Passion Fruit Bundt Cake
This passion fruit bundt cake is the pure magic of sweet, tropical passion fruit flavor soaked into a moist pound cake. The cake itself is just incredible!
I have a complicated relationship with passion fruit and this passion fruit bundt cake is the first passion fruit recipe on the blog. It is one of my favorite tropical fruits, even more so than coconut and if you know me and my coco-loco self, you know it’s a LOT of love. However, despite my love for passionfruit, I’ve been staying away from it like the plague.
I was first introduced to passion fruit as an 8-year old (+/- 1 year or so) when my father brought the seeds home. My father was a plant biologist and loved experimenting with local and foreign plants. On a trip to Indonesia, he was introduced to passion fruit. He brought home to Sierra Leone the seeds with the hopes to propagate it there.
Of course, passionfruit was not native to Sierra Leone but with similar climate and conditions, my dad was determined to have us try this gem. It was a fun experiment that I vividly remember helping with. From sowing the seeds to nurturing them to finally see the fruits, it was an exciting experience.
Needless to say, we had several passionfruit trees/bushes in our yard growing up and I loved the juices from the pulp. We would make the best passionfruit juice, similar to the hibiscus sparkler I shared with you every dry season (our version of summer).
When I left home to study abroad in South East Asia, I always found myself buying passionfruit juice and passionfruit to stay connected to home. It was one of the foods that would alleviate being homesick. I even remember sending my dad a picture of me in Bali with a passionfruit!
My relationship with passionfruit stayed that way until I lost my dad 7 years ago. For a long time, I made the conscious/unconscious choice to stay away from passionfruit because of the memories and the pain that was associated with those memories. I stopped buying it and enjoying it.
As I started this baking journey, I kept getting drawn into passion fruit treats but was resisting having to make any or bring myself to think about how special it was to me.
But every year, almost like clockwork, Love and Olive Oil (she doesn’t know this), will post a drooling passion fruit recipe and I will all over again dream of the flavor of my childhood that I loved so much. Without even realizing it, just seeing her passionfruit treats in my inbox yearly, I started yearning for passionfruit treats. She posted this Passion Fruit Meringue Tart in 2014, 4 years after my father passed and I think it was the first time I thought about why I was avoiding passionfruit. It was actually the nudge that I needed to face this loss.
To cut a long story short, I eventually started eating passionfruit again and embracing the memories of my childhood. I shared it with my husband and son who both never got to meet my dad and have yet to visit Sierra Leone. Thanks for this baking journey and seeing passion fruit continuously in my blogosphere (Thanks Lindsay) every so often. It was just what I needed (plus time) to heal.
So there you have the story of my complicated relationship with passionfruit. I’m clearly a HUGE fan and love it in everything. Especially in baked goods. This passion fruit bundt cake is bursting with it. The original recipe (from Bake From Scratch Magazine) drizzles chocolate over this cake but I skipped that as I wanted to enjoy the pure magic of sweet, tropical passionfruit flavor. Uninterrupted by chocolate or anything else. The cake itself is very moist that it crumbles in the mouth. Just incredible!
I feel like I am making up for the lost time. There are SO MANY passion fruit recipes I want to make and share with you. I just might get a little carried away with it as I do with the coconut. But it’s so good!
You can find fresh passionfruit seasonally in some grocery stores, I know my local Wegmans carry it every now and then over the summer. But you can also buy frozen puree in most grocery stores (ethnic sections) or online.
Passion Fruit Bundt Cake
Ingredients
For Cake:
- 5 large eggs, at room temperature
- 1 ¼ cups granulated sugar
- zest from 1 lemon
- ½ cup + 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1/3 cup yogurt, at room temperature
- 2 tablespoons passion fruit puree
- 1 cup self-rising flour
- ½ cup almond meal/ flour
- 1/3 cup fine semolina
- ¼ teaspoon baking powder
For the passionfruit syrup:
- 1/3 cup passionfruit puree
- 1/3 cup granulated sugar
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease an 8-10 cup bundt pan with baking spray.
- In a large bowl combine the eggs, sugar and lemon zest. Beat on medium speed until pale and light, about 5 minutes.
- Add the olive oil, yogurt and passionfruit puree. Beat until just combined.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the flours, semolina and baking powder.
- Reduce mixer to low speed and gradually add the flour mixture. Mix until just combined. Do not over mix.
- Spoon cake batter into prepared pan.
- Bake cake for 40-45 minutes or until a cake tester inserted into the middle comes out clean.
- While the cake is baking, make the passionfruit syrup. In a medium saucepan set over medium heat, bring to a boil the passionfruit puree and sugar. Let simmer for 4-5 minutes until slightly reduced. Remove from heat and let the syrup cool.
- Remove cake from oven and let the cake cool in the pan for at least 10 minutes before inverting onto a wire rack to cool.
- Brush the cake while still warm with the passionfruit syrup. This adds moisture and more passionfruit flavor to the cake.
- Serve cake with a dusting of powdered sugar or a simple passionfruit glaze (combine passionfruit puree with powdered sugar to make the glaze).
Notes
- Recipe adapted from Boy Who Bakes for Bake from Scratch
- If you do not have self-rising flour, use 1 cup all-purpose flour, 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder, and 1/4 teaspoon salt.
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Hello and thank you for sharing your paaionate post! I live in Costa Rica and a friend gave me a passion fruit sprout that has turned into a huge vine dripping passion fruits over the extended fencing I put up as well as dangling from tree limbs. Here we just put it in the blender seeds and all with water and sugar to make jusice or additional fruits to make smoothies. So I don’t know how to make the pulp. I’m assumimg it’s without the seeds? How do you separate it from the seeds? A friend surprised me with a passionfruit cake for my birthday and it was delicious. She bought it from someone who makes them in a neighboring town. I would very much like to make your bundt cake, especially hearing how moist it is. Please do tell how to make the puree. Thank you!
Hi Annie! So happy to meet you and just love your passion for passionfruits 🙂 Yes, the puree does not have the seeds in it. However, there is nothing to say you cant blend up the whole inside as you do now for your juices. Here are my suggestions: 1) using a spoon and getting the whole inside of the passionfruit out, put it all in a bowl and try to remove the seeds with your hands. it is hard as they are slippering buggers but if you can remove all the seed, I would then use what you get for the cake. I don’t think you would need to cook it down as it would be very little liquid. the flavor is what is key. 2) for the syrup, I would just blend up all the inside of the passionfruit (seeds and pulp) and then cook it down in a saucepan until thickened or slightly reduced. Use that as the syrup to baste your cake with after baking. I hope this is helpful! Good luck and please let me know how it goes. if you share the cake on social media, be sure to take me @aclassictwistblog on IG and @aclassictwist everywhere else!
Your passion fruit passion reminds me of the ruby fruit jungle book you introduced me to in florida
Miss you diana
Hi. I don’t see a recipe or a link for a recipe.
Hi Caroline, I am sorry for the inconvenience but there was a brief technical issue with my site but the recipe should be up again. Let me know if you have any further questions.
Loved your story! Tomorrow I will try your recipe!
Let me know how you like it!
Hi what can I use to replace the almond flour if I do not have it.
Can I turn this into a regular cake and not a bundt cake?
Hi Stacy – I have not tried this recipe in a cake pan. I don’t think it should be any different, however. You will just have to adjust your baking times.
It took some time before I found passionfruit pulp in an international market. It was worth the wait. I have now made this cake twice. Once without and once with the glaze. I prefer the glazed version as it enhances the passion fruit flavor. I took the glazed cake to my book club meeting and it was a hit! Members commented on the enticing aroma as soon as I removed the lid of the cake stand. The cake was moist and full of flavor. I did cut back the sugar just a tad and used a mixture of granulated and artificial sweetener in deference to those on a reduced sugar diet.
I have the same cake pan as used in the picture. Every cake I bake in that pan is visually enticing, creating anticipation for the cake. I am going to try this recipe with mango.
Hi Althea! It is great to hear you loved this cake. It is such a wonderful one that it’s hard not to impress with it. Glad your book club enjoyed it too 🙂 And now – I have to make this with mango. Such a great idea!!
I love passionfruit, I need to try this recipe!
you will love it 🙂
It amazes me just how many emotions attach themselves to food and other sensory memories. And it’s amazing, too, how those emotions can come out and nip you when you had no idea they were hiding in those memories. I hope that the good memories win out in all of this, because it sounds like passionfruit was a very special part of your story growing up.
Right? SO true!! It was a part of my growing up and I appreciate it 🙂 Thanks Kristin!
Zainab!! I didn’t realize you had lost your father also. We must not have known each other then. There are so many things that have been ruined for me because of my father dying….but thankfully nothing food related that I can think of off the top of my head. I can totally see how making this would have been hard for you. I’m sure your dad would have wanted you to keep enjoying passionfruit, though, especially in his memory!
Hi Joanne, yes it happened before I started blogging but while in grad school. It was a tough time which I am sure you understand. Thanks love!! xoxo
Passion fruit sounds like a yummy addition to a traditional bundt cake 🙂
It is 🙂
What a sweet story! It’s amazing how closely our memories are tied to food. I’m so glad that you’ve healed enough now from the loss of your dad to let passionfruit back into your life. It’s one of my favorite flavors too, and I’m sure I would love it in this cake (and I would also skip the chocolate!).
Thanks, Allie! We continue to always think alike lol 🙂
This story brought a tear to my eye. I totally relate — to this day every time I eat figs I think of my grandmother who introduced me to them right before she died. I love passionfruit and have never baked with it — this cake is the first place I’m going to start!
Thank you, Marcie! This cake is a great place to start for sure 🙂