As the Olympics are about to kick off in Brazil, I thought what a perfect time it is to enjoy a little bit of Brazilian culture. Even if you’re not sunning it up in Brazil, you can still join in with the excitement by discovering beautiful foods from this year’s Olympic hosts.
This traditional cake from Brazil goes down a treat in my house. It is fruity, colourful and perfect for the summer. Brazil is the biggest consumer of passion fruit in the world. The passion fruit there are big with yellow skin and sweeter than the passion fruit you find here. Passion fruit are native to the area from Southern Brazil through to Northern Argentina.
Our passion fruit work just as well in this recipe. If you love passion fruit, or even if you just love cake, try this recipe on a hot summer’s day. You won’t be disappointed.
Ingredients
For the Cake:
250g unsalted butter, softened
350g sugar
4 large eggs, at room temperature
375g plain flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
200ml concentrated passion fruit juice (If you can’t find this in your local supermarket try Passion fruit coulis, available in Tesco)
For the Topping:
150ml double cream
1-2 tablespoons icing sugar (optional sweetening)
For the Passion Fruit Sauce:
Alternatively – passion fruit coulis
Pulp of 2 passion fruit
90g sugar
200ml water
2 tablespoons white rum
Directions
- Preheat the oven to 180ºC/Gas 4/350º F. Grease two 20cm cake tins with butter and line with silicon.
- In a large mixing bowl, cream the butter and sugar using an electric hand whisk. It should be smooth and pale.
- Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.
- Sift and combine flour, baking powder and salt in a separate bowl. Add to creamed mixture alternately with the passion fruit juice.
- Divide into the prepared tins and bake for about 40 minutes or until a skewer inserted near the centre comes out clean. Try to resist opening the oven, as your cake will sink. When the cake begins to smell it is an indication that it is cooked.
- To make the passion fruit sauce, cut the passion fruits in half and scoop out the centre, including the seeds. Add the pulp to a small saucepan with the sugar, water and rum if using. Dissolve the sugar over a low heat. Increase the heat and allow the sauce to thicken. Transfer to a small bowl and leave to cool.
- When cooked, remove the cake from the oven and cool down on a wire rack for about 20 minutes. Run a knife around the edges carefully. Then, invert the cake onto a plate and let cool down 10 minutes longer (The sponge will keep for up to 2 days in an airtight container).
- When the cake is completely cool, drizzle two thirds of the cool passion fruit sauce on top of one half of the cake and sandwich with the other half.
- Whisk the cream until it is just holding its shape. Add the sugar at this stage, if using, and bring back to the same consistency.
- Top the cake with the lightly whisked cream and drizzle with the remaining passion fruit sauce. Serve immediately.
I stumbled upon this the recipe for passion fruit cake on a blog written by Denise Browning and have slightly altered it after baking it a few times to suit local people, also converting the measurements. If you like this recipe and want to try out any other Brazilian recipes, visit her blog at http://www.frombraziltoyou.org/
