Passion Fruit Cake Recipe
- Nightingale
- Jul 14
- 3 min read
Updated: Jul 24
We recently had a dragon-themed birthday party for Little Bit. When asked what kind of cake he wanted, he excitedly said, "Passion fruit!". There is a double reason for this. 1) It is his favourite fruit (this week, anyway. Other times it is mango, or orange, or pear...) 2) I have joked in the past that the slimy inside of passion fruits looks like dragon snot, so as it was a dragon-themed party, he decided that this would be the obvious choice. The only issue was that I didn't have a passion fruit cake recipe, so I made one up. Here it is.
Recipe:
Cook time: 50 minutes -- Portions: 1 double-layer 8" cake -- Difficulty: easy
Ingredients:
For the cake:
1 1/4 c sugar
1/4 c passion fruit syrup
2/3 c butter, soft
2 eggs
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
2 3/4 c flour
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 c milk
6 passion fruits, pulp and seeds
For the frosting:
200g cream cheese, soft
1/2 c butter, soft
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 1/2 passion fruits, pulp and seeds
about 2 c powdered sugar
1) Cream together the sugar, passion fruit syrup and the butter until fluffy. Beat in the eggs and then add the vanilla.
2) Gradually stir in the dry ingredients alternating with the milk. When the batter is smooth, stir in the passion fruit.
3) Pour into two prepared 8" cake tins and bake at 180°C for 30-35 minutes, or until a knife comes out clean.
4) Allow to cool thoroughly. In the meantime, make the frosting. Beat the butter and cream cheese together. Gradually beat in the powdered sugar. Add the vanilla extract and the passion fruit. Stirring until combined. Chill until shortly before you are ready to frost the cake.
5) When the cake is completely cool, frost it to your satisfaction.
I was pleased with how this came out. I thought the passion fruit flavour came out strongly enough without being overpowering. Based on how much cake was left after the party, I would venture to say that it was a success with the kids, too. The choice to leave in the passion fruit seeds was deliberate, as that is where most of the flavour is, but it did mean that there was a crunch in the cake. I enjoyed it, and as others commented on this, I know I was not the only one.
I decorated by rolling out a sheet of marzipan on top, and the almond flavour complemented the passion fruit nicely. I may have to experiment with this recipe some more, possibly adding some almond extract to the cake batter.
Swaps and substitutions:
Try adding almond extract to the batter, just a dash, though, as almond extract can be overpowering.
Try a passion fruit or raspberry coulis over the top instead of frosting.
If you would rather have a uniform texture to the cake, you could sieve the passion fruit seeds out or blend the passion fruit to make it smooth before stirring it into the cake or frosting.
Add other tropical fruits to the mix for a more exotic cake flavour, rather than a specifically passion fruit one.
Book Pairing: While making this cake, I was listening to A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine. This one came highly recommended by my husband. Being different people, it took me a bit longer to get into it, but I am thoroughly enjoying it now. Written by a scholar of Byzantine history, this is a sci-fi book that draws much of its culture and political intrigue from Byzantine history. Sci-fi isn't as much my thing as his, which might explain why it took me longer to get into than him, but it is well written. I was also, in between mixing and baking, finalising papier mâché dragon eggs for the party favours.
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