Milky Cake with a Scent of Passion Fruit

We've found a tiny dairy shop near the marketplace in our neighbourhood. All the products come from a dairy farm near our home town Silistra. Actually they sell only 3 types of products – milk, yoghurt and white brine cheese /as I said it's a really tiny shop/. But all the products are of a very good quality. But when I saw their brochures and advertising materials  I thought they were disastrous. On the instant I thought I want to rewrite them, no I won't charge them, I will eagerly do it for free. When I said this to Ivan he started laughing and said he knew I would say so. It's what I say every time when I see somebody is trying to make a good product but lacks a little bit of inspiration to show it to the world in a written form.For now I feel a bit uneasy to contact the farm's manager and just say “Hi, my name is Silvia and I want to rewrite your ad materials.” He would probably ask “Who the he.. are you and what's wrong with my advertising materials?” It's a kind of weird, maybe. So for the present I'm doing nothing on the matter but I would be really happy to be a part of a project like this. Who knows, maybe one day... For now maybe it's better just to work on our blog because it definitely lacks of materials. 

As a huge dairy products lovers we've made this milky cake and considering how fast we've eaten it I'm seriously thinking of making it again soon. It's very simple and easy to make – a cocoa genoise cut in two layers with cream cheese filling between them and strained yoghurt cream on top, all flavoured with passion fruit extract. So light, milky and fruity in the same time.
It's been more than two months since we've bought a small bottle of natural passion fruit extract and we haven't got an occasion to try it yet. So this was the perfect time and it happened to be a perfect combination - strained yoghurt and passion fruit extract. The acidity of the yoghurt combines so well with the  passion fruit flavour that makes you want more and more.

Milky Cake with a Scent of Passion Fruit Recipe:

For the cocoa genoise:

• 4 eggs;
• 125 gr sugar;
• 95 gr flour;
• 30 gr cocoa powder;
• butter and flour for the baking pan.

Preheat the oven to 180ºC and set the rack in the middle. Butter and flour a baking sheet and line the baking
pan with it.
Whisk the eggs and the sugar in a large bowl over a pan of simmering water till the mixture reaches 40ºC /if you don't have a candy thermometer, it should be warm to touch but not hot/. Then remove from the heat and continue to whisk until the mixture is completely cooled. Remove the beaters and with the help of a wooden spoon gently fold in the sifted flour and the cocoa powder.
Pour the batter into the baking pan and smooth the top. Bake for 20 - 25 minutes. Let cool on a rack.

For the cream cheese filling:

• 250 gr cream cheese;
• 200 gr confectioners' sugar;
• 70 gr butter /softened/;
• 1 Tbsp passion fruit extract.

In a medium bowl whisk together the cream cheese and the butter until creamy. Mix in the sifted confectioners' sugar and the passion fruit extract.

For the strained yoghurt cream:

• 200 gr strained yoghurt or 650 gr yoghurt – it's best to be full fat, but as we didn't have full fat yoghurt we used yoghurt with 2% fat content;
• 100 gr confectioners' sugar;
• 1 Tbsp passion fruit extract.

Strained yoghurt is sold here as it is an important ingredient of many traditional bulgarian recipes, but we   didn't have any so we made it ourselves.
Place a strainer or colander in a bowl where it doesn't touch the bottom and line it with a piece of cheesecloth. Place the yoghurt into the center of the cloth. Bring the four corners of the cloth together and twist them to squeeze out the liquid which will drain through the cloth. Leave it to drain overnight. From 650 gr 2% fat yoghurt we received nearly 200 gr strained yoghurt.
Mix the yoghurt, confectioners' sugar and fruit extract till creamy.

For the simple syrup:

• 300 ml water;
• 100 gr sugar;
• 30 ml rum.

In a small saucepan over a medium high heat bring all the ingredients to a simmer until the sugar dissolves.

To assemble:
Using a cake string cut the genoise in two equal layers. Place one of the layers on a tray and spread some syrup on it. Pour the cream cheese filling on top and smooth with an offset spatula. Top with the other genoise layer and spread some syrup on top. Top with the strained yoghurt cream and smooth well with the offset spatula. Sprinkle some coconut flakes on top. Refrigerate until set.