Mango Passion Fruit Cake
Try this mango passion fruit cake recipe, its zingy-zangy taste gets those taste buds working. A mango and passion fruit jam that exudes exotic flavours sandwiched between two yoghurt sponges, with velvety cream cheese frosting.
If you like this recipe, you should check out my raspberry mascarpone cake! It uses the same sponge base with a raspberry filling and creamy smooth mascarpone frosting.
And the other great thing is that you really don’t have to make the jam if you don’t want to, there are now mango passion fruit jams available in the shops.
This recipe uses my cream cheese frosting recipe which you can find here with extra tips and explanations.
If you decide to give this recipe a try, let me know! Leave a comment below and rate it – it’s really helpful to me and other readers knowing what you think! And don’t forget to take a picture and tag me @thegourmetlarder or hashtag it #thegourmetlarder on Instagram or Facebook. I love seeing what you’ve been baking! 🙂
RECIPE HIGHLIGHTS
- EASE: easy.
- FREE FROM: nut-free.
- GREAT FOR: special occasions – Birthdays, Mother’s day, Weekend baking, Treat or Friends and family visiting.
- TASTE: sweet and creamy with tangy fruit flavours.
- TEXTURE: the sponge is moist and fluffy. The frosting is zingy and refreshing.
- QUANTITIY: 12 slices (23cm / 9inch springform pan)
- TIME: 1 hour 5 minutes
© THE GOURMET LARDER. All images and content are copyright protected. If you want to share this recipe, please do so using the share buttons provided. Please do not republish the recipe or its content in full instead, include a link to this post for the recipe. Further information can be found in my FAQ’s.
INGREDIENTS
For this recipe all you need are these ingredients:
- Butter
- Medium eggs
- Cream cheese, such as Philadelphia
- Natural or Greek Yoghurt
- Caster or granulated sugar
- Plain or all-purpose flour
- Baking powder
- Baking soda
- Cornflour
- Icing sugar
- Pure vanilla extract or paste
- Mangos
- Passion fruit
– Vanilla recommendations: pure vanilla extract or vanilla paste or vanilla pods.
- Salt – I highly recommend adding a good pinch of salt to your cakes. It might seem a bit weird, but it actually has the incredible ability to enhance sweetness, suppress bitterness, and elevate the flavour of all the ingredients, making your cake taste even better. It’s pretty crazy, the sodium in the salt sends signals to move glucose into your tongue’s sweet taste receptors, making the sweetness really pop. So, don’t be afraid to sprinkle a little salt – it’ll take your cakes to the next level!
I recommend Maldon Sea salt flakes or Cornish sea salt, but any good quality salt is fine.
WHAT VARIATIONS CAN I MAKE?
If you have trouble getting hold of passion fruit or want to try an alternative, here are a couple of ideas:
Citrus: add 2 tablespoons of orange juice and the rind of an orange to the sponge mix and also add the same juice and rind to the mango jam.
Fruits: try alternative fruits like raspberries or strawberries and as I said before, you don’t have to make the jam, I just like to make that little extra effort in the summer season with fresh fruits.
If you experiment, Please leave a comment at the bottom of the post – it’s really helpful to me and other readers knowing how you got on and I regularly update these posts and the feedback I receive helps to make the recipes even more useful.
NUTRITION
Serving: one cake slice.
Nutrition information can vary for a recipe based on factors such as precision of measurements, brands, ingredient freshness, or the source of nutrition data.
I strive to keep the information as accurate as possible but make no warranties regarding its accuracy.
I encourage you to make your own calculations based on the actual ingredients used in your recipe, using your preferred nutrition calculator.
STORAGE AND FREEZING
This easy cake keeps well for up to 5 days in the fridge.
The mango jam can be made up a few days in advance and refrigerated.
The whole cake can be stored in an airtight container in your fridge, for 3-4 days. Be careful during hot weather as the icing does start to melt.
Freezing: The sponge cake layers with or without the fruit inside can be made ahead, wrapped in clingfilm and frozen for up to 2-3 months.
© THE GOURMET LARDER. All images and content are copyright protected. If you want to share this recipe, please do so using the share buttons provided. Please do not republish the recipe or its content in full instead, include a link to this post for the recipe. Further information can be found in my FAQ’s.
EQUIPMENT SUGGESTIONS
Here is some kitchen equipment that I use and recommend for this recipe.
Not everyone is lucky enough to have one of these but they are useful if you do a lot of baking or making bread.
I like this model of electric hand mixer because it comes with a large stand, meaning you don’t have to always hold it.
These springform pans make removing cakes from them after baking a doddle. I personally tend to line them as often as possible to ensure that my cakes don’t break for added security.
Please check out my Shop for a curated collection of some of my favourite baking equipment. The Gourmet Larder is an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.
TIP: I highly recommend using metric measurements and a digital kitchen scale, rather than cup measurements. If you have ever ended up with dry, dense or crumbly baked goods, it might be because of inaccurate volume measurements, not all measuring cups are made equally. All my recipes on this blog are carefully developed so that you can easily recreate them in your own kitchen with success, using metric measurements. It is also a lot easier, less messy and you will get far better, consistent results. 🙂
If you are interested in understanding conversions, here you will find the best conversion chart.
RECIPE TIPS
See my guide on lining a springform pan for a quick and practical way to stop cakes sticking on the bottom.
Keep an eye open when baking the sponges, if they overbake, they will taste dry. As with most frostings, it is best for the cake not to be in hot weather or it will melt.
Domed sponges – I have not had an issue with this recipe but if your cakes come out of the oven with an extra large domed top I would recommend giving it a little trim. A flat cake can be stacked much more easily and looks visually appealing. Use a long serrated knife to carefully slice the rounded tops off each layer.
Frosting – Allow the cakes to cool completely before frosting them. This is important because it will prevent the frosting from melting when applied to a warm cake.
Mango Passion Fruit Cake
- 2 x 23cm (9inch) springform pans
INGREDIENTS LIST
Yoghurt sponge
- 100 g butter
- 200 g caster sugar
- 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract or 1/4 tsp of vanilla paste
- 3 medium eggs (separated)
- 200 g natural or greek yoghurt
- 250 g plain flour (all-purpose)
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda / baking soda
- 1 pinch fine sea salt
- 100 g mango (diced, optional)
Mango and passion fruit jam (see notes)
- 1 piece mango (260g fresh or frozen )
- 50 g caster sugar (4 tbsp)
- 2 pieces passion fruit
- 2 tsp cornflour (cornstarch)
Cream cheese frosting
- 200 g full-fat cream cheese (I use Philadelphia)
- 100 g unsalted butter (room temperature)
- 300-400 g icing sugar (US powdered sugar)
- 1 pod of vanilla or 1/4 tsp of vanilla paste
- ⅛ tsp fine sea salt
- 1-2 tsp cornflour (cornstarch) (optional)
Preparation
- Mango jam filling: Dice one large mango and add to a small saucepan with the pulp of two passion fruits and 50g sugar.
- Starting over low heat, stirring often so the sugar doesn’t burn. Gently simmer the mixture until it has reduced and thickened, approx. 10 minutes.
- Mix a little cold water with the 2 tsp cornflour to form a thin paste and pour it into the jam, stir continuously for about half a minute to cook the cornflour and avoid lumps forming. Once cooked, remove from the heat and set aside to cool completely. If you are using shop-bought jam, use the above cornflour while stirring the jam over a steady boil. This way you will see the jam thicken as you add the cornflour mix and not add too much. If it does become too thick, simply add a little water. This can also be done a couple of days in advance and kept in the fridge until ready to use.
- Cake batter: Preheat the oven to 160°C / 140°C fan / 325°F / Gas 3 .
- Grease and line the bottom of two 23cm (9inch) springform pans.
- In a large mixing bowl, cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy, scraping down the sides of the bowl as necessary.
- Add the vanilla and beat in the egg yolks, one at a time until fully incorporated. Next, add the yoghurt and mix well.
- Sift the flour, baking powder, salt, and baking soda into the butter mixture and mix until well combined. Scrape down the bowl as necessary.
- In a separate bowl, whisk the egg whites until soft peaks form.
- Whisk 1/3 of the egg whites into the cake batter mixture and then fold in the remaining egg whites with 100g of diced fresh mango (optional).
- Baking: Divide the batter evenly between the two prepared pans and bake for 30 minutes until golden, and a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Be careful not to overbake as they will become very dry in taste.
- Let the cakes cool for 15 minutes, then release them from the pans and leave them to cool completely on a wire rack.
- Frosting: In a large mixing bowl, beat the cream cheese and butter until well combined and smooth. Alternatively use an electric mixer, either hand-held or standing to make it easier. Add about half of the icing sugar and mix until well combined and smooth. Then add the vanilla extract and salt and mix until well combined. Add the remaining sugar until the desired consistency is achieved and it is well combined and silky smooth. Add 2-3 tablespoons of the cooled jam to the frosting until well combined. I removed all the pips from the jam before adding it to the frosting, alternatively you can skip this and use all the jam inside the cake instead.For more details and tips, check out my cream cheese frosting recipe.
- Assembly: Place one of the cooled sponges onto a cake board or plate and spread half a centimetre layer of frosting over the cake. Then top with the remaining cooled mango jam and the second sponge. Finally, ice the top and sides of the cake.
- Decorating: If you would like to decorate the cake as I have, simply slice some fresh mango and lay it on top of the cake at different angles. spoon over some jam or passion fruit pulp and finish with whipped cream and mint leaves.
Notes & Tips
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HAPPY BAKING!
what a beautiful recipe! i want to make this tomorrow for my boyfriend’s birthday!! but only have 24cm cake tins – should i increase the recipe quantity by – let’s say 1/3?
Thank you! I would keep to the recipe as it is, it will only be a little shorter using a 24cm tin.
However, if you want a tall cake then by all means increase the quantities by 1/3. Let me know how it turns out 🙂
The cake looks gorgeous but I was wondering if I could make it the day before and refrigerate overnight- would it be okay or would anything change?
I don’t think it would change much. In fact it might help the flavours combine more and the icing set better. Make sure to use a good cream cheese and not a spread otherwise you might find the frosting collapsing. Let me know how you get on 🙂
Really delicious cake! I made this for my birthday and everyone had seconds including the kids! The yogurt sponge is moist and not too sweet , the jam is really nice and the frosting is perfect. The whole cake is sold out at the dinner table! My friends and family asked for the recipe and I’m more than happy to share it. Will definitely make it again.
So glad you and the family enjoyed it 🙂
This looks delicious and I’m about to bake it but you don’t say when / whether you add the mango jam to the icing – I assume so as you say add the “remaining jam” to the cake layer and you also refer to the “mango frosting” but in the frosting recipe and instructions, it does not say to add any jam? If you add the jam which has the passion fruit pips in it, the icing will not be smooth as per the photos either?
Hi Abi, Sorry that it is not clear and thanks for bringing it to my attention. I do add 2-3 tablespoons of the jam to the frosting once it is cooled and yes the frosting is not entirely smooth which you can actually see in the photos.
There aren’t any pips in the frosting in the photo? I found it very hard to separate the jam from the pips in order to add some to the frosting.
I did my best to remove all the pips for the jam that I used in the frosting. I separated a little extra jam when I did this and in a couple of the photos you can see the extra in a small pot. If you cant remove the pips you could just skip adding it to the frosting and use it all inside the cake instead.