Recipe: Passionfruit Layer Cake {Made By Mr Ask For My Birthday!!}

Summary: You will have to forgive me. I hate chatty recipes that take forever to get to the point, I like to keep things brisk! But this is my birthday cake. No only that, my husband was brave enough to make the cake baker a cake! Yes, you read the title correctly. This cake is not one of my creations, it’s a Mr Ask creation! It all came about when I said I was going to make my own birthday cake. I enjoy baking and that way I could have exactly what I wanted. But Mr Ask wouldn’t hear of it! So as a gift to me, he offered to make me the cake of my desire. I said I wanted a passionfruit cake and we discussed the options. I was keen for buttercream (come on, it’s the whole point of cake!) and Mr Ask was thinking layer cake with cream. This amazingly fruity and delicious cake was the result.

 The cake is a heavenly creation! Four layers of Victoria sponge are sandwiched with whipped cream and homemade passionfruit jam, smothered with passionfruit buttercream and topped with more passionfruit jam. I’m dying with happiness! It really, really tastes fabulous. Both my mum and sister were blown away. Even though today is my birthday, Mr Ask had to cook on the weekend when he was free and a cake like that can not wait for the calendar to align, it must be eaten! I love everything together but you could probably leave out the buttercream if you wanted something simpler. I mean, I wouldn’t because icing is everything to me but it would be easier to put together without  it. And probably very good too….

Mr Ask used tinned passionfruit for this, you know those little ones in the shops? It used about 5 and 1/2 tins and since Mr Ask hates a crunchy seed in a smooth cake, they were sieved. Should you have plenty of fresh passionfruits, at a guess, you’d need about 2/3 cup strained fruit to equal one tin or about 10 passionfuits. And the acidity may vary so taste and sugar as needed. For the jam (technically it’s more of jelly but I’m calling it a jam) Mr Ask used  a vegetarian gelatin replacement called Jel-It-In made by Queen. If  you don’t have that, I’d try agar-agar or arrowroot and follow the directions. You want a slightly runny but gelled consistency. I think gelatin would be too firm of a set and also I think it’s icky! You could easily veganize this by not doing the buttercream (as mentioned above) and using coconut whipped cream. Of course you’d need to use a vegan butter and egg subs in the cake but I think this could be a rocking vegan cake. Coconut and passionfuits are like besties. Someone make that and tell me how good it is, okay?

Since we aren’t big on exchanging gifts (we just buy what we want when it comes up) this was my gift from Mr Ask. I could not think of a better gift! I laid on the couch and he shopped and then made me breakfast (oh yeah, this was the works!). I caught up on some tv while he cleaned the kitchen, cooked and decorated. He even cleaned up at the end. I didn’t lift a finger! I did provide advice (when asked) from the sidelines but this cake is all his work. And it’s pretty impressive! Especially when you consider it’s his first from scratch cake and decorating combo! So leave a comment and let him know what you think of his efforts. 

Ingredients

For the Cake:

• 250g salted butter, softened
• 250g castor sugar
• 4 eggs
• 250g plain flour
• 4 tsp baking powder
• 1 (170g) tin passionfruit, sieved to remove seeds

For the Passionfruit Jam:

• 4 (170g) tins passionfruit, sieved to remove seeds
• 2 (7g) packages of Jel-It-In (a vegan gelatin substitute, see above)
• 1 cup castor sugar

For the Whipped Cream:

• 500ml whipping cream, very cold
• 4 tblsp icing sugar
• 1 tsp arrowroot powder

For the Buttercream:

• 250g butter, softened
• 500g icing sugar
• 4-6 tblsp strained passionfruit

Instructions

For the Cake

1. Pre heat oven to 190C (180 fan forced). Grease and line 2 x 20cm or 8″ round straight sided cake tins.
2. Cream the butter and sugar in a mixer or with electric beaters, till pale and creamy.
3. Add the eggs and passion fruit and mix until well combined. Don’t worry if it looks separated!
4. In a separate bowl, combine the flour and baking powder.
5. Stir the flour mixture into the wet ingredients in two batches.
6. Divide evenly between the two cake pans and bake for 35-45 mins or until a skewer comes out clean. Remove from the pan and cool on racks.
7. Once cooled, cut each cake in half to create a total of four layers.

For the Passionfruit Jam

1. While the cake is baking, make up the jam. Whisk the sugar and Jel-It-In in to the strained passionfruit pulp until well combined.
2. Add the mixture to a small saucepan and bring to a boil, whisking often. Once boiling, lower to a simmer and whisk constantly for 1 minute. Remove from heat.
3. Chill until needed.

For the Whipped Cream

1. Add the cream to a chilled bowl and using a stand mixer or hand beaters, whip until soft peaks.
2. Add in the icing sugar one tablespoon at a time and beat gently after each addition.
3. Add the arrowroot and beat to desired texture. Chill until needed.

For the Buttercream

1. Add the butter to the bowl of a stand mixer and beat for a minute.
2. Add half the icing sugar and beat in on low. Add the remaining icing sugar and beat in.
3. Add passionfruit and beat. You can adjust the consistancy by adding more passionfruit or icing sugar as needed.
4. Now beat until super smooth. High speed for at least 10 minutes! That’s the secret to the most luscious buttercream. Set aside while you assemble.

Assembly & Decorating

1. Decide on the order of stacking. Place the first layer down on a cake board and spread with thin layer of passionfruit jam and then with a thicker layer of cream. Repeat with remaining layers, leaving the top bare (unless you are going buttercream free. In which case do cream on the top and then remaining jam).
2. Cover the sides and top with a thin layer of buttercream and refrigerate until set, about 10-30mins depending on texture.
3. Spread remaining buttercream over the sides and top, smoothing as best you can. If you are new to this, check out my pinata cake for my tips.
4. Pour remaining jam over the top and voila!

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