Yogurt Passion Fruit Bundt Cake with Passion Fruit Icing

Yogurt passion fruit bundt cake with passion fruit icing and a passion fruit soaking syrup - a triple dose of passion fruit in this sunshiny delicious bundt cake. 

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Since I have a bundt pan addiction, I treated myself for Christmas with this gorgeous new Nordic Ware's 75th anniversary braided bundt pan.

I love the braided look, it bakes up really nicely and cakes slide out super easy after baking. I knew I needed to break it in with a passionfruit bundt cake.Passionfruit courtesy of the amazing Rincon Tropics. Please check them out when you have a chance and order a box of the most amazing Californian grown produce. The farm overlooks a surf spot I grew up at just south of my home town of Santa Barbara. 

Why make this passion fruit bundt cake?

• It tastes amazing the day its baked as well as the few days after baking since it stays nice and moist
• It is perfect for a tropical treat in cake form
• bundt cakes are a great when craving cake when not wanting to take the extra time to make a layer cake

Ingredients for this bundt cake:

• All Purpose Flour
• Sugar
• Butter
• Greek style full fat yogurt ( could also use sour cream)
• eggs
• baking soda and powder
• Kosher salt
• passion fruit juice
• vanilla extract

See recipe card for full amounts.

How to keep bundt cakes from sticking:

My trick for getting bundt cakes to release perfectly every time is using a diy cake release. I first saw a contestant on the Great Canadian Bake Off using it and headed straight to google to find out the recipe. I found tons of the exact same recipe.  

It is a very easy recipe, you can keep in a jar at room temperature, and brush it on the pan liberally with a pastry brush. No need for extra flour after you have brushed it on. 

How to make DIY cake release:

You will need equal parts:

• Flour
• Shortening
• Vegetable oil

I will use a cup of all purpose flour, add in a cup of softened shortening ( I like using Nutiva) and a cup neutral oil such as avocado or sunflower. Use any oil you like but make sure its a neutral oil. Olive oil wouldn't work here. Whisk it in a large bowl until smooth, transfer to a jar, such as a mason jar, and keep a lid on it. This will last a long time. You can use any amount of each ingredient as you like as long as they are all equal amounts.  Brush the inside of the bundt cake pan liberally with the cake release before adding batter. The cake will come out easily once cooled enough after baking.

Pro Tip:

After the passionfruit soaking syrup is added, the cake cools completely in the bundt pan. Once completely cooled you can either invert it onto a cake plate OR wrap in plastic wrap and keep out on the counter overnight ( as long as your kitchen isn't TOO hot - I wouldn't suggest over 75 Deg f) and then invert the cake the next day to finish it. 

Look how perfect the cake is once it is released from the pan. IF you choose to let it sit out overnight, the cake might stick to the pan. Instead of shaking the cake out, heat your oven again to same baking temperature, in this case 325 Deg F (177 C) and bake for 5 minutes.

 Let it cool enough to handle ( I still use oven mitts or a towel) and then invert onto a plate. Cool again completely before icing. 

The icing for this passion fruit bundt cake is just two ingredients - confectioners or icing sugar and fresh passion fruit. Whisked together then poured over the cake in two layers to create a nice, sweet-tart icing. The cake is great as is, but the icing makes it even better. 

What if I can't find fresh passion fruit?

My first suggestions for substitutions are bottled passion fruit juice and or frozen passion fruit pulp.  You want to make sure they are 100% juice, nothing else added. 

You could also substitute any other citrus juice for the passion fruit, although it wouldn't be a passion fruit cake anymore but still good. 

Weighing ingredients Vs using cups:

I use my food scale and weigh out ingredients in grams because this is the most accurate way to get the best quality baked goods. Cups aren't accurate because not only are all cups not the same the sizes vary from brand to brand as well as from different countries. I have done tests with different brands of measuring cups and they all came out with different weights after I did the spoon and level as well as scoop method and then weighed in grams.

Baking is a science and science needs accuracy. Weighing is accurate and precise. Not to mention a lot easier. Another issue with cups is that I have no control over how people use measuring cups to measure dry ingredients especially flour. You could pack in way too much which would result in a sub-par baked good. Too much flour could throw everything off. Same with not enough. Not to mention also some ingredients are difficult to measure in cups such as nuts, dried fruit, chocolate etc. This is why weighing in grams is the most accurate.

I also use grams for most liquid measure since 100 grams equals 100 ml of water. Smaller amounts of items measured in teaspoons I usually leave as teaspoons, tablespoons are sometimes listed in grams as well but for the most part the different tablespoons I have used have all resulted in the same amount. Aside from cute, decorative ceramic tablespoons and teaspoons are never accurate. Those are better as decoration than for being used for baking.

How to easily separate seeds from passion fruit pulp:

To remove the seeds from the passionfruit pulp: cut them in half, scoop into a blender. Blend on LOW for just. few seconds to separate the seeds. Any higher or longer will  break up the seeds too much. Strain the juice into a measuring cup or jar and discard the seeds. 

The cake uses juice as well as the soaking syrup and the icing uses fresh passionfruit juice with the pulp and seeds. I like the way the seeds look and eating them is just fine. You can use just juice for the icing if you like. 

Other Passion Fruit recipes you may enjoy:

Yogurt Passion Fruit Bundt Cake Recipe:

Yogurt Passion fruit Bundt Cake with Passion fruit Icing

Shanna

A triple hit of passion fruit in this moist and delicious bundt cake. Yogurt makes it tangy and moist and the passion fruit in the cake, syrup and icing will instantly transport you to a virtual tropical vacation.

5 from 2 votes

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Prep Time 30 minutes mins

Cook Time 50 minutes mins

Additional Time 12 hours hrs

Total Time 13 hours hrs 20 minutes mins

Ingredients

  

• I use 1 cup flour = 130 grams, 1 cup sugar = 200 grams, 1 cup butter = 225 grams, liquid measure 1 cup = 240 grams

Cake:

• 390 grams all purpose flour
• ½ teaspoon baking soda
• ½ teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon Kosher salt, I use Diamond, use less if using Morton’s
• 400 grams granulated sugar
• 250 grams unsalted butter, very soft
• 4 large eggs, room temperature (about 200 grams)
• 283 grams Greek style yogurt, full fat, not non-fat
• 160 grams passion fruit juice, about 8-10 fresh passion fruit with seeds strained out
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Soaking syrup:

• 125 grams water
• 100 grams granulated sugar
• 60 grams passion fruit juice

For the icing:

• 180 grams confectioners or icing sugar, a cup and a half
• Juice and pulp of 2 large passion fruit (2 - 3 tablespoons of juice

Instructions

 

For the cake:

• Prepare your 12 cup bundt pan with brushing on the DIY cake release mentioned in the blog post or butter and flour. You can also use a baking spray that has flour. Preheat oven to 325 Deg F (162 C).
• Combine the four, baking soda, baking powder in a bowl and whisk well, set aside. 
• In a large mixing bowl or a bowl of a stand mixer, cream together the butter and sugar until very light and fluffy, stopping to scrape down the sides when needed, about 5 minutes
• Add in the eggs one at a time, beating well in between each addition, scraping down sides of mixing bowl after each egg is mixed in. 
• In a large measuring cup or glass, mix together the yogurt, passion fruit juice and vanilla extract. 
• Add in the flour mixture to the mixing bowl alternating with the yogurt mixture on low speed in three additions, stopping the mixer to scrape down the sides after each addition to make sure all the flour is incorporated. 
• Pour batter into prepared bundt pan and smooth the top
• Bake for 45-50 minutes or until a skewer inserted almost all the way into the cake comes out clean and the top bounces back when lightly pressed. 

While the cake is baking, make the soaking syrup: 

• Combine the water and sugar in a small saucepan, bring to a boil, stirring to dissolve the sugar. Boil for two minutes then add in the passion fruit juice and boil for another two minutes. Transfer to a resealable jar or bottle and let cool. This will be poured over the cake while still warm. 

Cool the cake:

• Once the cake is done baking, the cake cool for 5 minutes. Poke deep holes all over the cake, being careful not to poke all the way through and spoon about half of the soaking syrup over the cake, making sure it soaks in before adding more. 
• Let the cake cool all the way in the bundt pan. At this point you can cover the cake with plastic wrap and let it sit out on the counter until the next day or you can invert it to a cake plate. 
• If you choose the next day option the cake might stick to the pan, reheat your oven to 325 deg F and heat the cake for 5 minutes. Let cool for a minute then invert on the plate. 

Once ready to serve, make the icing:

• Whisk together the confectioners sugar and fresh passion fruit and spoon over the cake in two additions. This makes a nice layer of icing. 
• Serve cake at room temperature. Cake will keep well kept in an airtight container or wrapped well with plastic wrap up to 3-4 days. 

Notes

Find fresh passionfruit if you can. It makes it so worth in instead of using canned or carton. Which usually aren’t 100% juice, but have other additives.

You can substitute lemon, lime, orange, grapefruit juice etc in place. Add in a tablespoon or so of their respective zest to the cake batter as well. 

I used a 12 cup bundt pan for this recipe. I don’t suggest going any smaller as it will overflow when baking. The cake will shrink down a little after baking and that is ok, 

If it’s your first time making this recipe then make sure you read all of the information in the main post as it includes lots of additional tips, as well as the answers to some common questions.

If you have any further questions then do let me know in the comments and or email me [email protected] and I’ll do my best to help.

If you choose to make substitutions to the recipe that I have not tested yet please do so at your own risk. I cannot guarantee the same results if you change a lot of the ingredients or method. However, if any of your changes are successful I would love to hear about it and will add to my recipe notes for other readers to try as well.