Passion cake

There used to be a shop/gallery/studio/café called the Northwest Arts Centre in Manchester; it was a great place to go, nice coffee, newspapers and magazines, interesting things on the walls, information about arts events… and great food. Northwest Arts was where I once had cauliflower soup… oh it was sooooo delicious, I can almost taste it now! it was creamy, nutty, sweet in a not sugary way, tasted of freshly cut cauliflower, a slight cheesiness… could it have been Stilton? Maybe… I have been disappointed by every other cauliflower soup since, none has ever matched up to Northwest Arts cauliflower soup.

I love making cakes but I’m not a great one for eating them… but just occasionally, with morning coffee, I fancy a piece of cake if there is one in front of me which is tempting. In Northwest Arts they had something called passion cake… oh my goodness… it was divine… if I hadn’t wanted a traditional fruit wedding cake, I would have had a wedding passion cake – which would have been quite appropriate for the occasion! Passion cake was a soft golden colour, with mixed spice (not too much cinnamon which I’m not keen on in quantity) nuts which I think were walnuts and to my amazement (this was back in the 70’s) carrot! I was intrigued and fascinated as I munched my way through the gigantic and generous portions they served. There was a divine frosting, cheesy, lemony, more sharp than sweet which was perfect with the soft cake…

I have looked and looked and looked for recipes and found cakes with…

• with passion fruit… no, that is passion fruit cake, not passion cake
• with pineapple and coconut in which sounds more like a pina colada cake
• with banana, coconut (again) and raisins – no, that’s banana cake
• carrot cake called passion cake… no, I love carrot cake, it’s my favourite, but passion cake is different!

I have tried using all sorts of different recipes, and none has matched the Northwest Arts passion cake; either the cake is wrong or the frosting is wrong, but I have never found perfect recipes for either to be able to put them together to make what I remember. I think it is something to do with the texture as well as the flavour, not soggy, not too soft, not too crumbly…

I came across this recipe by Nigella Lawson which I am going to try:

http://www.nigella.com/recipes/view/my-mothers-passion-cake-871

Interestingly, while trying once again to find THE recipe, I came across a lot of internet debate about the difference between passion cake and carrot cake. I also found this nice WordPress post:

https://twolittlebakers.wordpress.com/2013/03/21/passion-cake/

My featured image by the way is of carrot cake… and not one that I made either…