Welcoming the mango season with a graham cake

Living in a tropical country may be a little boring, it's either sunny and warm or rainy and just a little less warm outside. There's no waiting for the changing of colors of leaves, first snowfall, and the beautiful flowers in bloom. I'd be honest, when I'm feeling the warm air of summer, I'd be wishing that we could have four seasons too. But, here's something that outweighs those things I've said. I love how sweet the fruits are in our country, especially the fruits you get to eat when it's in season.

During the summer, mangoes are one of the fruits that you can easily get from the market. And usually, you can even have a harvest of freshly picked mangoes since most neighborhoods in our country have mango trees in their yards. To welcome this mango season, when mangoes are really sweet and great to taste, I decided to make a graham cake —a mango graham!

I've been staying with my parents for the past two weeks already and I'm aware of how they enjoy eating dessert after a meal. For the past months, I have also been craving for sweet treats every day. As much as I enjoy those food, I know that it should be eaten in moderation. Or atleast consume a healthier alternative. So, it's really a win for me to make a dessert with fruits as ingredients.

The ingredients are easy to find in grocery stores and easy to prepare too. What I usually do in making a graham cake is to make sure that it's moist and that it has the rich taste of the sweet mangoes even in between the layer of graham crackers. With this, I first made a mango purée using some of the ripe mangoes. After peeling the mangoes, I cut it to cubes. Using a blender, I added 60 ml of all-purpose cream to the cube cut mangoes.

Since the mangoes are sweet enough, I didn't add any sweetener to the purée anymore. The goal really is to taste the mango's flavor in every bite of the cake. Graham cakes are easy to make, especially when you already have all the ingredients prepared. All I needed to do was to layer the graham crackers, mixed of condensed milk and all-purpose cream, and the mango purée. For the condensed milk and all-purpose cream mixture, I used 120 ml of all-purpose cream and 45 ml of condensed milk. This is also why I like cooking/making my own food, I can have desserts that are not too sweet. 😉

Here's the fun part! Putting it all in the container! I also sliced a few mangoes thinly so I can have a layer of mangoes in the middle of the cake and on top. That will surely make the cake beautifully layered, and of course very tasty. You can decide whether to add the mango purée first then a layer of graham crackers, and then add the mixture of cream and condensed milk and another layer of graham crackers.

I was able to have three layer of graham crackers with mango, cream, and condensed milk in between. On the top layer, I sprinkled some crushed graham crackers and the thinly sliced mangoes. I thought this would probably last a week for the three of us at home, but we finished it all after two days. 😅

It wasn't too sweet and we could taste the sweetness and savory mango flavor in every bite. I'm glad that my parents loved it too. Last year, I was also able to make this dessert just in time for the summer. It's really difficult to score sweet ripe mangoes when it's not in season. After eating our lunch meal, I was able to enjoy this dessert looking at the plants outside our home. Summer, even with its warm air, can be this refreshing. 🌿😌