How to make a Frozen Mango Ice Cream Cake
I think the first time I ever really tasted tropical fruit was overseas. The 7 hour flight to Dempasar was spent drinking and smoking up the back of the plane with the air stewards. Smoking was allowed, and plying customers with alcohol was also allowed, back then on my first trip to another country.
The plane touched the tarmac and we were incredibly excited and very drunk. As we reached the cabin door the full force of the hot tropical air hit us and I could almost feel my knees buckle with the weight of humidity. We could have been descending Mount Everest for all I knew, the stairs were so steep, we stumbled onto that tarmac and were accosted by gravity. We sat on the step just outside the terminal building to assess our state. No one moved us on and we cursed the heat in expansive gestures, laughing uproariously and feeling pinned to the ground by our intoxication and the feel of that incredible heat. To this day the smell of clove cigarettes and the first hot blast of tropical summer air take me back to Bali. We were ushered inside by staff and felt much clearer in the air conditioning which of course was fortunately as the fun was just beginning, we had to haggle with Bemo(taxi) drivers.
At breakfast the next day, I had an embarrassing moustache of beady sweat, and a nasty hang over. Together we figured that we should redeem our selves and eat fruit salad and a smoothie for breakfast. That’s when it happened…..I tried tropical fruit, real tropical fruit. Not a yellow piece of banana or an orange fleshed mango but banana that that had a silky texture and a sweetness I had never experienced, not floury and tasteless but warm and sweet and just picked. Mango, oh mango was a revelation, never touched by a fridge so sweet and tangy and Papaya so orange and fat and juicy, and the sweetest exotic, tropical flavour I had ever tried. I could not get enough. My first big adventure had begun.
This Mango and Passionfruit Ice Cream cake takes me back to my first real tropical experience.
This recipe is made in a blender. I am using a Vitamix, which I love. It blends to a smooth lushious puree. You can use a food processor if you dont have a blender. It will still be fantastic , just not as smooth.
Frozen Mango and Passionfruit Ice Cream Cake
Ingredients
- 100 gm amaretti biscuits the crunchy ones these can be found in the supermarket or use any crunchy biscuit you like
- 200 gm almond meal
- 60 gm melted butter
- 50 gm hazelnuts roasted
Topping
- 1 whole mango rough chopped and removed from the skin
- 500 gm bananas {peeled} this can be frozen fruit
- 125 ml cream thickened
- 250 ml greek yoghurt
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 80 gm pure icing sugar powdered
- 1 whole mango
- 3 whole passionfruits
- 1 Tablespoon pure icing sugar powdered
Instructions
- Put the amaretti biscuits and almond meal into a food processor and process till the biscuits are broken down. Add the butter and the hazelnuts and process in bursts till just combined. The nuts are more interesting when they are a bit chunky.
- Press the biscuits into the base of a paper lined cake tin and put into the freezer to chill.
- Put the yoghurt, cream, vanilla and sugar into the blender with the fruit. Puree until smooth. Pour into the tart base and freeze, leave 5 hours or overnight for best results.
- Cut the mango into cubes, mix the passionfruit pulp in a bowl with the icing sugar Unmould the cake and put onto a platter and top with the mango and passionfruit.
Wow! This needs to miraculously appear at the end of every BBQ as far as I’m concerned. Looks gorgeous and who doesn’t love a cold dessert 😀
Ohhhh mangoes!!! What a gorgeous summer tart. I definitely miss summer fruits as well as warm weather… especially it’s been so cold these days (but SF winter is nothing compared to some areas). I love this easy process! Perfect summer treat. 🙂
Wow! I want this right now!!! This looks amazing and I am glad I found your post!
the texture of this looks SO creamy and luscious! the tropical flavors are certainly welcome any time, but especially now, in the height of winter. 🙂
An elegant looking summer tart! I love the aroma of tropical fruits, esp. the passionfruit!
How clever is this! And what an incredible looking tart! Well done Tania! Love the blender techniue. I don’t own of those super blenders, but I’m willing to try this with a regular one. xx
Yummmmm. I love real mangoes the best one I have ever eaten was in Mexico, so big, sweet and juicy and not sappy at all. The only ones that compare are the ones that neighbors would bring to our house.
Now this is definitely a winner for sure! Lighter than cheesecake, and I have two packets of amaretti in the pantry- yummo!
Darling, I think I’ve woken my family up laughing out loud at the image of you stumbling off the plane, completely hammered, into the wave of Bali humidity and heat. 😀 Your tart looks amazing! xx
I can use recipe and make froyo! Love the mango season
What a gorgeous idea. It’s a bit too snowy outside here for tropical fruits but saving this for when summer rolls round 🙂
Love the combination of mango and passionfruit.
It’s true that the tropical fruit available overseas is so much better!
This is incredible! It looks so perfect and sounds just right for summer. I love how you used a blender too.
I can also remember the first time I stepped off the plane in Fiji and that heat wrapped around me. I was 18 at the time and I can still feel it. I agree that tropical fruit grown in the tropics, straight from the plant is a whole different experience to what you get in the supermarkets here. Great looking cheesecake.
Yum! Love mangoes and your story. You could probably do the base in the Vitamix too. Must try.
I remember smoking sections on planes. Unbelievable if you think about it. And isn’t it always better to walk off the plane straight onto the tarmac? That’s so much better than being funneled through those sterile corridors, unless it’s raining of course. I love the look of this – so perfect for this hot weather. Love frozen desserts xx
That is one impressive tart!
What a wonderful, vivid story! This cake sounds so simple and perfect for summer!
Tania, this sounds just wonderful, and I loved reading your description of your introduction to REAL tropical fruit. I don’t have a blender, but I may try a cheesecake version of this. Many thanks for a beautiful post.
Gorgeous looking tart. I absolutely adore tropical fruits as well, they’re the best part of a tropical holiday, that and how ridiculously cheap they all are! I love being able to use my food processor to make these sorts of things too, it’s so easy it almost feels like cheating! I haven’t got a Vitamix but I imagine its amazing, heard soo many good things about them!