Almond and passion fruit drizzle cake

One of my (many) favorite things about Donna Hay Magazine is that every now and then it carries passion fruit recipes; I love the fruit and its juice is one of my favorite beverages – back in my college days I used to drink it by the bucket, especially during exam weeks (passion fruit juice is supposed to calm people down). :)

My love for passion fruit and my current obsession for almond cakes were the reason why I chose this cake as the first recipe to try from Tamasin Day Lewis’ absolutely lovely cookbook, and I urge you to bake it, too: it’s so moist, delicious and moreish that I would have polished off the entire cake myself if left to my own devices. :D

Almond and passion fruit drizzle cake
slightly adapted from the oh, so beautiful Food You Can't Say No To (mine was bought here)

Cake:
¾ cup (170g) unsalted butter, softened
85g demerara sugar
85g granulated sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
85g all purpose flour
85g almond meal
1 teaspoon baking powder
pinch of salt
3 tablespoons whole milk, room temperature

Passion fruit drizzle:
½ cup (120ml) passion fruit pulp
3 teaspoons granulated sugar

Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F. Butter a 20x10cm (8x4in) loaf pan and line it with baking paper. Butter the paper as well.
In the large bowl of an electric mixer, cream the butter and both sugars until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs, one at a time. Scrape the sides of the bowl occasionally. Beat in the vanilla.
Sift the all purpose flour, almond meal, baking powder and salt over the butter mixture and fold together gently using a spatula. Fold in the milk.
Scrape the mixture into the prepared pan and smooth the top. Bake on the middle shelf of the oven until golden and well risen and a skewer inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean, about 40 minutes. Cool in the pan over a wire rack for 20 minutes.
Meanwhile, make the drizzle: set 1 tablespoon of the passion fruit pulp aside. Place the remaining pulp in a food processor or blender and blitz to extract as much juice as possible. Pass through a fine sieve into a small saucepan. Add the sugar and heat over medium heat stirring until sugar is dissolved. Remove from the heat.
Carefully unmold the cake and remove the baking paper. Place the cake right side up on the rack and prick it all over with a long skewer or dried spaghetti. Immediately pour the passion fruit syrup evenly over the cake. Scatter with the reserved passion fruit seeds and cool completely before serving.

Serves 8-10