Last week, when my mother bought some passion fruit, I had mentioned that I had seen a delicious looking orange and passion fruit syrup cake recently on Poppy’s Patisserie. The very next day, my mother had baked a tangy, crunchy passion fruit and banana cake. The crunchiness is from the baked passion fruit seeds inside the cake.

I would like to share my mother’s recipe for this delicious dessert cake today.

Passion fruit and banana cake

Time taken: 1 hour

Ingredients:

• Passion fruit – 4 large or 5 medium fruits + 1 (for topping)
• Banana – 1 (local varieties: kolikoottu or anamalu)
• Wheat flour – 1 cup
• Semolina – ½ cup
• Oats – 3 tbsp
• Sugar – ¾ cup + 2 tbsp (for topping)
• Low fat vegetable margarine – ½ cup
• Water – ¼ cup
• Baking powder – 1 ½ tsp
• Baking soda – ½ tsp
• Rose essence – a drop

Method:

1. Sift the wheat flour and semolina together with the baking powder and baking soda. Keep aside the dry mix.
2. In a large bowl, whisk the margarine and sugar by hand, using a large spoon.
3. Mix the passion fruit pulp, including the seeds, and the oats with the water in another bowl to make a wet mix.
4. Stir in the wet mix into the bowl containing the whisked margarine and sugar and continue to whisk.
5. Add in the finely chopped banana and the drop of rose essence into the bowl and mix.
6. Stir in the dry mix into the large bowl of the wet ingredients gradually.
7. Pour the cake batter into the baking tray.
8. Pre-heat the oven and bake at 140⁰C/ 284⁰F for 45 mins.
9. Beat the pulp of 1 passion fruit together with the 2 tbsp of white sugar and pour over the baked cake, while still hot from the oven.
10. Serve warm for dessert.

Recipe source: Raji Thillainathan.