, chocolate mousse, ladyfinger.

Ladyfingers

from Desserts by Pierre Herme by Dorie Greenspan and Pierre Herme

Makes enough for 2 9″ discs or one 9″ disc and about 30 or so ladyfingers
Ingredients:

6 egg whites

2/3 cup granulated sugar + 2 tbsp.

5 egg yolks

1 cup minus 1 tbsp. all purpose flour

powdered sugar for dusting

Instructions (shortened by me):

1. Preheat oven to 450F. Line your baking sheets with parchment paper or silpat.
2. Whip egg whites while gradually sprinkling the 2/3 cup of sugar until stiff.
3. Meanwhile, whisk together the remaining 2 tbsp. of sugar and egg yolks until well mixed.
4. Fold 1/2 of the egg yolk mixture into the egg whites. Fold the rest in.
   
5. Sift the flour over the egg white mixture and fold until flour is well incorporated.
6. Using a 1/2″ round tip, pipe into ladyfinger shapes or 9″ discs if you wish. About 1/2 – 3/4″ high and 1″ width for ladyfingers.
   
7. Dust ladyfingers with powdered sugar and let stand for 15 minutes. Dust one more time until sugar is absorbed. (No need to dust the discs.)
   
8. Bake for 8-10 minutes or until lightly golden.