Description
This twist on a classic Victoria Sponge Cake packs a punch with fresh passion fruit buttercream.
Ingredients
Scale
- 175g (6 oz) Margarine (or unsalted butter, but margarine will create a lighter sponge)
- 175g (6 oz) Golden Caster (Granulated) Sugar
- 3 Large Eggs
- 1/2 tbsp Golden Syrup (read about USA substitutes here)
- 1 tsp Vanilla Extract
- 145g (5 oz) Self Raising Flour (America? this is how you make the flour)
- 2 tbsp Cocoa Powder
- 1 tbsp Boiling Water
- 170g (6 oz) Unsalted Butter, room temperature
- 250g (9 oz) Icing (Confectioners) Sugar
- 2–3 Ripe Passion Fruit (I like to use the giant ones)
Instructions
- Pre-heat the oven to 180 degrees (350 fahrenheit).
- Lightly grease and line with a circle of baking parchment two 7 inch sandwich cake tins.
- Cream the margarine and the sugar together until the mixture is well combined and has paled a little.
- Beat the eggs into the mixture one at a time, followed by the vanilla extract and golden syrup.
- Fold the flour and the cocoa powder into the mixture, then once it is well combined follow with the spoonful of boiling water.
- Divide the batter between the two cake tins, tap gently on the work surface to remove any bubbles, and bake for 20 minutes until the sponges are firm, golden and you can insert a sharp knife or a cake tester and remove it clean.
- Remove from the tins and onto a wire cooling rack once the tins are cool enough to touch, and allow the sponges to cool completely before frosting.
- To make the icing, scoop out all but one of the passion fruit into a fine sieve over a small bowl. Using a spoon, press the seeds into the sieve so the passion fruit juice collects in the bowl at the bottom. Don’t throw away the seeds, you’ll need them in a moment!
- Beat together the butter and icing sugar until combined and stiff. Slowly beat in the passion fruit juice until the buttercream is a texture where it is spreadable and will hold on the cake. You might not need to use all of the passion fruit juice, it will all depend on how juicy your fruit are.
- Spread half of the buttercream onto the top of one of the sponges, and spread the leftover seeds around the edge. This will give the effect of there being passion fruit seeds in the frosting, but without making the middle of the cake all wet and soggy. Still, spread a little more icing on the bottom of the top sponge to keep the sponge dry before sandwiching it together.
- Spread the rest of the buttercream over the top of the cake.
- To top the cake with passion fruit seeds, spoon the remaining fruit into the sieve and gently stir, enough to remove any excess juice so you don’t make the cake too soggy, but this time that the membranes around the black seeds are still intact. Spoon these over the cake and serve as soon as possible.