For me, passionfruit are one of those fruits associated with sweet childhood memories. I have distinct memories of visiting my Nanna and Poppy’s home on the north coast of New South Wales and being allowed to eat passionfruit off the vine at will. I suspect I probably gave myself a pain in the tummy.

Passionfruit are expensive in stores here, so I rarely buy them. I have heard that you can grow them in Canberra, perhaps they’re something we should consider for the garden.

It goes without saying, then, that I was very happy to discover that my mother’s passionfruit vines were fruiting when we visited. Like most things on Norfolk, the passionfruit varieties are a bit of a mystery. I know Mum has at least two – one turns purple and the other stays yellow/green. Both are sweet, and we had plenty of each.

My mother has an old-school Fowlers Vacola preserving kit so my original plan was to preserve some of the passionfruit for use later in the year when there’s not so much fruit about on the island. I spent some time fishing around on the internet for passionfruit recipes and came up with a shortlist – passionfruit curd, passionfruit tea cake, passionfruit buttermilk cake and a passionfruit syrup. Yup – there were a lot.

A friend shared a lemon tea cake recipe with me years ago, which I converted into gluten-free. I decided to give it a go with passionfruit – and by goodness, it was good!

The first step is to get your hands on some passionfruit curd. I decided to follow this recipe from the Donna Hay website. I like the technique in this recipe because I didn’t end up with any overcooked egg white in my curd as I have when making lemon curd.

I like my curds a little tart so added a few extra tablespoons of lemon juice at the end. The sweetness of your curd will depend on the sweetness of your fruit. A little bit of sour will set the curd off nicely against the sweetness of the tea cake.

You can make this as one large cake, or as small cakes to share more easily with a crowd. If you decide to make the cake in individual serves, I recommend using plain café-style muffin wraps – it makes for a more stylish presentation.

It is quite a dense cake, best eaten on the day of baking (or warmed slightly in the microwave on subsequent days…if it lasts that long).

I’ll give you a heads up – passionfruit curd tea cake comes together in a strange way. But I promise – it does work.

Be sure to line your cake tin well, including the sides. The way the cake is constructed, it’s easy to get some curd spilling out towards the sides and it has a tendency to be very sticky – making removing the cake from the tin slightly perilous. Careful use of baking paper eliminates this risk! I forgot to line the sides of the tin this time and I’ll admit I held my breath as I released the springform pan.

I find it a little tricky to tell when the cake is cooked, because a skewer will generally always come out covered in curd. Cooked properly, the cake is crunchy on the top, a little oozy around the curd layer – and soft on the base. Follow your gut but tend towards cooking for a little longer rather than less – the cake is naturally moist due to the curd.

If you prefer, you can substitute the plain-flour and baking powder with 2 cups of gluten-free self-raising flour – I just don’t have a brand I like using.

Happy baking!