Fresh passion fruits are difficult to find and very expensive around here, and I'm not aware of any local store that sells frozen passion fruit puree. I didn't know that shelf stable passion fruit puree existed until I received some Maui Fruit Jewels lilikoi puree from a very kind friend of the blog in Hawaii (thank you, Raylene!!). This puree opened up so many baking possibilities for me! I decided to use it in Yossy Arefi's Passion Fruit Cake from Snacking Cakes.
The puree I used includes seeds and I sieved them out because I don't love their crunchy texture. But once I did that, the cake came together in about two minutes. I whisked together eggs and sugar; added the strained passion fruit puree, milk, oil, vanilla, and salt; and added flour, baking powder, and baking soda. I poured the batter into a parchment-lined pan to bake; I made a double batch and baked it in a 9-inch by 13-inch pan.
The recipe is written to include a strawberry glaze made from powdered sugar, freeze-dried strawberries, milk, and salt. I've made that glaze before (well, a raspberry version of it) to accompany Arefi's Cocoa Yogurt Cake, so I wanted to try something new. Arefi suggests her "Fluffy Strawberry Frosting" as a festive alternative, and that sounded scrummy. The fluffy frosting is an American buttercream that you make from powdered sugar, softened butter, milk, lemon juice, salt, and ground freeze-dried strawberries. The frosting was a gorgeous deep coral, and the color was reinforced by the additional ground freeze-dried strawberries that I sprinkled on top.
The interior of the cake was a pale yellow that was pretty paired with the vibrant frosting. The cake was dense but moist and had a beautiful tropical flavor. I don't know that I would have been able to specifically identify it as passion fruit -- I might have mistaken it for mango or some other tropical fruit, but it was intensely bright and fruity. And the strawberry flavor of the frosting was so good, without being too sweet. This cake and frosting seemed positively exuberant, like sunshine on a plate.
Recipe: "Passion Fruit Cake" and "Fluffy Strawberry Frosting" from Snacking Cakes by Yossy Arefi.
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