Passionfruit Orange Blossom Vanilla Cake

Passionfruit Orange Blossom Vanilla Jelly Cake

For quite some time now I have been meaning to make a cake with passionfruit. For some reason I always struggle when I bake with this fruit, so I decided to have a passionfruit experimental day of baking. The pairings; passionfruit lemon coconut lime, passionfruit lemon yoghurt and passionfruit orange blossom and vanilla.

All cakes were made with the same method just variations to the ingredient flavor pairings.

The lime cake – well the learning here is that passionfruit is not the most intense flavor. In fact the passionfruit was overpowered by the citrus flavors to become a soft background unnoticeable aftertone. Don’t get me wrong, this cake was nice but defeated the experimental purpose.

The Passionfruit lemon cake was ok as I upped the passionfruit amount in this cake, however the yoghurt didn’t produce the best texture of the cake I was looking for.

Lastly, after taking the learnings from the last 2 cakes I opted for the less intense orange blossom for the sweet floral notes instead of strong citrus profile. The vanilla also provided a lovely floral aroma that complimented the blossom but didn’t overtake the passionfruit flavor.

To be honest the only way I could really make the passionfruit flavor shine was to use passionfruit jelly crystals in addition to using actual fruit.

Batter:

160g self-raising flour
1/2 tsn salt
130g butter
80g passionfruit jelly crystals
100g white sugar
2 egg
2 tsn vanilla
2 tbsn poppy seeds
3 tsn orange blossom water
150g buttermilk
4 passionfruit pulps

Frosting:

60g thickened cream
400g cheese
160g butter
100g icing sugar
2 tsn vanilla essence
1 tsn orange blossom water
2 passionfruit’s pulp

Extra:

2 passionfruit’s pulp

Method:

Pre-heat the oven to 175c degrees and line a 25cm cake tin with baking paper.
Place the butter, jelly crystals and sugar into a bowl and beat with electric beaters for 2 minutes.
Add the eggs one at a time, beating in between each addition.
Add the vanilla, orange blossom and poppy seeds and beat for 2 minutes.
Add half the buttermilk, the passionfruit pulp, the salt and half the flour, stir until just combine.
Add the remaining buttermilk and flour and stir until combine.
Pour into the cake tin and bake for 1 hour of until a skewer inserted in the center comes out clean.
Set the cake aside for 10 minutes then transfer onto a cooling wrap to cool completely.
Meanwhile to make the frosting beat the cream with electric beaters until soft peaks form, set aside.
Beat the remaining frosting ingredients for 5 minutes until light and fluffy.
Add the cream to the cheese mix and beat until just combined.
To make the cake, cut the cake horizontally into 3 equal layers.
Place one layer onto a plate, spread with ¼ frosting, add a second layer, spread ¼ of the frosting and top with the remaining cake layer.
With the remaining frosting top the cake as well as the sides until smooth.
Top the cake with the 2 passionfruit’s pulp and enjoy.