Passionfruit & Coconut Self-saucing Pudding Cake

If passionfruit was a girl you wanted to set-up with your mate, you’d describe her as sweet, with a sharp sense of humour… and a great personality… We all know what that means, and let’s be honest here people, passionfruit are odd looking little things.

Although ‘normal’ enough to begin with, they go wrinkly and a bit peculiar once off the vine for a bit. Cut them open and you are accosted by little finger like buds from which the uniquely flavoured pulp and edible seeds hang. But one taste and you’ll forgive all of passionfruit’s visual imperfections. Although it is most commonly associated with Aussie dessert classics like Pavlova, this little-bit-sweet and little-bit-tart fruit adds a distinctly tropical flavour to both savory and sweet dishes.

Passionfruit grows year-round here – especially up north in the warmer climates of Queensland – but right now the passionfruit industry is launching a new campaign encouraging people to re-ignite passion in the kitchen! I was lucky enough to receive a huge basket of passionfruit a few weeks back. While considering what to do with it our apartment grew ever more fragrant, the tangy-sweet aroma wafting through the lounge room at the slightest breeze.

Now there’s been far too much cake in our house recently. Far too much. But if there is one thing that can get RJ cooking with me it is the promise of dessert. This recipe, while perfect when cooked by two people, is of course just as easy to whip up on your own. You can share it with a special dinner date or a whole group, but if you make it on a Wednesday afternoon and eat it directly from the pan with a spoon I won’t judge if you don’t!

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Passionfruit & Coconut Self-saucing Pudding Cake

Ingredients:

1 1/2 c whole spelt flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp sea salt
1/2 tsp ginger
1/2 c dessicated coconut – no sugar added

1 egg
1/4 coconut oil [liquid state]
1/2 c coconut milk
1/4 c honey

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1/2 c coconut milk
1/2 c water
1/4 c honey

1/4 c passionfruit pulp [approx 4 small or 2 lg passionfruit]
2 Tbsp lemon juice
2 tsp cornflour

Method:

Preheat oven to 180C [350F]. Lightly oil a square 20cm [8 inch] cake pan – do not line with paper.

Sift dry ingredients into a bowl, stir through dessicated coconut. Whisk together egg, coconut milk, oil and honey in a small jug. Add egg and milk mixture to dry ingredients and stir until just combined. Pour batter into the prepared pan and smooth the surface.

Meanwhile have your cooking buddy stir lemon juice, passionfruit pulp and cornflour together then set aside. In a small saucepan over low heat bring coconut milk, water and honey to just simmering – do not boil. Remove from heat and stir through the passionfruit mixture.

Gently pour the hot mixture over the batter – do not stir in!! Bake in pre-heated oven for 25-30 minutes while you dance around the kitchen and/or have a glass of wine. When done, the surface of the cake should be firm and just spring back when touched.

Run a knife around the edge of the pan and cool for 10 minutes. Cut into 12 pieces or simply scoop out with a large spoon making sure to get the sauce from the bottom of the pan. Serve with extra passionfruit pulp.

* Notes:

• When buying passionfruit remember to pick ones that are heavy for their size – they will have more pulp and juice in them. Not sure what that means? Pickup a few, if they are all the same size and some are heavier than others, well there you go.
• Passionfruit can be a bit expensive, if you find them on sale get a whole bunch, scoop pulp into ice cube trays and freeze. Pop out of trays and store in zip baggies in the freezer until needed!

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The big’ol basket of passionfruit was sent to me by Impact Communications on behalf of the Passionfruit Industry of Australia. Makes me feel all warm and fuzzy.

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