Passion Fruit Buttermilk Pound Cake

When I was a kid I  first tasted  it simply mixed with sugar and loved it J … that childhood love affair continued years later and I tried it in different forms like; juice, squash, wine, truffles, puddings and finally in baking, tried it in brownies, bars and now in cakes! Loved Passion Fruit in all it's avatars! Back home Appa has a passion fruit plant in his back yard and he collects the pulp, freezes it and gives it to me saying make juice for his grandkid J….  But poor grandson never gets juice from the pulp that his Appacha lovingly sends him…. because his mom uses it in her exotic cooking :D …  I have adapted this basic cake recipe from Deeba’s blog whose recipes I trust blindly and my experiment with this Passion Fruit Buttermilk Pound Cake was a huge success as this cake tasted delicious the next day!

Passion Fruit Buttermilk Pound Cake
Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups plain flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup vanilla or plain sugar
2 eggs
100ml buttermilk {or substitute recipe below}
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
4 tbsp passion fruit pulp without seeds
Zest of 1 orange
To make buttermilk substitute at home:
Take 100ml milk at room temp; add 1 tsp white vinegar. Let it stand 5-10 minutes. When it curdles, it’s ready.

Method:

• Grease and flour the sides of a loaf pan or 8″ ring tin, or a 6″ round tin. Line the bottom.
• Preheat the oven to 170C.
• Sift the flour with the baking powder, baking soda and salt. Reserve.
• Cream the butter and sugar. Beat in eggs one at a time, followed by the vanilla extract, passion fruit pulp and orange zest.
• With beater on low add the flour and buttermilk alternately in three lots.
• Bake for 50-60 minutes till golden brown on top, and the tester comes out clean.
• Meanwhile, make the glaze…

Passion Fruit Glaze
5 - 6 tbsp passion fruit pulp without seeds or as required
1/2 cup powdered sugar

Method:

• Make the glazing by mixing together passion fruit pulp into the powdered sugar, stir till all lumps have dissolved. Add some more powdered sugar / pulp, until you get the required consistency.
• Pour the glaze evenly over the cooled cake, letting some drip over the sides. Wait for some time till it sets.

Notes:

• In a food processor or blender, puree the passion fruit pulp with a couple of teaspoons of water for 10 seconds. Transfer to a fine sieve set over a bowl; strain through sieve, pressing with back of spoon to remove seeds.
• Passion fruit pulp can be substituted with Lime or lemon juice, orange juice or with any other fruit pulp/juice of your choice.

 Sending this to Tried and Tasted is  event started by Zlamushka,now taken over by Lakshmi and is hosted at Samayal Arai and it features Passionate About Baking as the blog of the month.