Passion Fruit, poppy seeds and almond cake

This is a lovely and pretty looking cake. Wonderful for afternoon tea. I never have time for a nice afternoon tea session during the week as I am at work. The max I do is grab a cup of Earl Grey tea from the cafeteria. If I’m lucky I might be able to pinch a Digestive from one of my colleagues. So I have an obsession with setting up lovely afternoon tea sessions. In my dream afternoon tea land I chose this cake to have with a cup of Breakfast tea – I know it is afternoon…

When I originally saw the amount of poppy seeds required I suspected that there might have been a typo. It turned out to be just right as they will dot the cake in a very charming way. Fancy a slice?

6 tablespoons of poppy seeds

¼ cup of milk (60ml)

180g butter, room temperature and softened

180g caster sugar

3 large eggs

240g plain flour

½ cup flaked almond

½ cup passion fruit juice, strained through a sieve (120ml)

1 tablespoon baking powder

Icing:

90g caster sugar

160ml passion fruit juice

80ml water

Grease and flour a 22.5 cm wide bundt pan. Reserve.

Pre-heat the oven – 180oC. Put the poppy seeds in a small bowl and cover them with the milk. Leave it for 20 minutes.

Put the butter and sugar in a bowl and beat it until the mixture is pale and creamy. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Fold in the almonds and the poppy seeds with milk. Then add the flour and passion fruit juice intercalating them. Add the baking powder last.

Put the mixture in the prepared baking tin and bake for approximately 35 minutes. Let it cool in the tin for approximately 5 minutes before removing it from the tin.

In the meantime prepare the icing by mixing the sugar and passion fruit juice and then gradually adding the water until you reach the desired consistency. Pour over the cake whilst it is still hot/warm.