Sift all the dry ingredients together twice, whisk well and keep aside.
Add all the wet ingredients together in a mixing bowl till the sugar is dissolved fully.
Make a well in the bowl of dry ingredients and add the wet mixture to it, mix the wet with the dry gently till it’s just incorporated ( approximately for 30 seconds) and no more flour pockets are visible.
Transfer the batter to a greased and lined loaf pan, sprinkle with the slivered almonds and bake in a preheated oven at 180 deg Cfor 40-45 minutes or till a toothpick inserted comes out clean.
Cool on a wire rack for 10 minutes, unmould and cool further. Cut the cake into slices only when the cake has completely cooled.
For the Mango Saffron sauce, boil the mango puree, water, lemon juice, sugar and saffron for 5 minutes on low flame, stirring constantly. Cool.
I have used fresh mango puree in this recipe.Puree the mangoes without adding water, pass the puree through a sieve to get rid of any fiber present. When mangoes are not in season canned puree can be used. If the canned one has added sugar, adjust sugar in the cake accordingly.
Do not over mix while adding the wet to the dry ingredients as over mixing flattens the cake and makes it dense. Mix till just combined, Freda says few lumps are fine in the batter.
Cut the cake into slices only when it has cooled down completely.