When you’ve got a big jar of passion fruit jam nearing its expiration date, and your partner can’t quite use it up in cocktails, it’s the perfect excuse to get creative in the kitchen. I couldn’t let that tropical, tangy delicacy go to waste. So I started experimenting: first with passion fruit triple chocolate cookies (a tasty idea, but the seeds hardened in the bake), and then with a passion fruit pound cake, which turned out to be a delicious success.
Aiming for a healthier version, I made a few lighter swaps: vegetable oil instead of butter, and monk fruit sweetener in place of cane/brown sugar. Because I didn’t cream butter or fully whip the eggs, the batter didn’t incorporate as much air—air that would normally expand and evaporate in the oven to help the cake rise. So while this version doesn’t get quite as fluffy as a traditional pound cake, it still bakes into a moist, flavorful treat with the tropical brightness of passion fruit—and that makes it more than worth it.
INGREDIENTS
- 150g passion fruit jam
- 3 eggs
- 90g vegetable oil (not recommend olive oil which has quite a strong taste)
- 50g granulated sugar (original recipe calls for 80g, I decreased it because jam has sugar)
- 200g cake flour
- 5g baking powder
- 3g salt
- simple syrup: 20g water + 10g granulated sugar
INSTRUCTIONS
- Mix the passion fruit jam and vegetable oil until fully emulsified
- One ingredient by another, whisk in the eggs, sugar, and salt, and mix until well combined (beating / whipping egg may bring in more air to make fluffier cake)
- Sieve the cake flour and baking powder into the batter, and mix until no dry flour is visible
- Line a mold with parchment paper, pour in the cake batter, and flatten the surface with a spatula
- Preheat the oven to 170°C/338°F and bake for 50 minutes. After 15 minutes, use a small knife to make a vertical slit in the center to help the cake crack evenly. Cover with foil for the last 10 minutes to prevent over-browning if needed
- Remove the cake from the oven and place it on a cooling rack
- (optional) Heat 20g water with 10g sugar until the sugar dissolves, then brush the syrup on all sides of the cake
- While still warm, wrap the cake in plastic wrap and refrigerate
