Passion Fruit Poundcake
This is a shiny, happy pound cake. Sweet-tart passion fruit flavor and buttery, dense pound cake make a lovely balance of zany and staid, not dissimilar to Lucy and Ricky Ricardo. Before their divorce.
Anyhoo, it’s simple to make. The greatest challenge you may face is finding good passion fruit puree. I use Boiron, which is fancy and French. But I’m also lucky enough to have Baldor—the company that services New York City restaurants—deliver to my house thanks to the pandemic. The frozen food aisle of Latin and Caribbean groceries is another good place to look. Obviously, if you’re lucky enough to have access to fresh passion fruits, use them (but sieve the flesh first to remove the seeds), and know I am very jealous of you.
Can’t find passion fruit puree? Lemon, orange and lime juice are easy replacements.
Passion Fruit Pound Cake
Ingredients
For the cake:
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
4 ounces butter, room temperature
1 cup granulated sugar
Zest of one lemon
2 large eggs, room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 cup passion fruit puree
1/2 cup whole milk yogurt or buttermilk
For the syrup:
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup passion fruit puree
How to make it:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Butter a loaf pan (typically 8 1/2 x 4 1/2 inches, but anything close will do) and set aside.
In a small bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Set aside.
With a stand or hand mixer, beat the butter, sugar and lemon zest at medium-high speed until light and fluffy. This takes longer than you think (typically 2 to 3 minutes) and I promise it makes a difference. Remember to scrape down the sides occasionally.
Add the eggs, one at a time and blend until incorporated. Add the vanilla and passion fruit puree. Mix on low speed until blended.
On low speed, blend in one-third of the flour. Scrape down the sides and add one-half of the yogurt mixture. Continue alternating flour and yogurt, ending with the flour. When everything is added, scrape down the sides of the bowl and beat the batter for one minute on medium, until mixture looks homogeneous and smooth.
Pour the mixture into the prepared pan and bake for 35-45 minutes, or until a cake tester comes out clean.
While the cake is in the oven, make the passion fruit syrup: Add the sugar and passion fruit puree to a small pan and cook over low heat until melted. Stir occasionally.
When the cake is done, cool on a wire rack in the pan for five minutes. Then remove the cake from the pan. Place the cake bottom side up on a wire rack over a plate or tray to catch any drips from the syrup. Using a thin skewer or toothpick, poke the cake all over the bottom. Spoon one-third of the syrup over the cake. It should be absorbed into the cake. Carefully turn the cake over, poke the top of the cake and spoon the remaining syrup over the cake.
Eat when cool.
While you’re waiting for the cake to cool, you could scoop a little vanilla ice cream into the pan that held the syrup, just to ensure you don’t waste a drop of the luscious syrup. Sure, I looked a little odd eating ice cream out of a sauce pan, but proud of it.
