Tuesday, December 29, 2009

#211_Mamon or Filipino Sponge Cake

What is Mamon?
(pronounced, mah-moon)
When chiffon cake batter or sponge cake batter is baked in those little fluted molds, cup cake style, the finished product becomes mamon. Sometimes they are called mini cakes.

When I was growing up mamon can be purchased from any regular bakery and they were available in just one kind...which was the regular mamon. Nowadays, they have what they call Special Mamon from specialty bake shops. These Special mamon are brushed with melted butter then topped with cheese and sugar. Very calorific!!

Mamon can be made from either Sponge Cake or Chiffon Cake batter. These two types of cakes are very similar to each other in texture and in taste, but one main difference is that Sponge Cake do not contain fat in the form of vegetable oil or butter which makes it a fat-free cake while Chiffon Cake contains fat. It doesn't matter, we Filipinos love both kinds.


Use the Orange Chiffon Cake batter recipe #210,
to make fantastic Mamon....

....or you can use any of your favorite chiffon or sponge cake recipes that you may already have.


Pour batter in 24 greased molds, (I use medium size ensaymada molds) then place these molds in sheet pans. (12 molds in a pan). Bake in pre-heated 350 degrees oven for 18 minutes. (test your oven temp. first)

If you don't have the fluted molds, just simply use muffin pans lined with paper liners.

The author of Joy of Baking who owns this recipe that I'm using said to invert the cake immediately upon taking it out of the oven so the cake will not shrink or lose its volume. I can't do that with the mamon in their individual molds, so I just skipped that process.

Hope you'll give this a try. You won't regret you did!

Note from MaMely:

You can use the mamon as a base for strawberry shortcakes, click here. Just spoon some strawberry filling on top of each mamon and top them with cool whip or whipped topping.

Addendum:

Don't worry if you don't have those fluted molds to make Mamon....

You can save tuna fish cans or collect them from friends. It took me a while to save about 20 cans. Make sure to wash them thoroughly before using. I had to soak them in soapy water for a couple of days before I got rid of the fishy smell, but it it's all worth it because I love the size and shape of the finished product.


Make sure to grease the sides and bottom of the cans really well
before spooning in the batter.

Mamon becomes Taisan
I let the Mamon cooled a little on a wire rack, then brushed them
with melted butter and sprinkled with white sugar.


I used some of the Mamon to make Tres Leches Cake
(click here ), and it was great!

14 comments:

  1. Hello Mely: Next time you make mamon, try not greasing the moulds....you get a much higher volume since if you use chiffon cake batter, it neeeds to cling to the sides. Also, if you invert them onto a clean tea towel dusted with sifted icing sugar, it will not stick to it. As you put each mould on the cookie sheet, tap them on the counter to rrelease air bubbles before baking. Yes, it will unmould fairly easily sometimes. Ungreased moulds...you will not have the browned sides (unless you like them!). Another tip is divide the sugar equally...if the total amoount of the sugar is 1 1/2 cups, add 3/4 cup to the eggyolk batter first and the other 3/4 cup sugar to the eggwhites. By doing this, your meringue will be more stable and not so airy like foam...you will notice the difference on the cake top when it is baked...the top is smooth..no craters as my boys call them!

    Have you tried the mocha version? It is excellent.

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  2. Happy New Year to you Betty! I appreciate you sharing your knowledge in baking. I always wondered how I could possibly unmold the mamon without greasing the molds. Even with the greased molds I have to use a butter knife to pry into those ridges! I will surely have to try your suggestions...also on dividing the sugar. Thank you very much!!Take care!!

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  3. I forgot, Mely...just dip your fingertips in a bowl of water and flick them onto the moulds VERY LIGHTLY only...enough to have a few droplets of water on the bottom of the mould before you add the cake batter.

    Can I impose on you please to ask Manang to send me an e-mail? I am having difficulty accessing the comment box. She asked me for the recipe of the Mocha Cake ....much like the Pinoy Mocha Cake with the Mocha Icing.

    Maraming Salamat!

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  4. ooops, I meant edges, not ridges.

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  5. Betty, makakarating! I will send Manang a message thru Facebook.
    May i ask what the droplets of water do to the cake? Would you also recommend this trick if using a non-stick bundt pan?
    Thanks again, Betty!!!

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  6. Betty, I would also like to have the recipe of your mocha cake, but I'll just get it from Manang's blog if you're posting it there. Thank you again!!

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  8. Me, too, I have to grease the fluted pans. I will try Betty's suggestions. Thanks for all your tips, the tuna cans is very creative!

    Love your new blog lay out and I love your "kitchen"

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  9. I'll try the trick suggested. I have trouble cleaning the muffin pans even though they're supposed to be non stick and I even spray Pam. I better save the tuna cans. Thanks to both MaMely and Betty. VRodriguez

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  10. Ebie, thank you for coming by. Yeah, it takes time to save the tuna cans.

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  11. V Rodriguez, thank you for visiting this site.
    We are not supposed to grease the fluted pans, but
    I have to grease the tuna cans or muffin cups, otherwise the mamon will not come off in one piece.

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  12. Hello, great recipe. May i ask where you got the ensaymada mold pan? Thanks

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    1. Hello Gilbert the molds in the picture are medium size molds I brought with me from Pinas 27 years ago. I also have some large ones that a friend from Canada sent me. I'm sure they were from the Philippines too.

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  13. using tuna cans is a clever idea ☺

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