Passionfruit Olive Oil Cake
An ethereal cake that’s not too sweet and tastes like sunshine. Olive oil locks in richness and moisture.
Handy dandy olive oil. What can’t it do?
It’s there for you when you need to sautée veggies, grease a pan, dress a salad, prevent boiling noodles from sticking or whip up a marinade. It’s even good for your hair and skin.
And as it turns out, it makes for an incredibly beautiful cake, too!
If you haven’t had the joy of forging into the glorious world of olive oil cakes yet, you are missing out. Olive oil keeps your cake moist, but the flavor isn’t overpowering. It’s a nice, earthy complement to the bright tropical flavor of the passionfruit. It’s hard to put the taste into words, but it is simply delightful!
This cake feels light and airy, and it’s not too sweet. It’s tasty as a midday snack, evening treat, or even breakfast.
Olive oil cakes are often made with citrus juice, but passionfruit offers a fun alternative to the traditional cake. This recipe is adapted from an orange olive oil cake recipe from Melissa D’Arabian of the Food Network. It’s a pretty simple recipe, and you probably already have everything you need in your pantry or refrigerator, with the exception of the passionfruit.
If you’ve never cracked open a passionfruit before, the inside smells heavenly. Passionfruit is a bit tart, but it tastes like pure sunshine! It’s packed with vitamins and antioxidants, according to Healthline.
You can halve the fruits with a knife and scrape the gooey, slimy pulp and seeds out of the passionfruit with a spoon. For this recipe, I simply threw the pulp in a food processor — seeds and all — until it was finely ground and the texture was barely perceptible. But you can also strain the juice if you’d like to avoid the seeds altogether. Your choice.
As with all baked goods, I love to serve this warm. A dusting of powdered sugar dresses the cake up, and it’s delicious with a dollop of whipped cream for dessert. The bitterness of coffee or tea offers a nice contrast. I serve with a little drizzle of olive oil on the side for dipping. Might sound a bit strange since we’re talking about cake here, but it is super yummy!
Ingredients
- Flour
- Sugar
- Eggs
- Passionfruit pulp
- Olive oil
- Vanilla
- Baking powder
- Baking soda
- Salt
- Cooking spray or butter
- Optional: Powdered sugar, for garnish
Directions
Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease pan.
Remove pulp from passionfruit. Either strain out seeds or pulse in food processor until seed bits are as tiny as possible.
Mix eggs and sugar, then stir in olive oil, vanilla and pulp. In another bowl, sift together dry ingredients.
Stir dry ingredients into wet ingredients, adding half of the dry mixture at a time.
Pour batter into cake pan and cook for about a half hour. Let cool, the dust with powdered sugar for garnish, if desired.
Passionfruit Olive Oil Cake
Equipment
- 9-inch cake pan
Ingredients
- 1 ¼ c. flour
- ¾ c. sugar
- 2 eggs
- 3 passionfruits pulp removed
- ⅓ c. olive oil
- 1 tsp. Vanilla
- 1 tsp. Baking powder
- 1 tsp. Baking soda
- ½ tsp. Salt
- Cooking spray or butter to grease pan
- Optional: Powdered sugar for garnish
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F. Grease a 9-inch cake pan.
- Remove the pulp from your passionfruit by cutting it in half and scraping out pulp — seeds and all. You can either strain the pulp or pop into a food processor until the seeds are as finely chopped as possible.
- In a bowl, mix sugar and eggs in a bowl with whisk or hand mixer until combined. Mix in the olive oil, passionfruit pulp and vanilla.
- Sift the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt together in another bowl, then add half of the dry ingredients into the bowl of dry ingredients. Mix on low. Add the other half and mix until just combined.
- Pour into the cake pan and bake for 25 to 30 minutes, then let the cake cool about 15 minutes, until steam is no longer rising from the cake. Dust with powdered sugar and serve with whipped cream, vanilla ice cream or a drizzle of olive oil, if desired.
Honolulu girl obsessed with farmers markets, eating, seasonal ingredients, eating, writing and eating. Read more about me here and get new recipes from me every week @feedthesoulblog.
My first attempt at making something with passion fruit. Surprisingly tasty!