This Dragon Fruit Cake got some science going on up in here!
But before we get to it let’s talk about dragon fruit also known as Pitaya
The most beautiful exotic fruit with the most underwhelming taste!
Seriously! How can such a beautiful, stunning, mesmerizing fruit be so drab when you taste it?
Please don’t let my negative description of the fresh fruit itself deter you from making this Dragon Fruit Cake!
Since once it all transforms into a cake, it is much better (in my opinion) than the fresh fruit itself
Other than cheesecakes, mousses and otherwise cold preparation recipes, quickly I realized why there are no recipes for Dragon Fruit Cake
There is some science that needs to be known before baking with this delicate fruit powder!
Factors like pH level, solubility, oxygen, and most importantly baking temperature
Can all affect and minimize the vividness of the color of fruit powders to the point of complete deterioration.
Which is exactly what happened to me on my first try!
Believe me I was not going for the Ombre Effect
Although it is pretty cool!
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Notes for Success:
The moral of my story is that Dragon Fruit is way better turned into a cake rather than eaten as a fresh raw fruit!
Unless you really love the ombre effect, save your money and just make a strawberry cake and save the pink pitaya Dragon Fruit powder for something else!
There are two recipes listed out below
One for those who like the Ombre Effect with a cake texture more like a genoise sponge cake using the dragon fruit powder
And another with the strawberry fruit powder for true purple batter and for those who want a super moist cake that tastes more like strawberry!
The recipe for the Ombre effect was achieved without using strawberry fruit powder, so there is no error in the recipe ingredients
Additionally I used applesauce in place of some of the oil in that recipe
If you do not like to use applesauce you can use more oil
I did not use applesauce in the straight strawberry powder recipe since there is natural pectin in strawberry fruit powder
Too much moisture by adding applesauce to this formula will make this version of the cake gummy
Yield: serves 10ppl
Dragon Fruit Cake~ Ombre Effect
You will be wise to use deeper pans for the Ombre effect such as a Bundt Pan, Cupcakes or divide the batter between 2- 7″ Pans
Prep Time
2 hours
Cook Time
30 minutes
Total Time
2 hours 30 minutes
Ingredients
For the Cake:
- All Purpose Flour 2 cup (250g)
- Cake Flour 1 cup (120g) *see notes above
- Pink Pitaya Powder 4 Tablespoons
- Baking Powder 4 teaspoons
- Salt 1 teaspoon
- Granulated Sugar 1¾ cup (350g)
- Vegetable Oil 2/3 cup (160ml)
- Apple Sauce 4 Tablespoons (56g) *or more oil if you are not using applesauce
- Plant Milk *I use soy milk 2 cups (480ml)
- Vanilla Extract 2 teaspoons (10ml)
For the Icing
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F
- Grease and parchment paper your cake pan(s)
- In a large mixing bowl combine the oil, vanilla, plant milk and applesauce together in a large mixing bowl and whisk smooth
- Sift together the flours, sugar, pink pitaya powder, salt & baking powder and then add to the liquids in the bowl.
- Whisk vigorously until smooth, about 40 strokes
- Pour into the prepared pans and bake for 25-30 minutes for the 7″ layers (longer for Bundt cakes and shorter for cupcakes) or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
- Cool in the cake pans, then flip onto a cooling rack to cool to cold
- Prepare your favorite buttercream recipe and then separate it in half.
- Half will be white for the filling
- Adding poppy seeds to represent the seeds of a dragon fruit is completely optional
- The other half of the buttercream for the icing will get the pink pitaya powder paste ~ simply reconstituted pitaya powder with the hot water, add to the buttercream when completely cold
- **Save out a couple tablespoons of the pitaya paste for the watercolor effect decoration
Notes
Dragon fruit cream cake can be kept at room temperature for up to 3 days
For longer storage keep refrigerated for up to 1 week.
STRAWBERRY PITAYA CAKE RECIPE
Yield: serves 10
Strawberry Dragon Fruit Cake~ purple batter
Makes 10 cupcakes or 3-7″ layers
Prep Time
2 hours
Cook Time
30 minutes
Total Time
2 hours 30 minutes
Ingredients
For the Cake:
- All Purpose Flour 2 cup (250g)
- Cake Flour 1 cup (120g) *see notes above
- Strawberry Fruit Powder 4 Tablespoons
- Pink Pitaya Powder 2 Tablespoons
- Baking Powder 4 teaspoons
- Salt 1 teaspoon
- Granulated Sugar 1½ cup (300g)
- Vegetable Oil 2/3 cup (160ml)
- Plant Milk *I use soy milk 2 cups (480ml)
- Vanilla Extract 2 teaspoons (10ml)
For the icing
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F
- Grease and parchment paper your cake pan(s)
- In a large mixing bowl combine the oil, vanilla & plant milk together in a large mixing bowl and whisk smooth
- Sift together the flours, sugar, strawberry fruit powder, pink pitaya powder, salt & baking powder and then add to the liquids in the bowl.
- Whisk vigorously until smooth, about 40 strokes
- Pour into the prepared pans and bake for 25-30 minutes for the 7″ layers (shorter for cupcakes~ check at 18minutes) or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
- Cool in the cake pans, then flip onto a cooling rack to cool to cold
- Prepare your favorite buttercream recipe and then separate it in half.
- Half will be white for the filling
- Adding poppy seeds to represent the seeds of a dragon fruit is completely optional
- The other half of the buttercream for the icing will get the pink pitaya powder paste ~ simply reconstituted pitaya powder with the hot water, add to the buttercream when completely cold
- **Save out a couple tablespoons of the pitaya paste for the watercolor effect decoration
