From The Kitchen Of Rachelle Underwood



Tuesday, January 4, 2011

Vanilla Cupcakes with Passion Fruit Buttercream

Oh my! I made these for New Years Eve this year, and my husband could not get over how good they were. We have a passion fruit tree in our front yard (yes, we live somewhere tropical...Hawaii), and my husband Jared is in heaven! He loves to make juice from them. I'm not really into eating them since they are really sour. However, they have a distinct taste of the tropics, and I thought it would be wonderful to use the juice/pulp of our fresh passion fruits. The result was beautiful! If you don't know, here is what the inside of a passion fruit looks like:


It can either have a yellow skin or purple skin, they taste about the same.





Pretty weird looking, but the juice made a wonderful, tropical buttercream. The vanilla cake was a perfect platform for the frosting, as it was the star of the show. Sometimes scratch cakes are overrated, so I used a box cake mix. If you make sure you don't over cook the cupcakes, you will have the most moist cake. I usually turn the heat down 25 degrees and bake a little longer, that way there is even cooking and the cake does not get brown. If you can't find passion fruit in your grocery store, I have read on some blogs that you can get it in paste form? Anyways, this was fun to make and tasted heavenly!


Vanilla Cupcakes with Passion Fruit Buttercream

1 box vanilla cake mix, prepared using cupcakes
4 tbs softened butter
2 passion fruits, pulp removed and pushed through a mesh strainer (about 4 tbsp juice)
3-4 cups powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla
2-3 tbs milk
1/4 tsp salt ( more or less according to your palate)

Bake cupcakes as directed on the box, let cool completely. To make frosting, remove pulp from passion fruits and push through a mesh strainer to get all the juice out of the pulp, making sure no seeds are in the juice. Combine softened butter, tsp vanilla, passion fruit juice and about 3 cups of powdered sugar. Mix well, and if you need to add milk to thin out the frosting, add a little bit at a time. Add more powdered sugar or milk to get to the right consistency. Spread frosting on cupcakes.


4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I live in a place where passion fruit is hard to find. To flavor desserts, I buy a frozen concentrated passion fruit juice. It works quite well.

Amanda said...

These look amazing! I've had the Passion Fruit out in Hawai'i, this past August...and it was absolutely unbelievable!!!

Anonymous said...

My frosting keeps comeing out runny is it cuz I used berry juice instead?

Rachelle Underwood said...

Anonymous,
The best way to insure that you don't get a runny frosting, is if you combine the butter, and flavoring together, and then add powdered sugar. Only add milk at the end if your consistency is too thick. As far as using berry juice, you may not get the flavor you are looking for because juice is very mild in taste. I like to use any kind of berry preserves, zests of citrus, and the juice from passion fruit because it is stronger than a watered down juice (You could also use pureed fresh fruit). I hope this helps. Remember when thinning your frosting, a few drops of liquid go a long way, and the more you mix it, the smoother it will become.