It’s been a while since I’ve made a layer cake, I’ve been focusing a lot more on traybakes, simple cakes and cookies recently however I’ve finally gotten round to making a layer cake again and I forgot how much I love decorating naked cakes! Here is the recipe for my Passionfruit Raspberry and Almond Layer Cake!

This recipe is a luxurious and upgraded version of the classic Victoria Sandwich. The addition of ground almonds and almond extract in the sponge gives it a fantastic flavour and I love the combination of the sweet slightly tart passionfruit topping with the raspberry jam and the light almond flavour in the sponge. I always associate passionfruit with being a bit fancy and the topping does really take this cake up to the next level!

For this recipe I am using the all-in-one method which is a method of cake making that I had honestly forgot about until I tried making this cake. It’s the perfect way of making a cake when you’re feeling a bit lazy or tired and you just want to or need to get the cake made. It’s fairly self explanatory but you just put all of the ingredients for the sponge (except the milk) into a bowl and beat it until you have cake batter. It seems rather ridiculous how this is a way of making a cake but it does take away a lot of the hassle of the creaming method and still produces great results.

The all-in-one method only works for certain styles of cake though, ones where the creaming method would work. It does have a few caveats, mainly that your fat should be softened so that you don’t end up with lumps in your cake batter; this is why generally I prefer to use margarine for cake batters.

If you don’t have any piping bags or tips, you can still decorate the cake in a similar way. You can use a spatula or a palette knife to create a border to hold in the jam in the middle of the cake and on top, a border to contain the passionfruit. It might take a bit of extra time but you can also get creative with the decorating too!

The cake boxes used in the photos is from Cake and Handle, who provided the cake box for a product review. Check out my review of their product by clicking here! (this post is an ad!)

For the almond sponges:

• 215g margarine
• 200g granulated sugar
• 5 small eggs (that weigh around 43g each)
• 1 tsp almond extract
• 200g self raising flour
• 45g ground almonds
• 1 tbsp whole milk, optional

For the filling and decoration:

• 1 x 284ml pot of double cream
• 25g granulated sugar
• Around 100g seedless raspberry jam
• 3 ripe passionfruits, halved and seeds removed
• Sprinkles, to decorate

Preheat the oven to 170˚C. Grease the sides and line the base of two 20cm round sandwich tins with baking parchment.

Into a large mixing bowl, add all of the ingredients for the sponge, except for the milk. Using an electric hand mixer, beat together all the ingredients until everything just comes together (see photo below) – depending on the speed of your beaters and the size of your bowl, this could take anywhere from 30 seconds to a minute. At this point, scrape down the beaters with a spatula and scrape down the sides of the bowl and finish mixing the cake batter by folding the mixture to incorporate everything until you have a smooth and even cake batter. If the cake batter feels a bit thick, you can mix in the milk to loosen the cake batter.

Divide the cake batter evenly between the two prepared cake tins and level out the cake batter in the tins. Bake the sponges for about 18 to 20 minutes until the cakes are golden brown and a cocktail stick inserted into the very centre of the cakes comes out clean. Leave the cakes to cool in the tins for about 10 minutes before inverting onto a cooling rack to cool down completely.

For the whipped cream, whisk together the double cream with the sugar until it holds soft peaks, meaning it is firm enough to be held by the whisk but falls back down shortly after. Put about a quarter of the whipped cream into a piping bag fitted with a medium sized petal tip to create the ruffle on the top of the sponge and put another quarter of the cream into a piping bag with about a half inch opening cut off the end. Place the jam into a small bowl and mix with a spoon to loosen; this will make it easier to spread.

To assemble the sponge, place one sponge layer onto your cake stand or serving plate the right way up. Pipe a border of large blobs of cream using the piping bag with the half inch opening. Fill the middle with a thin layer of cream to cover the surface of the cake. Carefully spoon and spread the jam on top of the cream layer evenly. Top the jam with a thin layer of cream, being careful not to marble the jam into the cream. Place the second sponge on top with the bottom facing up so you have a flat surface. Cover the top of the cake with a thin layer of cream that comes almost all the way to the edge.

Take the piping bag fitted with the petal tip and holding the piping bag horizontally with the larger end of the petal tip at the top, create a ruffled border by exerting even pressure while moving the piping bag back and forth slightly as you work your way around the cake, rotating the cake as you go. Top the ruffled border with a few sprinkles. Then carefully drizzle the fresh passionfruit seeds on top of the cake to fill in the surface.

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