(SPOT.ph) You can tell by the airport-like lines that manifest at every Conti's branch during the holidays that this family-friendly chain has successfully managed to integrate itself into the Filipino diet. Of the many mouthwatering selections on their menu, two stand out: the Baked Salmon (the beautiful pink fish crusted with onion and cheese) and the Mango Bravo (an imposing cake with a winning formula of mangoes, nuts, chocolate, and cream), which is the subject of today's discussion.
The Mango Bravo: a tall beautiful structure—soft butter cake with layers of cashew meringue wafers, mousse, mangoes, and cream ensconced in more white cream, drizzled with chocolate syrup, and topped with mangoes. Served frozen, the Mango Bravo is both sturdy and delicate: the cream and cake threatening to crumble as you saw through the crusty nut mantle. It's a towering thing, around seven inches tall, which makes it a bigger challenge.
At the restaurant, you can have a single serving, perfectly sliced for P165, but it's usually enjoyed as take-out, during a potluck dinner or a celebratory feast. The Mango Bravo comes in two sizes: Mini (P695) and Regular (P1,250), and if you've ordered it before, then you know that either is very difficult to slice without some messy cake carnage.
A few years ago, Conti's helpfully uploaded a video to educate their customers on how to properly cut through this cake and keep it as gorgeous sliced as it is when it's whole. But is it really as easy as Conti's pastry chef made it out to be? Truth be told, we've been cutting it that same way for years, but with less pretty results. Today, we test that method—plus a few other cutting tools. Watch the video to see which is the most successful.
