Recipe: Passionfruit, coconut & white chocolate layer cake

• 300g unsalted butter, room temperature plus extra for greasing
• 200g self-raising flour
• 300g caster sugar
• 5 eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla bean paste
• 100g desiccated coconut
• ½ tsp salt
• 1-2 tbsp whole milk

Passion fruit curd:

• 8 large passionfruit
• 1 tbsp lemon juice
• 75g caster sugar
• 3 egg yolks
• 1 egg
• 90g unsalted butter

For the icing:

• Buttercream (Double up if want to cover whole cake including sides):
• 150g unsalted butter, room temp
• 250g icing sugar
• 100g white chocolate, melted
• 1-2 tsp whole milk

_{*Allergens are in bold}

Preheat oven to CircoTherm 160C. Grease 3, 18cm round sandwich tins and line the bases with baking parchment.

For the cakes, beat together the butter and sugar for 4-5 minutes until light and fluffy. Then beat in the eggs, one at a time, then the vanilla.

Fold in the flour, desiccated coconut and salt using a spatula until combined. Fold in the milk a little at a time until the cake batter is a dropping consistency.

Pour the mixture equally into the 3 prepared tins and bake for 30-35 minutes until the skewer inserted comes out clean.

Leave them aside to cool completely.

For the curd, scoop the pulp and seeds from 7 of the passion fruit. Sieve into a heat proof bowl, pushing the pulp through with a wooden spoon to extract as much juice as possible. Scrape any remaining from the base of the sieve into the bowl and discard the seeds.

Beat the lemon juice, sugar, egg yolks, whole egg and a pinch of salt into the passion fruit juice until combined. Set the bowl over a pan of simmering water. Cut the butter into cubes, then add to the mixture whisking continuously over a gentle simmer until it thickens into a curd, approximately 15 minutes. Remove the bowl from the pan, cool a little at room temperature, then cover the surface of the curd with baking parchment or cling film and chill.

Once the cakes and curd are cooled, make the buttercream. Beat together the butter and icing sugar until thick and creamy, in stand mixer with paddle attachment. Add the melted white chocolate, beat again until really light and fluffy.

To assemble put a dot of buttercream on the cake plate to hold the base in place. Then spread the buttercream in between each layer, as well as drizzling some passion fruit curd on the butter cream. Spread a generous amount of butter cream on the top of the cake.

With the remaining passion fruit curd, mix it with the pulp from the last passion fruit. Drizzle the curd over the top of the cake and allow it to drip down the sides and finish with some desiccated coconut shavings.