In March, I spent a week vacationing in Nicaragua. Most mornings I was startled awake at sunrise by families of howler monkeys swinging on branches outside my bungalow window, their haunting, demonic bellows echoing through the jungle. One afternoon was spent kayaking through a lagoon on the island of Ometepe, where we spotted several caimans, their dark eyes, snouts and spiky tails hovering menacingly just above the water. A perfect evening, swimming in the warm, sandy bottomed Lake Nicaragua at sunset, under the shadow of Concepción, one of the country’s many active volcanoes.
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And when I wasn’t exploring, I was falling in love with passionfruit, a sunny orange fruit studded with edible black seeds. Passionfruit cheesecake in San Juan del Sur; passionfruit mousse in Granada; a cold, creamy passionfruit and chocolate drink made from cacao harvested just yards away on Ometepe.
I vowed to track down frozen passionfruit pulp when I got back to Seattle so I could recreate these tropical, sweet-tart desserts at home. But so far I haven’t had to because over the past couple weeks, the universe has been sending passionfruit desserts to me! Did I will these sweet treats into existence or is this a classic case of Baader-Meinhof phenomenon? No time to analyze – we've got passionfruit to eat!
Paper Cake Shop
Gluten-free passionfruit mocha cake:
- Chocolate sponge
- Passionfruit ganache
- Salted caramel
- Espresso buttercream
I was about to head home from a camping trip in Oregon when I popped onto Instagram and saw a new cake was added to the Paper Cake Shop case.
“Do you want to ride bikes to get passionfruit cake??” I texted my Nicaragua travel companion. “I’ll be home in 4 hours!”
She did. Five hours later we were sitting in Seattle’s Paper Cake Shop, where pastry chef Gabby Park has teamed up with chef and restauranteur Rachel Yang (Joule, Revel) to create gorgeously decorated cakes with Asian-inspired flavors.
The tangy, bright passionfruit was a lovely counter to the darker chocolate and coffee flavors, and I would have never guessed the cake was gluten free! The slice went perfectly with a cold glass of their house made banana milk.
Deep Sea Sugar and Salt
Passionfruit fudge cake:
- Dark chocolate cake
- Sweet mascarpone cream
- Passionfruit curd
- Semi-sweet chocolate ganache
Another passionfruit cake, another woman-owned bakery, another weekend bike ride — this time down to Georgetown! Deep Sea’s towering layer cakes are my ideal: incredibly moist, incredibly dense and most are slathered in cream cheese frosting, not buttercream. Passionfruit Fudge is a May special, intensely chocolatey with a luscious ganache .My only critique is that there wasn’t enough passionfruit curd to span every bite.
Dahlia Bakery
Limited edition Coconut Cream Pie with Passionfruit Whip
I was a broadcast news reporter for 20 years, covering every beat including courts and crime, so I am endlessly delighted by the lighthearted press releases I receive these days. Last week’s example: National Coconut Cream Pie Day | May 8th
Dahlia Bakery has been baking Seattle’s most famous coconut cream pie for 37 years, and on May 8th they’re celebrating with half-off slices at all Tom Douglas & Co restaurants.
Dahlia Bakery is doing a Coconut Cream case takeover featuring:
- Limited edition Coconut Cream Pie with Passionfruit Whip
- Coconut Cream Pie Croissant — twice-baked croissant filled with coconut frangipane, coconut cream Glaze, toasted coconut
- Coconut cream puff stuffed with coconut pastry cream, topped with coconut Mascarpone, toasted coconut
- CocOH Mochi Donut — butter mochi, coconut glaze, toasted coconut
- White chocolate coconut oat milk latte
Here are a handful of other passionfruit desserts available around town that I have yet to try (but plan to!):
Pie Bird Bakeshop: Passionfruit Merengue pie
Fuji Bakery: Lilikoi (passion fruit) malasadas
Bakery Nouveau Passionfruit mousse dome
Brimmer & Heeltap: Passionfruit sorbet with house granola and caramelized white chocolate
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Have a food- or drink-related question? (Need a restaurant rec? Have a mystery that needs solving?) Send me a note: rachel.belle@cascadepbs.org
XO
Rachel Belle
