Chocolate Passionfruit Layer Cake

If you've followed my blog for a while, you might know that I'm not usually a layer cake person. However - this little ol' blog turned fourteen on Sunday, and I really wanted to celebrate with a fancy cake! FOURTEEN years! Back when I started food-blogging in 2004, the blogging world was a totally different landscape. Well, to start, there wasn't really a huge "blogging world" at all; certainly not a food blogging world. No iPhones, Instagram, Twitter, or Facebook. (Actually, I think Facebook existed, but was limited to just college students at that time). There were no PR approaches, no sponsored posts, no influencers, no aggressive GETFOLLOWERSNOW accounts sliding into your DMs. No DMs!

Chocolate Passionfruit Layer Cake

Back then, we just had those free blog-publishing services that us fringe weirdos would sign into to share our thoughts and feelings with anyone prepared to read. I literally started this blog as a way to express my foodie leanings without boring my friends - and fourteen years on, even though foodie culture and online sharing has definitely become mainstream, I must admit I still think of my foodieness as a bit of a quirk, and when asked about my food blog, I often reflexively talk it down as a niche hobby rather than a body of work of which I'm proud. I'm still working on that.

So let's get back to the cake. The combination of passionfruit and chocolate is one of my favourites, and has been ever since my great friend Clarice introduced me to the Pierre Hermé mogador macarons back in 2006 when we were travelling through Europe. Those macarons are now a must-purchase any time I visit Paris! (Those of you lucky enough to have tried Duncan's macarons during his all-too-brief foray into commercial macaron production in 2010 may have also tasted his divine white chocolate passionfruit macarons, aptly titled the "Zara").

I used my go-to chocolate cake for the layers: Nigella's chocolate fudge cake. (I also used this as the layers one of my other layer cakes, the wordy but delicious cocoa sour cream cake with chocolate cheesecake icing and raspberry whipped cream). To make a small layer cake, I make it in half quantities and bake it in a little 18-cm springform tin. It works a treat! The cake has a rich chocolate flavour, and the texture is light and fluffy, but still firm enough to slice horizontally without falling apart. Winner.

Cocoa sour cream cake - yes that dome had to be sliced off, but yes, that means I got to eat it while assembling the cake.

The passionfruit component comes via the icing. The passionfruit cream is super-simple to make, but does require a little specialist shopping, as you need freeze-dried passionfruit powder. (I got it at a specialty cooking store, but Google it to find stockists near you - it's worth searching for). I learned the technique for the icing from the wonderful Stella Parks, where she blends freeze dried fruit with sugar and cream in a food processor. This makes a super smooth, velvety and stable cream, that doesn't collapse or weep even after a few days in the fridge. It's sturdy enough to be used as cake frosting, with an intense and pure flavour. She is such a legend!

Freeze-dried passionfruit powder

The passionfruit powder lends a pale yellow colour to the cream, but I added a few drops of yellow food colouring as well to enhance it.

Thick and Fruity Passionfruit Cream

Before we get into the photos of assembly, I'll let you know that the cake isn't difficult to make, it's just quite time consuming, as there's a lot of resting involved to ensure a neat result. You have to make the cake, and let it get completely cold before slicing. As you assemble the cake you need to chill it in the fridge at least three times - once after the crumb coat, once after the final layer of icing, once after covering it in ganache.

It took me the better part of my whole Sunday to make the cake (which I don't mind; I love baking!) But in the normal run of things I'd suggest breaking up the activities - baking the cake and making the cream on one day, and assembling the next. (I actually think this would work better, as the cream thickens on standing. You'll see in some of my later photos that my second coat of frosting was a bit slippery and messy, a night in the fridge would have definitely benefited the cream).

With that out of the way, let's look at the assembly!

The work area, ready to go

Smoosh a little frosting onto your cake plate, and press your first layer down onto it. This will stop the cake moving around too much. And slip some pieces of baking paper under the edges of the cake to keep it neat.

First layer

Then you start spreading and stacking! If it's a warm day or your cake pieces look like they're going to slide around a lot, pop the whole thing in the fridge to firm up again before continuing.

Second layer

The top layer of the assembled cake should be the layer that was on the bottom of the cake as it was baking. This ensures the top is nice and flat, and means you'll get less crumbs in the icing.

Three layers

And speaking of crumbs in the icing, here's the cake after the crumb coat. Basically to "crumb coat" a cake, you cover it all over in a thin layer of icing, and pop it back into the fridge to set. This creates a barrier between the cake and the icing, and means you get less crumbs on the outside of your cake.

Crumb-Coated Cake

And here is the fully-iced cake.

Iced cake

I drizzled the cake with a dark chocolate ganache, for more chocolately deliciousness. It's really important that the cake is fridge cold before you do this, and that the ganache isn't too hot, otherwise it will melt the icing. Slightly warmer than body temperature is just about right.

I found a great tip from Brooklyn Homemaker to apply the ganache: he uses a squeezy bottle to pour the ganache around the edges, to get more attractive looking drips. I only had a ziplock bag but it worked well! (PS another option is simply to pour the ganache over the cake, spread it out gently, and let the drips form where they will).