Passionfruit & Candy Cake

I baked the passionfruit cake yesterday. I was very experimental and I was not sure if this was going work. Luckily it did! I think that this is my new favorite cake. The recipe came from a friend of mine, she used to make this cake for her husband all the time when they were dating. I made some changes but I am pretty happy with how it turned out.

This cake is perfect for any occasion. It can be served as dessert or even breakfast . The only problem is that there might not be enough left over for the next day. Let's just say that you should bake two cakes instead of one...

For the sponge cake

8 medium eggs
2 tbs of milk
450g self raising flour
1 tbs baking powder
450 g caster sugar
225g softened butter
1 tbs vanilla extract
1 tsp yellow coloring paste
200ml vegetable oil

Icing and, topping and decorations

350g royal icing sugar
200g bitter dark chocolate
150g soft butter
4 tbs of passion fruit coolly
yellow coloring paste
popping candy

The ingredients. I forgot to add the popping candy to the picture and some more eggs!

Add 450g self raising flour.

Add 1 tablespoon of baking powder.

Add 450g caster sugar.

Add 225g of soft butter, followed by 2 tablespoons of milk. This will help to loosen up the mixture.

Add 8 beaten eggs to the ingredients.

Add 200ml of sunflower oil. I used olive oil instead. When using olive oil make sure the oil has a neutral taste. It it has a strong olive oil flavor it will significantly change the taste of your cake. I also found that using oil adds some additional moisture to the cake after baking.

Add 1 tablespoon vanilla extract.

Add 1 teaspoon of Sugarflair coloring paste. Add more for a brighter color.

Beat the ingredients together using a mixer.

The mixture will be very lumpy in the beginning, but just keep on beating for about 5 minutes until smooth.

Divide your mixture equally into 3 or 4 28 cm buttered cake tins. Depending on how high you want your cake to rise. I used 3 tins. Don’t worry too much about the exact sizes of your tins. As long as the mixture fills half of your tin it should work fine. It’s also very important to butter your tins even if they are non stick. This creates less resistance when the cake is rising and will help it keep its shape. Also bang your tins on the counter before you put them in the oven. This will help get rid of any access air in the batter and will give the cakes a more leveled rise.

Bake at 180C (fan assisted) for 25 minutes.

Once the sponges have finished baking turn them out on cooling racks. Wait until they are completely cooled before you start icing.

Cream together 150g butter and 300g of royal icing sugar. Royal icing sugar hardens better compared to other icing sugars.

If you have lumps in your icing sugar use a sieve to break up the lumps.

Beat it until fluffy and smooth. The longer you beat it the whiter the icing will get.

If your cake is slightly uneven, use s sharp knife to level it.

Start adding your icing sugar to the cake.

In a separate bowl add about 8 table spoons of the icing mixture and 2 tablespoons of your passion fruit coolly . Beat until smooth.

Add 4 tablespoons of the icing sugar and passion fruit coolly mixture to each layer if the cake (The cake has 2 layers)

Continue icing the cake and adding the icing to each layer of the cake followed by the icing and coolie mixture. Once you have iced your cake with a thin layer of icing on the outside, put it in the fridge to harden for about 20 minutes. This is called a crumb coating. When you put the rest of your icing on you will get a smoother finish.

After the cake has been in the fridge for 20 minutes, add the rest of the icing.

Break up and melt 200g bitter dark chocolate.

Add your popping candy to a non stick baking sheet.

Add your melted chocolate to the popping candy. Make sure your chocolate has cooled a bit before you do this.

Let the chocolate set. To speed up this process you can put the sheet with the chocolate and popping candy in the fridge for a few minutes.

For the topping of the cake use 5 tablespoons of the icing mixture. 1/2 teaspoon of yellow coloring paste, 2 tsp of passion fruit coolly and 50g of icing sugar to increase the thickness. Mix until smooth and add to the top of the cake. It should be thick enough not to run down the sides of the cake.