When I was a kid, I had two favorite cakes. Nutmeg cake and passion fruit cake. What a strange little child I was!
Anyway, the other day I got this extremely strong urge to bake a passionfruit cake. Yes and yes!
After a few testers and much happy cake eating for us all, I present to you the latest version of passion fruit cake!
I also concocted a recipe for a cream cheese icing. In my mind I thought the two flavors would be awesome together – and put to the test – they are! However the icing is quite tart, so if you want more of a burst of sweetness, then you can either up the icing sugar quantity in the recipe, or do a regular plain icing.
I also did one of the versions with whipped cream as the icing layers, and nasturtium flowers as decoration! The light fluffy cream and the slight spiciness of the nasturtium flowers garnish was delicious. The other pictures you see are for the one with the cream cheese icing. On that one I put bulbinella flowers, but you could use any edible flowers for decoration – or simply leave it plain.
I used fresh passion fruit for both the cake and the icing. However if you can’t get your hands on any – you can try tinned, or even bottled juice.
I usually leave the seeds in, because I love the crunchiness that they give to the cake! But if you are not a fan of that kind of thing, then all you need to do is strain the passionfruit pulp. If you push it hard against the bottom of your sieve, you will most likely find that you can get the majority of the liquid and pulp out, and leave just the seeds behind. I did this for the icing recipe and it works great.
Last word on the topic of tartness – if you like your cakes good and sweet, you can increase the sugar quantity slightly. The passionfruit gives the cake a lovely flavor and sharpness, and we enjoyed each bake of it immensely! But I do not want anybody to be disappointed because it does not taste sweet enough. So give it some thought, and if you like a really sweet cake, then up the sugar quantity by about 1/4 – 1/3 of a cup.
On that note I am going to leave you – had a long day of recipe testing and shooting food – and now my neck has clicked out of place! Horrid!
If you never hear from me again…. you’ll know the Troll and I were trying to put it straight and something went wrong…
Just joking – but we were trying to do that earlier and decided to stop in case something bad happened.
Passionfruit Cake
Print This
Ingredients
- 1 cup butter (room temperature)
- 4 eggs
- 1 3/4 cups sugar
- 2 1/2 cups cake flour
- 1 1/2 cup passionfruit pulp (if you are using juice use 1 cup
- 3 teaspoons vanilla essence
- 3/4 teaspoon baking powder
- 3/4 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt (only use if your butter is unsalted)
Instructions
Cake
- If your butter is not at room temperature, then what I normally do (if you do not have a lot of time to wait for it to warm up outside of the refrigerator) is cut it into thin slices and leave on a plate in the sun. By the time I have gotten the other ingredients out and set up the standing mixer – it is usually soft.
- Line two nine inch tins with parchment paper. Grease and flour the sides.
- Once your butter is at room temperature, cream it with an electric mixer. Separate the eggs and add one yolk at a time to the butter while the mixer is running. Cream this for about ten minutes.
- Add the sugar and continue to cream for another 5 minutes.
- Once that is done remove the beaters and wash them with soap and hot water to remove all grease.
- Now beat the egg whites until they form stiff peaks.
- With a paddle or spoon, gently fold in 1/4 of the whites into the butter/yolks/sugar mix. Continue to incorporate the rest gently.
- Now place the flour and raising agents and salt if needed, into a sieve. Sift half into the mix.
- Add the passionfruit pulp and gently fold.
- Sift in the rest of the flour and fold until everything is evenly incorporate.
- Pour into your two pans and pop into the oven.
- Bake at 350 degrees until the edges start to golden slightly (about 20 minutes).
- Insert a toothpick or sharp knife. If it comes out mainly clean – the cake is done!
- Allow to cool on a wire rack for 15 minutes. Turn out and allow to fully cool before icing.
Icing Options
As I mentioned in the post, you can make a regular icing for this cake. But I highly recommend that you choose between whipped cream, or the cream cheese icing recipe below!
Whipped Cream
- Pour 2-3 cups of fresh cream into a bowl.
- Add 3 tablespoons of sugar.
- Beat on high until the creams starts to stiffen.
- Spread on cake.
Cream Cheese Passionfruit Icing
Ingredients:
1 tub of cream cheese (plain)
2/3 cup cream
1/4 cup strained passionfruit pulp
1/4 – 1/2 cup icing sugar
Method
- Place all ingredients into a mixing bowl and cream.
- Once well combined, spread onto cake!
