white chocolate and passionfruit sprinkle cake

Last October my sister-in-law requested passion fruit and lots of sprinkles as a theme for her birthday cake. This is what I created: a densely sprinkle-covered vanilla victoria sponge filled with passionfruit curd and white chocolate butter icing.

As suspected, I found sprinkles around my kitchen for DAYS afterwards. Totally worth it though.

I based the recipe around this cake I baked years ago. I'd definitely say it's one of my favourite cakes. I absolutely adore the combination of white chocolate, vanilla and passionfruit. It just feels special. The curd is zingy, the vanilla is aromatic and white chocolate is deliciously creamy and sweet. I also love using golden caster sugar in a vanilla victoria sponge. It gives an almost butterscotch flavour and just generally lifts the vanilla.

To make the cake look fancier I cut the sponges in half to make it quadruple layered but without being ridiculously tall. I really like doing this as it distributes all the flavours evenly through the cake.

To apply the sprinkles I coated the sides of the cake with the icing then rolled the sides in a tray full of sprinkles (I used at least 2 little tubs of hundreds and thousands). This is so much easier than trying to pat sprinkles onto the side of the cake and also contains some of the inevitable sprinkle mess. Then I iced the top of the cake and poured/pressed the remaining sprinkles on top.

I definitely want to make another dense sprinkle cake some day. Not only does it look fun but I also really enjoyed the crunch the sprinkles added to an otherwise soft textured cake.

There's no excuse not to make another sprinkle cake as I typically over bought sprinkles when I made this cake. There's at least two more tubs sitting in my baking cupboard. At least they're keeping all the pink marshmallows company!

White chocolate and passionfruit cake

 

sponges:

225g (8oz) golden caster sugar

225g (8oz) softened butter or Stork margarine

4 eggs

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

225g (8oz) self raising flour

 

passionfruit curd: 

(I would recommend doubling the quantity as I barely had enough for all the layers. However, if you don't cut your sponges in half this amount is fine)

3 passion fruit

1 egg

40g caster sugar

25g butter

 

white chocolate butter icing:

(enough if you don't cut your sponges in half, otherwise double the quantity)

100g white chocolate

100g butter

175g softened butter

 

First, make the curd. Cut the passion fruit in half, scoop out the pulp and strain the juice and flesh through a sieve. Discard the seeds. Put the strained juice, egg and sugar in a glass bowl and whisk until combined. Place the bowl over a small pan of gently simmer water and stir regularly until the mixture heats up and thickens. Do not turn up the heat and let it boil as you'll end up with sad scrambled egg. Add the butter and continue to whisk fairly regularly for about 20 minutes or until the mixture is thick enough to coat the back of a spoon. Once ready, pour into a sterilised jar or bowl and leave to cool. Whilst the curd is cooling, make the sponges. 

 

Preheat the oven to 180C/160C Fan/Gas 4. Grease two 20cm/8 inch round cake tins and line the bases with baking parchment. In a large bowl beat together the margarine and sugar for about 5 minutes until light and fluffy. Add the eggs to the mixture one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add a tablespoon of the flour with the last egg to prevent the mixture from splitting. Add the vanilla extract and flour and mix everything together until fully combined.
 

Divide the mixture between the cake tins and bake on the middle shelf of the oven for approx. 30 minutes until well risen, light golden and spring back when touched. Leave to cool in the tins for a few minutes before turning out onto a wire rack to finish cooling.

 

To make the icing, beat together the butter and icing until light and fluffy (about 5 minutes.) Melt the white chocolate either in short bursts in a bowl in a microwave (30 seconds at a time) or in a glass bowl over a pan of gently simmering water. Add the melted chocolate to the icing mixture and whisk again until fully combined.

 

Once cool cut both sponges in half to create four cake layers. Apply a layer of icing and curd to every sponge layer and stack. Cover the sides and top of the cake with the remaining icing. However if you want to create a sprinkle effect, there's a bit more work involved. First give the cake a light crumb coating with the icing then leave in the fridge for at least 1/2 hour to firm up. Once firm coat only the sides of the cake then pick up the cake, holding the top and bottom and gently roll the sides in a tray full of sprinkles (I used at least two tubs of hundreds and thousands sprinkles.) Once densely covered, put onto your cake onto a plate/cake stand and cover the top with icing. Pat/pour the sprinkles on top.

 

Now tidy the devastation that is your kitchen. Even if you think you've tidied up all the sprinkles, there will be MORE!!

 

white chocolate cake with passionfruit curd and chocolate dipped strawberries

Hey, long time no blog. 2017 has been utterly rubbish so far, hasn't it? I was so determined to start the year positively, despite a gut feeling of impending doom, but it's just been one crap thing after another. My gut was correct. I'm fed up with the year and basically want to hide in a dark hole. It's difficult to write when you have zero enthusiasm and the longer you leave it the less inclined you feel to return.

I'm not sure what to do with this space. It has been offline for the past week as I contemplated shutting down. I'm undecided as I do like having a creative journal and have always enjoyed all the like-minded blogger interaction, however I really struggle with putting myself "out there". I continued documenting my bakes earlier in the year, indicating that I did intend to catch up, I'm still sewing and knitting, and I still love reading blogs although I haven't been able to bring myself to comment or interact. So... yeah, that's where I am at the moment.

Anyway, today I'm sharing a white chocolate and passionfruit cake I baked for my Mum's birthday back in February. You're here for the cake, right?

The cake is a Peggy Porschen recipe from her "Cake Parlour" book I've had bookmarked for a few years, although I baked it as an 8" two layer cake instead of a 6" three layer. I also filled it with homemade passionfruit curd instead of jam and topped it with white chocolate dipped strawberries. Whenever a family birthday approaches my Mum inevitably says, "remember that cake you made with the chocolate dipped strawberries?" (this one!) so I felt it was about time I made something similar for her birthday.

My sponges didn't rise particularly well - I don't know whether this was down to my mixing of the batter, changing cake tin sizes or just the effect of adding melted chocolate to a sponge batter - but the flavour made up for the denser than expected texture. The sponges very much tasted of white chocolate and the white chocolate icing was gloriously silky and moussy. Then the freshness of the passionfruit curd and strawberries cut through the chocolatey sweetness. All in all, pretty tasty.

It's not the most immaculately decorated cake, certainly a far cry from the beautiful examples in Peggy Porschen's book, but it has its own charm. This is when I'm reminded that I'd make a terrible professional baker. I really don't have the patience for all the careful levelling, crumb coating and chilling.

Perhaps now that I've written this post it'll get the ball rolling for others.

How has everyone else's year been? Please say somebody has been having a good year?!

orange and passion fruit loaf

Finally, I've baked something. It's been a while. One of my friends mentioned that she had baked an orange and passion fruit cake last week and the flavour combination stuck in my mind. I then remembered that I've had Edd Kimber's orange and passion fruit cake recipe from his first book "The Boy Who Bakes" bookmarked for the last 4 years. Now I can remove that bookmark!

I'm a bit sad that my cake sank. It was one of those "ooh it looks ready" - timer goes off - open the oven door - gently prod the cake to check it's cooked - cake wobbles in an underbaked fashion - close the oven door - cake slowly collapses - "noooooo!" moments.

What the cake lacks in presentation it more than makes up for in flavour. I had forgotten how much I loved passion fruit. It's such a sunshiney, happy flavour and pairs very well with sweet, tangy orange. A refreshing cake to eat in gloomy, winter weather! The passion fruit seeds in the icing glaze also lend a welcome bit of crunch to the cake.

Needless to say this cake didn't hang around for long. I'd better put my pinny on and bake something else! 

Orange and passion fruit loaf

225g softened butter/margarine

255g caster sugar (30g reserved for making a syrup)

4 eggs, large

225g plain flour

2 tsp baking powder

zest of 2 large oranges

juice of 1 orange (you get to eat the other orange, yay!) 

passion fruit glaze:
3 passion fruits
125g icing sugar (I added a bit more to reach the consistency I wanted)

Preheat the oven to 180C/ 160C Fan/ Gas 4. Grease and line a 23 x 10cm loaf tin with greaseproof paper. Sift together the flour and baking powder into a large bowl, give it a stir and set aside. In a separate bowl beat together the orange zest, butter and 225g of the sugar  for 5 minutes until light and fluffy. Alternate adding the eggs and 3 tablespoons of orange juice a little at a time, beating well between each addition, until everything is mixed evenly. Fold in the flour. Once everything is fully incorporated pour the mixture into the prepared loaf tin. Bake for 50 - 55 minutes (at least an hour in my case) until risen, golden, firm to touch and a skewer inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean.

In the last few minutes before the cake comes out the oven make an orange syrup using the remaining juice from the orange and the 30g of sugar set aside earlier. Place in a small saucepan and leave to simmer for a few minutes until the sugar has dissolved. 

Pierce holes into the top of the cake with a skewer and pour/brush the warm syrup on top, allowing it to soak into the cake. Leave the cake to cool in the tin for about 10 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack to finish cooling.

Once cool, finish the cake with the passion fruit glaze. To make the glaze, cut open the passion fruits, scoop out the seeds and pulp and press through a sieve. Reserve one tablespoon of the seeds. Add the icing sugar and reserved seeds to the passionfruit juice and mix until smooth and a good pouring consistency. 

Passionfruit white chocolate cake

When I bought myself a copy of the new Clandestine Cake Club book a couple of weeks ago I immediately knew I had to make this cake. Not only does it involve my new found love for passionfruit but also my long term love for white chocolate. And I got to make curd!

The cake did not disappoint; it tasted absolutely gorgeous. The sponge was light and juicy, and white chocolate butter icing with passionfruit curd whipped through it might just be my favourite new icing. The zingy-ness of the passionfruit with the sweetness of the chocolate is such a great pairing.

I used duck eggs in my cake and curd and I'm sure it made them extra sunshiney and yellow, although perhaps not as radioactive as my photographs may suggest (damn night time light!) My friend and I baked in the evening and decided to enjoy the cake as late night elevenses, the best kind of elevenses if you ask me!

The original recipe comes from the creative chocolate fiend Choclette from Chocolate Log Blog which she baked for her first CCC event. If you haven't visited Choclette before then I highly recommend you do. The recipe is more or less a victoria sponge with the addition of two tablespoons of passionfruit curd and a tablespoon of lemon juice so I won't type it out. However I will direct you over to the Chocolate Log Blog for the passionfruit curd recipe. It is the brightest, happiest curd you'll ever set eyes on. I may have made a little extra just to eat from the jar...

Passionfruit cream biscuits.

Last week I found this pressed glass pedestal cake stand in the charity shop. With its fluted edge and yellow rose pattern, it was begging for a fresh, sunshine bake. As it is quite a small cake stand, I decided it had to be biscuits.

Some may be horrified that I've never worked with passionfruit before. I've had drinks and eaten cake containing passionfruit, but I've never physically handled one! Clearly I lead a sheltered existence.

I love how all the flavours come through in the biscuit: zingy lemon zest and passionfruit pulp, sweet golden syrup and rich butter. The passionfruit seeds add a bit of crunch too, which I always enjoy in a biscuit. Then there's the passionfruit buttercream which can only be described as sweet sunshine. I may have eaten four of these in one sitting....

Bake these zingy biscuits if you're feeling miserable or fed up with the cold winter weather. They will make you happy :)

Passionfruit cream biscuits

Recipe from Lakeland Cupcakes and Cookies

125g butter, softened

2 teaspoons finely grated lemon rind

75g caster sugar

2 tablespoons golden syrup

150g self-raising flour

100g plain flour

60ml passionfruit pulp

2 tablespoons passionfruit pulp

90g butter, softened

160g icing sugar

Beat the butter, lemon rind and sugar in a bowl with a mixer until light and fluffy. Add golden syrup and beat together. Stir in the flours and passionfruit pulp. Turn the dough onto a floured surface and knead until smooth. Cut dough in half; roll each portion between sheets of baking parchment to 5mm thickness. Refrigerate 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 160C/140C fan/Gas 3. Grease oven trays and line with baking parchment. Cut 25 4cm fluted rounds from each portion of dough and place about 2.5cm apart on trays. Bake for about 10 minutes in the oven until light golden (mine took about 15 minutes). Cool on the trays.

For the buttercream, strain the passionfruit pulp through a sieve into a small jug and discard the seeds. Beat the butter and sugar in a bowl until light and fluffy. Beat in the passionfruit juice. Spoon the buttercream into a piping bag fitted with 5mm fluted nozzle (I used a wilton 1M). Pipe the cream onto half the biscuits and then place the other biscuits on top.

Note: You will need about 6 passionfruits in total.

I think I made 30 in total as opposed to 25 which meant I didn't quite have enough icing so I made an extra quarter of the icing quantity.