Over the fence between our house and the neighbour’s, a passionfruit vine scrambles. It’s growing in Mark’s garden, but this year we’ve benefited from these gorgeous purple fruits ripening on our side…
I wanted to try incorporating them into my new tea cake. Like many of our recipes, it’s gradually evolving – this time I reduced the sugar by 20% (Pete liked it so much that I’ve amended the original recipe) and whipped the whole thing up in the food processor (although it works equally well in the mixer as per our original instructions).
- 250g unsalted butter, soft but not melted
- 200g caster (superfine) sugar
- 4 large free range eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract (I used homemade)
- 150g self-raising flour
- 150g almond meal
- 5 passionfruits
- ginger syrup
1. Preheat oven to 160C with fan and line a baking tray with parchment paper (I used a rectangular 30cm x 23cm / 12″x9″ pan enamel baking pan).
2. In the large bowl of the food processor, blitz together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time and pulse until combined, adding in a spoonful of the flour if required to stop the batter from splitting. Scrape down the sides as needed. Add the vanilla and pulse again.
3. Stir or sift the flour and almond meal together, then add to the food processor and pulse until just combined. Scrape half the batter into the prepared tray. Cut the passionfruits and scrape out the seeds and pulp. Spread half over the batter.
4. Spread over the rest of the batter, then top with the remaining passionfruit pulp. Drizzle over the ginger syrup.
5. Bake for 35 – 40 minutes, or until a fine skewer inserted comes out clean. Rotate the tray half way through the baking time if needed. Watch carefully to ensure the seeds on top don’t burn. Allow to rest briefly in the tray before lifting out and cooling completely on a wire rack.
I sent half the cake over to Mark’s house, and served the rest at our flaming pig dinner. It was a huge hit all around!
Fig Jam and Lime Cordial 
Yum! I wish my neighbours had a fruit tree of any type! One side is a pre school though, so we do get the odd tonka truck, bucket and spade! :)
Hahaha…and a whole lot of noise at recess and lunch, I’ll bet! :)
Celia, if I show this to The Handsome Stud he will get down on his knees and beg me to bake it for him… he is a complete, total, helpless passion fruit fanatic… he just made a little apricot sorbet with passion fruit added…
they are very expensive here,, almost 2 bucks per fruit, but I suspect I might have to get some and try this cake…. What won’t a woman do for a Handsome Stud? ;-) ;-) ;-)
Ooh Sally, a begging Handsome Stud might be impossible to refuse.. ;-)
Lucky! I planted a passionfruit vine 2 years ago and this year it grew it’s very first fruit. The next day, our neighbour weeded the garden overzealously and hacked the passionfruit to pieces. Heartbroken. I haven’t planted a new passionfruit vine to replace it.
When we first moved in over 20 years ago, there was a huge passionfruit vine growing on the OTHER fence. We watched and waited as the fruits ripened. Then one morning we came out and they were all gone – a flock of cockies has demolished the whole lot in one fell swoop! :)
Passion fruits have such amazing aroma. I can imagine how wonderful this cake smells. :)
Thank you! It was very popular! :)
I’ve never tasted passion fruit and I’m wondering what it tastes like?
Ooh Claire, that’s a tricky one! They’re a tangy mix of sweet and acidic, and the seeds are crunchy, in a not unpleasant way. Over here, they’re an essential pavlova topping – so much so that we can buy the pulp in tins.
This sounds sooo good!
Thank you! :)
passionfruit is one of my all time favourite fruit celia..your cake looks amazing..x
Jane, it was so easy too! I love it when something so delicious almost makes itself, if you know what I mean.. :)
This looks so scrumptious! Wish I had neighbors like that. Our neighbors are the ones that come to us, mostly for the pears.
Gretchen, the original recipe that this one was inspired by was based on was for pears! Here’s the link: http://www.rivercottage.net/recipes/pear-and-almond-cake/ (I cut the butter and sugar back quite a bit)
Thanks! I’ll be making plenty of pear recipes soon, though the crop looks smaller this year. I do still have pear sauce left from last year!
Passionfruit is a favourite of mine, Celia, I know I would LURV this cake!
Liz, it’s a doddle to make in the food processor! :)
Delicious! I just adore anything with ginger in it. I think I’m turning into my grandmother.
Hahaha…aren’t we all, love? :)
Not a passion fruit fan but love the idea of the ginger and a cake made in the food processor.
Jo, this is such an easy recipe. I have one more variation coming up soon!
Look at that rise Celia! Gorgeous cake. I so wish we has a scrambling passion fruit vine in our yard ;) Passion fruit is my absolute favorite- I love the pulp stirred into Greek yogurt.
Em, now that you have the new house, maybe you can plant one! :)
Oh , I can smell it from here ,lol , looks great !
Thank you! :)
Passionfruit and Ginger……. oh yum!
It’s a nice combination! Hope you’re well, dear man! xx
That looks delicious! I love passionfruit + ginger, sounds like a great use of the flavor! :)
Thanks! It went down a treat at Pete’s birthday dinner!
I don’t think that I’ve ever eaten a passion fruit. I’ll have to look for one because this looks amazing. Hugs, Maz
Maz, they’re a very interesting fruit – and grown so commonly here that I tend to think of them as Australian! :)
The texture of that cake looks amazing! And I love both passionfruit and ginger but have never had them both together!
They’re a delish combination! :)
I can’t way to try this. I will be home soon…no passionfruit here in Italy.
Bet there’s plenty in Brissie! :D
Yum! Looks superb. I’m a big fan of both passionfruit and ginger…will try this one for sure! Sadly I have tried and failed to grow passionfruit several times…but I live in hope that one day I will be successful!
Jaqi, not sure what the trick is, but our neighbour Mark seems to have nailed it! :)
I’m salivating at the thought of the flavour combinations :)
Thanks Tandy! :D
Mum and dad lose half their passionfruit to possums Celia, but I’ll share this recipe with them just in case they have any left :) xox
Becca, we once lost an entire vine’s worth of fruit to the cockies! :)
Yet another yummy looking cake. I always make my own yoghurt now using Pete’s recipe and passionfruit is nice mixed through it.:)
Jody, Pete will be so happy to hear that! :)
It’s a very good recipe and I often add fresh fruit. Even with the fruit it’s never as sweet as commercial yoghurt which makes me wonder how much sugar is being added. Much prefer Pete’s recipe:)
So Delicious!!! I will cook your recipi for this weekend
Yaay! Hope you like it! :)
It looks very hard to resist . An unusual method that I am damn sure must produce the passionfruitiest cake. My neighbour over the back once had a panama pash vine. Oh how I loved it.
T, dead easy assembly in the food processor! :)
Sounds delicious. If only we had a passionfruit vine instead of having to buy expensive imported ones. Obviously I’m now trying to think which fruit I can use instead of passionfruit.
Anne, you can use anything you want with this base cake recipe! Here’s my original post:
https://figjamandlimecordial.com/2014/05/30/raspberry-and-quince-jelly-teacake-2/
That sounds a delicious flavour combination!
Thanks Suelle! Fun to make too!
Is that a big cake? It looks enormous. I so wish I had a passionfruit vine. They used to be so common in Ozzie backyards and I just don’t know why they went out of fashion xx
No, it’s not that big – 23cm x 30cm enamel tray – and about 3cm thick? I was just saying above that passionfruits are used so much here that I tend to think of them as Australian.. :)
First lemon envy now passion fruit envy. Ginger is my favourite type of cake ….mmmm
Sally, the ginger bit only came about because I found an old bottle of syrup in the fridge, but it was a great combination! :)
Really, a tea cake with passionfruit and ginger in it? I’m in, thanks Celia.
Enjoy, love! :)
Stunning! Once upon a time we had a prolific passionfruit vine and then… nothing. After the first season – nada :( But I buy them just to bake delish cakes [like yours] with.
I wonder if it’s worth planting again? If you grew it once, it follows that it might grow again?
That looks like a perfect cake for afternoon tea/coffee, I like how you spread the passion fruit on top — nice!
Thanks Judy! It was fun to play around with.. :)
I have never seen a passionfruit tree, Ill have to look into getting one for the garden, although they prob wouldn’t appreciate the Canberra cold. Passionfruit and ginger, what a yummy combo.
It’s not a tree, it’s actually a climbing/scrambling vine. Not sure how it would do in the cold now that you mention it!
Passionfruit, ginger AND cake all rolled into one. Where do I sign up?
Hahaha…I reckon you could make this in a heartbeat, Fran! Dead easy recipe! :)
I could eat it even quicker ;)
My passion fruits are just starting to ripen! So I think I will make this first!
Yaay! Watch out for the birds – the cockies made short work of our first vine! :)
How wonderful to benefit from the vine! This is just my kind of cake – perfect :)
Chica, I suspect you’d love the idea of a tray baked cake as much as I do! :)
Looking good, raw or baked, Celia! :) Thanks to the neighbour’s generosity and green thumb to begin with!
Julie
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Julie, too true! He keeps us in figs as well! :)
I’ve never tasted passion fruit and the one time that I saw it in the market I didn’t buy it because I didn’t know what part you were supposed to eat. This cake looks so moist & delicious.
Di, passionfruits are used so commonly here that we’ve kind of adopted them as our own. It wouldn’t be Christmas without passionfruits – they go on top of pavlovas and other treats. The pulp is sticky, tangy and sweet, and the seeds can be a surprise – they’re very crunchy!
Celia, would you normally eat the seeds – say if you were just eating the fruit w/o putting it in a recipe?
Di, yes! It’s part of the charm of the fruit! :)
I think Ginger is very healthy to human’s body, This cake looks great
Thanks Yan! :)
You just reminded me that we had passion fruit growing in our garden when we lived in Johannesburg. Can’t believe I forgot.
My taste buds are having a party at the thought of this great combination of flavours.
:-) Mandy xo
Mandy, it’s such a wonderful vine to grow – we’re so grateful to Mark for ours! :)
I made your divine cake but used coconut sugar instead & used 50 gr less! It was superb,…really something different than I am used too!
My grand-parents agreed with me! They are also a bit adventurous in their cooking & baking! xxx :)
Sophie, I’m so glad you enjoyed it! Thanks for trying it! :)
😊😊 xx
Looks delicious Celia! Wonderful flavour combo :-)
Thanks Sandy! :)