Mango Coconut Tres Leches Cake

I've been doing pretty well avoiding refined sugar...until this cake. Let's just say I "tasted" a little more than usual. My friend Keiko requested a cake for her mother's birthday and this is what we came up with! She grew up in Hawaii so Keiko wanted to incorporate something tropical. Normally I will only use fruit if I can purchase them fresh and locally grown. I used to use freeze dried berries but I've done away with that as well. Thankfully mangoes are currently in season and these were grown in Mexico.

Here is a breakdown of the cake: chiffon cake soaked with coconut milk, mango mousse, chiffon cake with coconut milk, mango mousse, topped off with whipped heavy cream and coconut cream, swirled with some mango puree.

This is a slight departure from my usual multi-layered butter cakes with buttercream. In fact, there's no butter in this cake at all! While I won't be giving up butter any time soon (meringue buttercreams are one of the greatest things on earth), it was a fun and exciting change to step out of my comfort zone.

Also, if you haven't already checked it out, Keiko recently launched her new web shop that's filled with her beautiful artwork!