Thursday, September 8, 2011

Passionfruit syrup yoghurt cake



I have made no secret of my terrible cookbook habit.  When I see a gorgeous cookbook, especially a baking book, resistance is useless, and it must be added to my burgeoning shelves.   As I write this, I am contemplating buying The Birthday Cake Book by Fiona Cairns (cake maker to the stars and royalty), which I spied in a Paddington bookshop on my Sydney trip. 

Unfortunately, this addiction means that I have not cooked anything out of some of my books.  No matter how beautiful, I never seem to get around to it before the next shiny cookbook has my attention, so they  sometimes languish unused on the shelf.

A beautiful cookbook that I have owned forever and until recently not used is Donna Hay's Seasons cookbook. Seasons is one of those books that you can just gaze at the pictures, like a fairy story, and be quite satisfied and comforted.  However, I finally got around to making not one but two recipes out of it recently.  I have coveted forever the Passionfruit Syrup Yoghurt Cake in Seasons, so that was the obvious choice for my first foray into Seasons.  As I had a shoulder of pork in the freezer, I also made a cider pork roast out of the book, but I will save that for another post.

Turning to the Passionfruit Syrup Yoghurt Cake, pictured at the top of this post, Lorraine published the recipe on Not Quite Nigella some time ago, and you can find it here.  The cake is a moist, fluffy plain sponge, jazzed up by the generous topping of homemade passionfruit syrup: 




I did not get anywhere near enough syrup to coat my cake entirely like Donna and Lorraine, but there was still enough to add flavour and moisture to the plain cake beneath.  I chose to make my cake in a rose flavoured bundt tin to add to the visual appeal, and I think it looked like an exotic tropical lily, which exuded an elegant passionfruit and vanilla fragrance.

I loved this cake, and would certainly make it again.  It was worth the wait, and if you love fruity cake like me, I am sure that you will love it too.  

13 comments:

Lauren Hairston said...

I know exactly what you mean--I can't resist a cookbook! I just received two in the mail from the UK today and I ran out of shelf space a long time ago...

I really like baked goods with yogurt in them because of the moistness and faint tanginess. Love your rose-shaped bundt. I always eye the pretty ones and end up walking away because of a lack of kitchen space. Funny that I can walk away from cookware but not cookbooks!

Kayte said...

Stop it...that looks sooooo goooood!! Good thing this is at your place and not mine as I would really be sampling this one way too often. Love that pan of yours. I have TWO Donna Hay books and have yet to make a single thing from them: New Food Fast and Off the Shelf...do you have either of those? If so, let's make something sometime...if I know you are cooking it, I will be sure to do so as well! This cake is gorgeous!

Cakelaw said...

Hi Lauren, the books are irresistable! My argument is all the energy I use up lugging them around so that I can eat what I make - sounds logical, right ;)

LOL Kayte. No, I don't have either of those, though I have thought about getting New Food Fast - if I do, I'll let you know and we can do some cooking!

marla said...

Love the sound of this cake...looks nice and moist too!
Please join me to bake & remember lives lost in 9/11. I am hosting a link up called *Remembrance Cakes* Would love to have you. We are baking cakes, muffins, cupcakes. Anything is great! You can also share posts you have all ready published like this one. Just add the badge to show your support.
http://su.pr/2j5eSB

Lorraine @ Not Quite Nigella said...

Thanks for the link love! I think I got an awful lot of syrup for the cake. I wonder why that was? Anyway as you say it's a lovely cake and I love that tin :)

The Food Mentalist said...

Yum, Yum & Yum!

Cakelaw said...

Lorraine, a pleasure.

Marla, will absolutely join you with a new post. Sounds like a terrific idea.

Thanks FM!

Finla said...

I love your budn't pan, and the cake looks beautiful and so so moist and delicious.

Anonymous said...

Using the rose-shaped bundt pan was a great idea! This cake looks delicious.

Johanna GGG said...

love your cake mold - the cake looks like a beehive with lots of worker bees - passionfruit is so striking!

Gloria Baker said...

What lovely cake, I love your mold!! gloria

Elaine said...

You made it in that beautiful pan that I covet! :) The cake does look so moist and sounds so good with the passionfruit.

Anonymous said...

That sounds really tasty, and it's just gorgeous in the rose shape!