Devilish angel food cake with passion fruit curd

I’m baking with Susan again – and I almost had to call for help to stop eating this cake. :)

I kept lying to myself saying that “this is practically only egg whites” after eating each slice of cake, then Susan wrote me the same thing in an email. You see, it’s not only my fault. ;)

I made some passion fruit curd to serve the cake with, but now I have an eye on Suz’s version with raspberry sauce... Yum!

Devilish angel food cake with passion fruit curd
cake from Desserts by the Yard, curd from Modern Classics Book 2

Cake:
1 cup + 2 tablespoons (140g) cake flour*
1 cup + 2 tablespoons (224g) caster (superfine) sugar
scant ½ teaspoon baking powder
9 large egg whites (252g)
¼ teaspoon cream of tartar
1 vanilla bean, split lengthwise, seeds scraped out with the back of the knife and reserved
½ cup (1 stick/113g) unsalted butter, melted and still hot

Passion fruit curd:
½ cup passion fruit pulp + some extra seeds to decorate
100g unsalted butter, room temperature
½ cup (100g) caster (superfine) sugar
1 egg
3 egg yolks

Prepare the cake: preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F. Line the bottom of a 6-cup capacity tube pan with a ring of parchment paper – do not grease the pan.
Sift together the flour, ½ cup + 1 tablespoon (112g) of the caster sugar, and the baking powder 2 times and set aside.
In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, or in a large bowl with a hand mixer, beat the egg whites on low speed until they begin to foam. Add the cream of tartar and 1 tablespoon of the sugar, then continue to beat while gradually adding the remaining ½ cup (100g) sugar, a tablespoon at a time. Beat until the whites form medium-firm peaks. Stop the mixer. Add the vanilla seeds and continue beating while you quickly stream in the hot butter. Remove from the mixer and gently fold in the dry ingredients.
Spoon the batter into the prepared, spreading it evenly. Bake for 30 minutes, rotate the pan from front to back, and bake for 10-15 additional minutes, until the cake is firm to touch and a tester inserted comes out clean. Remove from the oven and flip the cake pan upside down on a rack. Let sit for 1 hour, then run a knife around the edge of the pan and invert the cake onto a serving platter. Remove the parchment from the cake.

Make the curd: place the passion fruit pulp and butter in a saucepan and cook over low heat, stirring, until the butter is melted. Whisk in the sugar, the egg and egg yolks and stir constantly over medium-low heat for 5-7 minutes or until the mixture thickens slightly. Pass it through a fine sieve, add the reserved passion fruit seeds and immediately cover with plastic wrap directly in contact with the curd. Let cool then refrigerate**.
Makes 1 ½ cups

Cut the cake into thick slices and serve with the curd.

* homemade cake flour: 1 cup (140g) all purpose flour minus 2 tablespoons + 2 tablespoons corn starch

** I thought the curd smelled a little eggy, so I added 1 teaspoon lemon juice to it after it was cool and it worked out fine

Serves 10