Passionfruit, Mango and Mascarpone Trifle

You may remember the dessert I served at our annual post-Christmas BBQ spectacular - a big, summery bowl of cake and cream and mango and passionfruit. I'd been wanting to make something along those lines for ages, thanks to a loaf of passionfruit cake I had in my freezer. My local bakery occasionally makes these delicious passionfruit loaf cakes (pound or butter cake?) that I adore. Last time, we bought 2 loaves and I stashed one in the freezer for just this purpose.

After much indecision, (too many recipe books!), I adapted Nigella's recipe for passionfruit, mascarpone and meringue trifle (How to be a Domestic Goddess), and added fresh mango chunks to lighten everything up.

Now let's have a look at the trifle's construction:

The loaf.

Sliced.

Soaked in passionfruit juice and Grand Marnier, and wodged in the bottom of a big glass bowl.

Fresh mango!

The cream - an egg-white lightened mascarpone cream, with crumbled meringues added for textural interest.

Ta-dah! Once it was all layered up, I covered it with cling wrap and let it sit overnight in the fridge.

And apart from a last-minute sprinkling with crushed meringue and passionfruit pulp, that was it! I enjoyed it greatly, but I suspect that's because it combined elements of my favourite fruits and desserts - pavlova, cake, cheesecake, tiramisu, passionfruit and mango! The soaking liquid has a bit of lime juice in it, which perfectly offsets the rich cream and sweet cake.

If you were so inclined, you could make it in a rectangular glass dish, and arranging the layers all neatly. Or you could even make it in a springform pan, much like Nigella's tiramisu layer cake. I, however, am partial to the bowl-ed trifle, not least because it lets me scoop out heaps of cream for myself without anyone noticing, hehehe.

For some reason, I've found that people from the country love trifle. My friend Wes (a country boy!) apparently inhaled 3 bowls before we'd even dished it out to everyone. Yay, success!!


Passionfruit, Mango and Mascarpone Trifle

10 passionfruit
2 limes
Approx. 200ml Grand Marnier
2 large eggs, separated
125g caster sugar
750g mascarpone
100g box shop-bought meringues (get small ones so they're all crunch and not chewy!)
1 small passionfruit loaf cake
2 large or 3 small mangoes

Scoop out the pulp of 7 passionfruit into a blender. Add the juice of one lime, and pulse a few times to loosen the seeds from the pulp. Strain the liquid into a measuring jug. Pour in enough Grand Marnier to make up 300ml.

Whisk the egg whites until stiff, and set aside. Beat the egg yolks with the sugar, until the mixture is thick and the sugar is dissolved. Add the juice of the other lime, and beat until smooth. Gently fold in the mascarpone, followed by the egg whites. Roughly crumble in half of the meringues and fold in.

Slice the loaf cake into thick slices. Dip the slices one at a time in the strained passionfruit mixture, and arrange in the bottom of a wide glass bowl. If you have some juice left, you can pour it over, but be careful not to let it get too soggy. Peel and cut up the mangoes into small chunks and pour over the cake, along with any mango juice that has collected on your chopping board.

Spread the mascarpone mixture over the mangoes and cake. Cover the whole lot in clingwrap and refrigerate overnight.

Just before serving, crumble over the remaining meringues and scoop out the pulp of the remaining passionfruit on top.