Passion fruit lemon cake | Daily Mail Online

Simple to make but with three tiers and luxurious filling, it is impressive. You can buy passion fruit curd, but it can be hard to find, so I’ve used lemon curd. Choose purple bobbly passion fruit, as they are ripe and have more pulp than the smooth, pale ones. Drizzling the passion fruit over the cream, rather than mixing it in, gives a more intense flavour.

Serves 8 

Prepare ahead Sponges can be made up to a day ahead. Can be assembled up to 4 hours ahead and kept in the fridge. freeze Sponges freeze well.

4 eggs

225g (8oz) baking spread,

plus extra for greasing

225g (8oz) self-raising flour

225g (8oz) caster sugar

1 tsp baking powder

finely grated zest of 1 small lemon

for the topping

450ml (15fl oz) double cream

4 passion fruit

4 tbsp lemon curd

• You will need three 20cm (8in) loose-bottomed sandwich tins.
• Preheat the oven to 180C/ 160C fan/gas 4. Grease the bases of the tins and line with baking paper.
• Measure all the cake ingredients into a large bowl. Whisk, using an electric hand whisk, until well mixed and light and fluffy. Spoon the batter into the tins and level the tops. Bake for about 25 minutes until the cakes are coming away from the sides of the tins and they are risen and lightly golden. Leave to cool on a wire rack.
• Whisk the double cream to soft peaks. Cut 3 of the passion fruit in half, scoop out the pulp into a bowl and set aside.
• Spread the top of each cake with lemon curd. Sit one cake on a plate and spoon on a third of the cream, then spread it to the edges. Drizzle half the passion fruit pulp on top of the cream. Place a second cake on top and repeat, then add the third cake and finish with the remaining cream. Swirl the top with the back of a knife to make a pretty pattern. Slice the remaining passion fruit into wedges and arrange on top. Serve the cake at room temperature, cut into slices.