This delectable passion fruit yogurt cake drizzled with white chocolate passion fruit icing is a great afternoon treat with a cup of tea.
When granadillas (or passion fruit, as they are more commonly known) are in season in South Africa, I buy them religiously. I love how their floral fragrance fills the house and their tart, juicy flesh always makes my mouth water. My grandmother used to have a passion fruit tree in her garden and whenever we would visit in Summer, the scent of the fruit would hang in the air. I would pick more than I was allowed to and would sneakily slice them open and scoop out the seeds with a teaspoon. To this day they are still one of my favorite fruits.
When I bought a giant box of passion fruit a while ago, I knew I would eat them with a teaspoon but I also wanted to do something a little different with them. I love passion fruit cake and decided to use my favorite yogurt cake recipe from my first book, but adapted it to use passion fruit instead of lemons.
This cake turned out better than I could’ve wished for. The crumb is moist and tender and it’s the type of recipe that can be turned into cupcakes, mini loaves or a layered round cake. It also helps that it can be whipped up in a few minutes because there’s no creaming of butter and sugar, etc. to worry about. The white chocolate glaze finishes the cake off perfectly making it the ultimate tea time treat.
Why is yogurt used in baking?
Yogurt is used in baking because it adds a good amount of moisture and fat into the batter. This results in a more delicate and moist crumb once the cake is baked.
How to make passion fruit yogurt cake
Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F and line a loaf pan with parchment paper. Sift flour, salt and baking powder into a large mixing bowl. In a separate bowl, whisk together the yogurt, eggs, sugar, oil and passion fruit pulp. If you don’t want seeds in your cake, strain the pulp through a fine mesh sieve before adding to the wet ingredients. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix until just combined. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and place in the preheated oven. Allow to bake for 30-45 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Remove from the oven and allow to cool completely on a wire rack.
To make the white chocolate glaze, melt white chocolate, strained passion fruit pulp and a tablespoon of water together over a double boiler and allow to cool to room temperature. Pour over the cake and allow to set for 10 minutes before serving.
Can you freeze yogurt cake?
Yes, you can. Wrap the cooled, un-glazed cake in a layer of parchment paper followed by foil. Freeze for up to 3 moths and allow to thaw completely before serving.
Can yogurt be substituted in cake recipes?
Yogurt can be substituted with sour cream or buttermilk in most baked goods.
Yogurt cake recipes
Passion fruit yogurt cake with white chocolate drizzle
Ingredients
- 250 g (2 cups) flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 2.5 ml salt
- 250 ml (1 cup) Greek yoghurt
- 200 g (¾ cup) caster sugar
- 3 extra-large eggs
- 125 ml (½ cup) canola oil
- 1/2 cup passion fruit pulp I pushed the seeds and pulp of 6 passion fruit through a sieve then added back 2 teaspoons of seeds but this is optional
- White chocolate drizzle
- 200 g (7oz) white chocolate chopped
- pulp and seeds of 3 passion fruit can be strained to remove seeds
- 1 tablespoon warm water
Instructions
- Pre-heat the oven to 180°C/350°F and grease and line a loaf pan with parchment paper.
- Sift together the cake flour, baking powder and salt and set aside.
- In a separate bowl, combine the remaining ingredients and mix well.
- Pour the yogurt mixture into the dry ingredients and mix to combine.
- Pour the batter into the loaf tin and bake for 45 minutes to an hour until a skewer inserted comes out clean. If you find the cake is darkening too much for your liking, simply cover it with a piece of foil half way through baking.
- Remove from the oven and allow to cool completely before removing the cakes from the tin.
- To make the white chocolate drizzle, heat the chocolate, passion fruit and one tablespoon of water in a bowl set over a pan of simmering water. Allow the white chocolate to melt and stir together. If you find the drizzle is too thick, simply add another tablespoon of water and mi well.
- Drizzle the white chocolate mixture over the cake and allow to set slightly before slicing and serving.
Notes
Nutrition
Hello
Don’t have access to fresh passion fruit- I have passion fruit purée. How much of the purée would I substitute for the fresh?
Thanks!
I think you could probably use the same volume?
Hi, when you say flour – do you mean Self Raising Flour or Plain flour? (I’m from Australia – in my country, self-raising flour has the rising ingredients already added, and plain flour doesn’t).
PLain flour. 🙂
Hi there… Thank you for this recipe. Could it be made in a round tin, if so do you know the size that would suit this cake? Thank you
Yes, it will work very well in a round tin. A 20cm tin should be perfect.
Easy to make, and I am lazy so didn’t remove seeds. I have also used buttermilk instead of yogurt at times…..I have had a glut of passion fruit so this cake has been very useful.
Can I used a square silicone cake pan for this? I don’t have a bread pan.
That shouldn’t be a problem.
This looks divine!
I plan to turn it into a lemon poppy loaf. I’ll exclude the granadilla ingredients and sub with zest and juice of one lemon. Should I include the yoghurt still? Will let you know how it goes! xx
Thanks Lu! That sounds delicious. The yoghurt makes the loaf super moist and tender so I would definitely keep it.
Hi
Passionfruit is in season and I made this cake today. I wasn’t sure the type of flour but as the ingredients don’t indicate but you mentioned cake flour in the instructions. I used cake flour and it resulted in a denser cake. It’s still really delicious and I love the smell of passionfruit. Thanks for the recipe!
Sunitha, cake flour is perfect. With cake baking, using a stronger bread flour would normally result in a much denser bake so it’s strange that the cake flour did that. Glad you liked it nonetheless though.
Hi
Looking forward to making this – what size loaf tin did you use? Thanks.
It was approximately 25cmx15cm. Let me know what you think once you’ve tried it!
Louise, I’m sure that will work but I don’t think you’ll get the same tangy, freshness you would from fresh passion fruit.
I’m based in the UK and struggling to get passion fruit pulp. I can make it myself using fresh passion fruits, but it’s quite an expensive option. Do you think it would work if I used flavoured Greek yogurt?
A friend gave me 500ml of freshly scooped granadilla pulp. Then I remembered how I drooled when I saw this post.
The cake is cooling as I type. Can’t wait…
Smells so fruity ( I doubled the amount of granadilla)
I think that’s what I love about granadilla the most, the floral fragrance. I hope you enjoy the cake!
Absolutely yummy! Made it for our girls crafting morning tomorrow, but had to cut it just to “check” that it was ok! Wow! Love it and will be one of my regular go to recipes. Thanks so much!
So glad you like it Moz. It’s definitely one of my favourites. And I hope that the girls enjoy it!