July 15, 2022
Passionfruit Martini Cake!
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A four-layer passionfruit martini cake with passionfruit martini soaked vanilla sponges, passionfruit curd, and even more!
Ohhh HELLO THERE passionfruit martini cake! Where have you been all of my life?! Genuinely, far too excited to share this cake as I am entirely obsessed and in love with it – and you guys have demanded the recipe for ages now, SO HERE IT IS!
I have wanted to make a bake like this for so long as a passionfruit martini is by far one of my favourite cocktails out there and in cake form?! Oh, my actual days!! My passionfruit martini cupcakes always go down well when I share them, so this cake is going to blow your mind!
Passionfruit Martini
So whether you call it a passionfruit martini or a p**nstar martini (which do have slight differences), they are both delicious. Typically involves vodka, passionfruit liqueur, and prosecco if you go down the p**nstar route. It is probably one of the most popular cocktails out there, and I am happy to admit that I love it!
I love anything passionfruit flavoured, it’s just so good! I wanted to get that flavour across in this bake, so I used a combination of passionfruit liqueur and prosecco to make my flavouring to get a little bit of deliciousness across – I didn’t feel the need for the vodka on this occasion as I really wanted to passionfruit to come through.
I made a syrup by mixing together the liqueur, prosecco and caster sugar. I simmered this and stirred to dissolve the sugar, and then boiled the syrup down until it was reduced by over half, thicker and strong in flavour. This is used to soak the sponges slightly, and also flavour the frosting.
Cake
As I was making a four-layer 8″ cake, I went for a 500g mix of cake. This usually means I weigh medium-sized eggs for weight – and match the rest of the ingredients. Lots of people are very opinionated on whether you need to actually do this, and no you don’t – but if you are worried, or just want the best results, it’s the best way of getting them.
I usually beat unsalted butter or baking spread with the sugar first to get it nice and creamy. Then, I add in my flour and I typically use 9-10 medium eggs for a cake this size (yes I know, it’s huge, but it’s meant to be!). Mix this all in, and add some vanilla extract if you fancy! Passionfruit martinis do tend to have vanilla in, so it works.
Split the cake mix between two 8″ cake tins like these ones, and bake on a lower and slower bake. Because of the size of the sponges, and you want to get two layers out of each, they are deep. The lower and slower method means a softer and more delicious sponge with a more even bake!
Once the cakes have baked and cooled, layer them, and then drizzle on the syrup. Let that delicious syrup soak in, and you can then decorate!
Frosting
The frosting on this cake is an American buttercream-style frosting because of the stability it provides. It’s a simple mix of BLOCK UNSALTED BUTTER, no spreads of margarine here, and then icing sugar. The ratio used in this is 1:2 of butter:sugar so that you have a good balance of flavour, but also it provides a sturdier buttercream which is so important when you want to cover a cake in it!
To colour the frosting I used a little peach food colouring because it gave it more of a passionfruit colouring, but also I used the rest of the passionfruit and prosecco syrup I had made to give a sweet flavour to the frosting.
Other types of decoration involve making two-tone buttercream which you can 100% do if you want, but I loved how this turned out as it was! The colour is just so pretty and perfect.
Decoration
When you are decorating a cake like this its much better to use a turntable, an angled palette knife, and a large metal scraper to get the right end result. The process of smoothing the buttercream around the cake using the palette knife, and finishing it off with a metals scraper gets the most beautiful finish.
Because the frosting is a beautiful peach colour I wanted to contrast with a white chocolate drip, and I am so glad I did! The colour difference is what makes it look a little more Passionfruit Martini like, and also I so just love a drip cake as you all know. White chocolate drips are also super easy with 3:1 chocolate to cream.
I whitened my white chocolate drip using some white food colouring as white chocolate ganache is naturally quite yellow, just to take the edge off. This is obviously optional, and it doesn’t change the taste whatsoever.
I used leftover buttercream to pipe onto the cake with my favourite piping tip as always. I find randomly piping like I have on this cake often looks really spectacular and creates a showstopper once topped with sprinkles and other decoration like the passionfruit segments.
Tips & Tricks
When baking a cake like this, I know it sounds stupid, but you just need to have fun with it! I certainly did. Layers of buttercream, passionfruit curd, syrup soaked cake etc etc is the dream.
You might need:
- Peach food colouring
- White food colouring
- 8″ cake tins
- Angled palette knife
- Large metal scraper
- Turntable
- Piping Tip
- Sprinkles
Passionfruit Martini cake!
Ingredients
Cake
- 500 g unsalted butter
- 500 g caster sugar
- 500 g self-raising flour
- 9 medium eggs
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
Syrup
- 200 ml passion fruit liqueur
- 200 ml prosecco
- 200 g caster sugar
Buttercream
- 500 g unsalted butter
- 1000 g icing sugar
- 3 tbsp syrup (recipe above)
- 1/2-1 tsp peach food colouring
Decoration
- 250 g passionfruit curd (or lemon)
- 150 g white chocolate
- 50 ml double cream
- white food colouring (optional)
- 3 passionfruit
- sprinkles
Instructions
Cake
- Preheat your oven to 170C/150 Fan, and line two 8"/20cm cake tins with baking parchment.
- In a stand mixer, or a large bowl, beat together the unsalted butter and caster sugar until light and fluffy.
- Add in the eggs, self raising flour, and vanilla and beat again until combined well.
- Split the mixture between the two tins.
- Bake the cakes in the oven for 50-60 minutes, or until baked through - check with a skewer to make sure they're done!
- Leave the cakes to cool in the tins for 10 minutes, and then take out and leave to cool fully on a wire rack!.
Syrup
- Add the passionfruit liqueur, prosecco and caster sugar to a pan.
- Heat on a low heat and stir to dissolve the caster sugar
- Turn the heat up high and reduce the liquid until it thickens, is syrup like, and reduced by half.
- Once your cakes have cooled, split each cake into two so you have four layers in total.
- Drizzle the reduced syrup over the sponges, leaving enough for the buttercream later.
Buttercream
- Beat the unsalted butter on its own for minute or two, to soften it and loosen it.
- Add in the icing sugar and beat well until smooth and fluffy.
- Add in the cooled syrup from above and mix. Add a little food colouring at a time and beat until you reach the colour that you are after.
Decoration
- Put the first cake onto a cake board of plate. Add a little buttercream and spread, and spread some passionfruit curd into the middle. Repeat with the second and third sponges. Add the final sponge on top.
- Using a small amount of buttercream, spread and smooth around the cake sides and top for a crumb coat and add to the fridge for at least 30 minutes.
- Once set, add more buttercream onto the tops and sides of the cake, and smooth around covering the cake completely in buttercream.
- I add the buttercream on using a small angled spatula, and smoothed around the edge with the large metal scraper! You need to make sure there is more buttercream on the sides of the cake than you need, as some will be removed as you smooth it over.
- Add the white chocolate and double cream to a bowl/jug, and microwave until smooth. Add white food colouring if you want to and stir.
- Using a small piping bag or a teaspoon, drip the ganache down the sides of the cake. The more you push over the edge, the further the drip will fall.
- Pipe any leftover buttercream onto the cake to decorate and decorate with passionfruit, sprinkles etc!
Notes
- This cake will last for 3+ days.
- The cake will freeze for 3+ months if wrapped well to protect it in the freezer.
- Lemon curd works well if you can't buy passionfruit curd
- You might need:
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J x
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Hi,
My soon to be 9 year old is passionfruit obsessed. How would you recommend making this alcohol free?
I’d just leave it out, or swap for a passionfruit syrup x
Hi Jane, do you think I could use Monin Passionfruit Syrup in the syrup if I adjust caster sugar and don’t use the liquor? I’m going to make the cake for my daughters 18th 😃.
That should be fine!
Hi Jane I’m a fairly new baker. This will be my first cake to make. I would only like to bake a 2 tier birthday cake does that mean I literally half the quantity of ingredients ? And still at same oven temperature and timings.
Thank you for any help given x
Hiya! Do you mean a two layer cake? Yes you can use half of the ingredients and only bake into one tin and then the timings etc are the same as well! x
Could you put a small amount of the passion fruit liquor into the cake mix for passion fruit flavoured sponge
It’ll basically disappear, which is why I do the syrup!
When you drizzle the syrup on the sponges are you doing this with both the sponge and syrup cooled? Or is it warm syrup on a cooled sponge? Thank you
Hi Jane, this cake looks amazing!. Just wondering can I bake and ice this cake a day ahead? And if so should it be stored in the fridge overnight before I serve it the next day.
Hiya! It can be stored in the cake if it hasn’t been portioned yet – once you have started eating it though it should be left at room temp otherwise it will dry out. x
I’d love to make this but it would be for a church new mums group so I’m unsure about using alcohol. Does it still work if you leave out the alcohol?
Hi, What brand white chocolate would you recommend to use or the drip please?
Any brand should be fine – I usually use Callebaut or supermarket own brand! Hope this helps! x
Hi Jane Can the passion fruit syrup be made then stored at all? Bit like an extract if that makes sense. If so how is best to store it please. Thank you! X
Hiya! Yes this should be fine stored in the fridge. Hope this helps! x
Hi Jane. I am making this for my 40th birthday cake. Can’t wait to try it!
Hi Jane! Would this still work without the alcohol? Or does it burn off when it’s made into a syrup?
I was wondering also wanted to make the cake for work but can’t really take it if alcohol hasn’t burned off
This cake looks amazing and I’m going too make it for my daughter’s birthday next week. I only want to make a 3 tier cake so will use 75% of ingredients. I’m assuming that the easiest way for baking them will be to divide the mixture between 3 cake tins. My question is how long will I cook them for and on what oven temperature? Thanks Jane, I’ve got your first book and have made lots of your recipes, which are really easy to follow, and they all look and taste really good
Hi Jacqui,
I would also like to make it 3 teir. Did it work out? What temperature and timing did you use?
Hiya jacqui did you make using the 75 % method and would a 2 tier cake be 50% of the original recipe.
Hello – this cake looks delicious!!
If I wanted to make four 6″ layers, would I have to change the quantities at all? Fairly new to baking and don’t want to cause any disasters haha!
Hi, where can you get passion fruit curd from?
Waitress, or amazon
Waitrose 🤦♀️
Hi Jane. Love the idea of this. Is there a particular passionfruit liqueur you would recommend please? I’ve never seen one in the shops so assuming it is an online job. Thanks in advance xx
Hiya! I used Passoã! Hope this helps! x
I’m so excited to make this! Which passionfruit liqueur did you use?
Hiya! I used Passoã! Hope this helps, enjoy! x
Hi, would this work with half quantities as it’s a huge cake. Thankyou