White chocolate and passionfruit curd cake

SERVES 12 PREP AND COOK TIME 2 HOURS (+ REFRIGERATION, COOLING AND STANDING TIME)

250g unsalted butter, softened 1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste

2 cups (440g) CSR Caster Sugar

5 eggs, at room temperature

2 cups (300g) White Wings Self-Raising Flour

1 cup (150g) White Wings Plain Flour 1 cup (250ml) milk

600g white chocolate, chopped

1 cup (250ml) cream

2 passionfruit

PASSIONFRUIT CURD

3 passionfruit (see Test Kitchen tip)

125g unsalted butter, chopped

¾ cup (165g) CSR Caster Sugar

2 eggs, beaten lightly, strained

½ teaspoon grated lemon rind 1½ tablespoons lemon juice

COLOURED CHOCOLATE CURLS

100g white candy (chocolate) melts (see Test Kitchen tip)

100g yellow candy (chocolate) melts 100g pink candy (chocolate) melts

1 PASSIONFRUIT CURD Push passionfruit pulp through a sieve over a jug or bowl. You will need 2 tablespoons passionfruit juice. Discard seeds.

Place passionfruit juice and remaining ingredients in a small heavy-based saucepan; stir over low heat for 8 minutes or until mixture thickly coats the back of a wooden spoon. Cool. Refrigerate until cold.

2 Preheat oven to 180°C (160°C fanforced). Grease two 20cm round cake pans; line base and side with baking paper.

3 Beat butter, vanilla paste and sugar in a large bowl with an electric mixer for 5 minutes or until light and creamy. Beat in eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Gently fold in sifted flours and milk, in two batches until combined. Divide mixture into pans; smooth surface.

4 Bake cakes for 50 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Leave cake in pans

for 15 minutes before turning, top-side up, onto wire racks to cool. 5 COLOURED CHOCOLATE CURLS

Tape three 30cm sheets of baking paper onto work bench. Working with one colour of chocolate at a time, melt in the microwave on High (100%) in 30-second bursts, stirring, until smooth. Using an off-set spatula, thinly spread melted chocolate onto baking paper. Remove tape; roll up paper from the short side.

Refrigerate for 5 minutes or until set. Unroll to separate chocolate from paper. Place curls on a tray until required.

6 Place white chocolate and cream in a heatproof bowl over a saucepan of simmering water (do not allow base of bowl to touch water); stir until melted and smooth. Remove from heat; stand, stirring occasionally, for 20 minutes or until ganache is a spreadable consistency.

7 Using a large serrated knife, level cake tops if necessary then split each cake into two layers. Place one cake layer on a cake stand; spread with one-third of the Passionfruit Curd. Repeat with remaining cake layers and Curd, finishing with a cake layer. Spread ganache over top and side of cake. Decorate with Chocolate Curls and passionfruit pulp.

Undecorated cake suitable to freeze.

In our classic butter cake recipe we used a combination of plain and self-raising flour to achieve a moist, fine-textured crumb.

5 Taping the baking paper to the bench prevents it from sliding when spreading the melted chocolate in an even, thin layer.