It’s no surprise that each time my wife and I return from a visit to Melbourne, we will return with our baggage in its original state, but our waistbands a touch tighter and heads a little more weary.
I still remember the first and – unfortunately it was also – the last time we would visit Beatrix a couple of years ago. It was the morning we touched down, and is the case with us money-saving millennials, we had chosen a ghastly early morning flight on a budget carrier which meant we had too many hours before we could check in to our AirBnB. So what would be better for breakfast than a few slices of cake?
From memory Beatrix was a little way out from the Melbourne CBD and required a tram change and a hearty walk through some residential back streets. But once the goods were secured, we promptly made our way to a local park in the sun, and after photographing our slices of sweet and cream, we proceeded to stuff ourselves with so much sugar and chocolate we had to stay seated for a little while to allow the feeling to return to our fingers and toes.
Natalie Paull – the woman behind Beatrix – created a bakery of classics that rubbed shoulders with heavenly adaptions. A lush Black Forest Cake sat proudly next to a jaunty Tiramisu Tart (or Tart-A-Misu, as it was called). A Cocoa Meringue Roulade with mascarpone and toffeed figs, its surface rippled with delicate crackles while oozing out pink gems – languished beside a gluttonous-looking Vanilla Custard Slice with passionfruit glaze.
It was after a clearout of some old cookbooks that I knew it was time to treat myself, and purchased the book Beatrix Bakes by Natalie Paull. If the bakery was closed, it made sense to buy the book to try and replicate the things at home myself, yes? While I’ve not yet had the time or the occasion to work myself through much of the book, the Passionfruit Cloud Chiffon Cake was a resounding success and I hoped to share the recipe with you all here.
My chiffon tin which I brought back from Japan is slightly smaller than a standard 23cm (9 inch) angel food cake tin, so I had a bit extra to make a smaller replica (which was shared). Before you pick up the tools, make sure to find a bottle where the chiffon when inverted will fit snugly around the neck of the bottle and stay aloft while it cools – this prevents it from sinking and shrinking. I’ve found one of those large sake bottles works for me. Be sensible please and don’t use a plastic bottle, as hot metal + plastic is never a good time.
Passionfruit Cloud Chiffon Cake
Recipe from Beatrix Bakes by Natalie Paull
Serves 10-16 People
You will need:
- 8-10 passionfruit, to yield 180mls of juice.
- 300g caster sugar.
- 240g plain (all-purpose) flour.
- 15g baking powder.
- 2g fine sea salt.
- 300g egg whites (approx 10 eggs) and 140g egg yolks (approx 7 of the 10 eggs).
- 4g cream of tartar.
- 110ml vegetable oil.
- A batch of simple sour cream glaze – passionfruit flavour (see end).
1. Make the passionfruit juice. Cut the fruit and scrape the pulp into a food processor, giving it a whiz to loosen the fibres but not to crack the seeds. Strain the juice and weigh it. If you’re under, you can add some orange juice or water to make up the shortfall. Set aside.
2. Preheat the oven to 150 degrees Celcius. Have your angel cake tin ready, but do not grease or line it as the cake needs to cling onto the metal sides so as to gain its height.
3. Weigh your sugar into a small bowl, then remove 2 tablespoons to add to the egg whites later on. Add the flour, baking powder and salt to the bowl and set aside with a sieve on top.
4. Put the egg whites and cream of tartar in a bowl of an electric stand mixer. Using the whisk attachment, whip on speed 6 (med high) until the whites have changed from foamy to stiff and white. Start adding the reserved sugar to the whites VERY gradually – one heaped tablespoon every 30 seconds, so that the whole process takes 2-3 minutes. It is imperative to the success of the cake that the meringue is very stiff and shiny. Reduce the speed to 1 (low) for 1 minute to even out the air bubbles.
5. Just after you have started the whites, put the oil, egg yolks and passionfruit juice in a wide bowl and combine using a whisk. Sift the dry ingredients over the yolk mix and whisk in by hand to form a loose batter, then gently and thoroughly fold in ⅓ of the meringue. Gently fold in the remaining meringue until no white streaks remain. Pour this fragrant mix into the ungreased cake tin. Wipe away any smears around the side of the tin.
6. I like to place it on a tray to bake for 55-60 minutes until golden and puffed. The cake around the inner tube should have a dry appearance. Remove from the oven and immediately invert onto your tested bottle. Allow to hang for 2-3 hours until the base of the tin is completely cool to the touch.
7. To remove the cake from the tin, run a thin paring or serrated knife around the edge of the tin, shimmying the knife down to the base and going around. Make sure the knife is against the edge of the tin all of the way around. Don’t run a knife around the centre tube, as it will naturally come away.
Once it releases from the sides, the cake will release, still attached to the base. Continuing to use your knife, run it slowly between the base and the cake to release it.
8. Turn your chiffon cake out onto your serving plate and enjoy either on its own or top it with the wonderful sour cream glaze – recipe below!
Simple Sour Cream Glaze (With Passionfruit)
You will need:
- 200g icing sugar mixture (note – mixture is distinct from straight icing sugar!).
- 60g full-fat sour cream.
- Fresh pulp of ½ passionfruit.
Sift the icing sugar into a bowl and add the sour cream. Whisk together slowly at first as the sour cream will seize up inside the whisk and you will get icing sugar powder everywhere, then gradually get more energetic, forming a homogenous glaze.
You may need to make some adjustments, i.e. more icing sugar if it’s too runny, or a small teaspoon of milk or sour cream if it’s too thick. I found the perfect consistency for glazing was when it just ran off the spoon.
Enjoy! Just a reminder that any leftovers of the cake will need to be refrigerated due to the glaze 🙂
