Passionfruit almond cake

Sometimes on a Sunday we go to Splott Market, where you can buy industrial quantities of fruit and veg – anything you can think of, it would seem, comes bagged in a large carrier bag and sold for a pound.  This week I couldn’t believe I could buy a whole carrier bag full of passionfruit for only a pound – but realised I’d never eat them all without finding a way of baking quite a lot of them!  I could’ve tried making passionfruit curd, one of my favourite things to eat, but I already have a large stash of it after my friend Kirsty bought far too much when making her sister Issy’s wedding cake recently.  So instead, I made this very simple, wheat-free cake.  This smelled so delicious out of the oven that we didn’t wait for it to cool before eating, and it was amazing as a warm pudding – but also makes a lovely cake once it’s cooled.

Ingredients

6 oz butter, cubed
6 oz caster sugar
3 eggs

1 ½ tbsp plain flour
6 oz ground almonds
6 passionfruit

For the passionfruit glaze
6 passionfruit
6 tbsp golden syrup
1  tbsp caster sugar

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 160°C and grease and line a 9 inch round cake tin.
2. In a large mixing bowl, beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
3. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, adding half a spoonful of flour between each addition to prevent the mixture from curdling.
4. Add the ground almonds and fold together with a large metal spoon.
5. Scoop out the juice, pulp and seeds from the passionfruit and stir into the cake batter.
6. Spread the mixture into the prepared tin and bake for 45-50 minutes.
7. While the cake is in the oven, make the passionfruit glaze.  Place all the ingredients into a small saucepan and stir gently over a medium heat, without boiling, until the sugar dissolves. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat and simmer, uncovered, without stirring, for about 2 minutes or until thickened slightly.  Set aside to cool.
8. Leave the cake to cool in its tin for 5 minutes, then turn out onto a plate and pour the passionfruit glaze over the top.