Passion Fruit Cake

A passion fruit curd cake with mascarpone cream topping.

5 from 9 votes

Passion fruit cake with mascarpone cream topping is a tropical delight to slice into. This passion fruit sponge cake includes passion fruit drizzle and curd to deliver a double whammy of tropical fruit flavour.

Prep Time30

Cook Time25

Total Time55

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: Worldwide

Diet: Vegetarian

Servings:

Calories: 475kcal

Author: Jane Coupland

Equipment

2 x 8-inch circular sandwich cake tins

Ingredients

For the cakes

225 g Butter or baking margarine
225 g Caster sugar
4 Eggs large, free-range
225 g Plain flour
2 teaspoons Baking powder

For the passion fruit drizzle

60 ml Passion fruit puree
15 ml Lime juice
45 g Caster sugar

For the Filling and topping

250 g Mascarpone cheese full-fat
125 ml Double cream 48% fat
2 tablespoons icing sugar
100 g Passion fruit curd
Seeds from a passion fruit optional

Metric - US Customary

Instructions

Make the cakes

Preheat the oven to 180C/ 350F/ GM4 and grease the base and sides of the cake tins then line the bases with circles of baking parchment.
Use electric beaters to cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.
Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well between each addition. Don't worry if the batter curdles, once the flour is added it will rectify.
Sieve in the flour and baking powder and fold in using a large metal spoon.
Divide the batter between the cake tins and bake until a skewer poked into the centre of the cake comes out clean (25-28 mins). Meanwhile, prepare the drizzle topping.

Make the Passion Fruit Dirzzle

Make the drizzle topping just before the cake comes out of the oven by mixing together the passion fruit puree, lime juice and caster sugar.
As soon as the cakes are baked, poke holes all over them using a skewer then spoon the passion fruit drizzle all over the top.
Leave the cakes to cool completely in the tins then carefully remove once cold.

Fill and top the cake

Put the mascarpone and cream into a bowl and sieve the icing sugar in.
Whip together using electric beaters on a low speed until the topping reaches the soft peak stage. Don’t whip too much as the mascarpone will separate if beaten too much.
Optional: mix a few passion fruit seeds into the passion fruit curd.
Lay one layer of sponge cake onto a plate (with the drizzle side facing upwards). Spread half of the mascarpone cream over the top and drizzle half of the curd over it.
Top with the second layer of sponge cake and use the remaining cream and passion fruit curd to garnish it.

Notes

Preheat the oven and prepare the baking tins before baking commences. The aim is to get the cake batter into the oven to bake as soon as possible as the raising agents are most active at this point.
Always grease the tins and use a circle of baking parchment to line the bases regardless of whether or not they are non-stick tins. Getting your cakes out will be so much easier if you do this.
Measure your ingredients accurately. It makes all the difference to the success of a cake recipe. I don’t list cup ingredients because using grams (along with a set of digital scales) is a much more accurate measuring system. Cups can vary in size and one person’s method of filling a cup can be quite different to another person’s, so they are wildly inaccurate.
Use the tin size specified (two 8-inch round tins). Don’t try to cram the mixture into tins that are too small or large as bake times will vary, the batter may spill over the edge in the oven (messy) and the thickness of the finished cakes may disappoint.
Ensure the butter or margarine is at room temperature and soft. Eggs should also be at room temperature.
Beat the mascarpone and cream together as little as possible. Mascarpone has a tendency to split if it is over-beaten and it’s practically impossible to rescue. Try beating in 15-second bursts and stop as soon as it reaches the soft peak stage.
If your passion fruit curd is too thick to drizzle try mixing in a splash of passion fruit puree to loosen it to a soft dropping consistency.

Storage instructions

Since this passion fruit curd cake does contain fresh cream, once assembled, it does need to be refrigerated if not consumed within a couple of hours. Simply cover a transfer to the fridge for up to 3 days.

It’s best to let the cake come to room temperature before serving to let the flavours shine, so bring it out of the fridge 1-2 hours before serving.

Nutrition