Dark Chocolate and Passion Fruit Cupcakes (Plus GBBO S4 Ep1)

Dark Chocolate Cupcakes topped with a sticky and sweet Passion Fruit Curd

This (ok, almost last) week saw the first episode of the Great British Bake Off back on our screens and for the first time EVER I actually managed to catch the episode as it went out live on TV. No more iplayer for me!

Two things really stood out for me from the first episode - #1 they all need to calm down and stop trying to chop their own fingers off, it really won’t help them! And #2 passion fruit seems to be the in thing.

Now I may have only made the second observation because I am currently OBSESSED with passion fruit, but still, I’m going to go with it.

The Angel Cakes were all drizzled in the delicious, sticky and sweet pulp of the passion fruit and my did they look heavenly! I was very impressed with how they all turned out actually, considering Angel Cake just isn’t that popular this side of the pond. It’s definitely something I’ll have to try.

 

The selection of cupcakes at my party.

Even so, this wasn’t the only time passion fruit cropped up in the episode. During the Signature Bake round, Howard made a gluten free passion-fruit and coconut sandwich cake out of rice-flour and xantham gum. It sounded so out there and whacky I don’t think anyone expected it to work but Mary and Paul LOVED it! Another win for the passion fruit.



Then in the Showstopper Bake round Ali cooked a Chocolate, Raspberry and Passion fruit Engagement Cake. Now I think his concept was actually pretty good. The nerves just got the better of him and he executed it pretty poorly. (Ali, don’t worry, you’re still secretly one of my favourites).

Again, yay for passion fruit!

As much as I love passion fruit though, and I really was happy to see it being featured in cakes on the show, it kind of ruined my plan to bake these delicious Dark Chocolate and Passion Fruit Cupcakes if ever I find myself on the show.

If this week’s episode of GBBO did inspire you to try baking with passion fruit and you’re not brave enough to use rice flour like Howard (and you want more success with your finished product than Ali had) then why not give these cupcakes a go!

The sweet and zingy passion fruit curd is paired beautifully with the dark chocolate which makes the overall flavour of the cake much more, well-rounded.

Although it’s tempting to make these cakes with milk chocolate in an attempt to make them more popular with a wider range of guests, the dark chocolate really is essential and many people who usually steer away from the bitter taste of dark chocolate will undoubtedly love it when paired with the sweet exotic fruit.

Another great thing about these cakes is they’re incredibly easy to make and look stunning when finished. Simply follow your usual method of making cupcakes, grab yourself a piping bag complete with a Wilton 1M tip and you’re good to go!

Here’s the recipe: