This cake came about because I wanted to do a passionfruit-banana cake of some kind, just because of the flavor contrast. Passionfruit being tart and tangy while banana is mild and sweet, both tropical fruits play off of one another beautifully here! The big debate for me, internally, was whether or not I introduce chocolate into the dessert. As you can see, I wound up going with chocolate in the end, but it was a bit of a back and forth. On one hand, passionfruit is an intense flavor and banana is a mild one, so introducing chocolate, which will work with both, might result in the banana getting lost. That being said, chocolate could add a richness and a bitterness that will further balance everything out. So I decided, since banana is the mildest flavor of the three, to really use the banana in as many components as possible just to amp up that specific ingredient in proportion to the chocolate and passionfruit. I used Korean banana milk, which just tastes like banana Laffy Taffy, in a chiffon cake studded with chocolate chips, in a mousse that makes up the body of the cake, and in the chocolate mirror glaze, while also taking fresh bananas, bruleeing them, and using them as a garnish on top of my cake. The chocolate, I used chips in my chiffon cake for a fun little texture, and in the aforementioned mirror glaze. The passionfruit, I used as a jam that is layered up with the cake, and smeared on top of the cake for a fun little color contrast to the dark chocolate glaze.

For this recipe, it does require a decent chunk of waiting time, which is to be expected with any sort of mirror glaze cake. You need to first make essentially a mini cake with the banana-chip chiffon sponge and the passionfruit jam, and freeze that solid so that it stays intact for the next part of the assembly process. Chiffon cake is a fickle recipe, and requires a gentle touch, as overmixing it results in a flat, deflated cake that has a rubbery mouthfeel. Ideally, it should be light and almost like a cloud. The passionfruit jam is really easy to make, since it just needs to cook down. The mousse, now that can be problematic if you aren’t watching it. You need to temper egg yolks, which means you are whisking a warmed liquid(in this case, banana milk that has white chocolate melted into it) into egg yolks, then adding the egg yolks back into the pot, and whisking that over the stove so that the yolks can be used to thicken the liquid. It can be very easy to scramble an egg yolk-based anything, so be quick and intentional as you are whisking, and don’t be afraid to pull the pot off heat just to prevent scrambling. Once you make your mousse, however, it is fairly easy sailing from there. You have to pour the mousse around the mini passionfruit-banana cake, freeze all of that together, then pour a chocolate mirror glaze over all of it to coat the mousse. The banana star garnish on top, while a bit tedious since you have to cut a lot of bananas, can be a bit therapeutic to do, since bruleeing sugar is always fun, and after a long time of waiting on a cake to set and a mousse to freeze, burning sugar on top of bananas is like a breeze. I would still rate this cake as a 8.5/10 in terms of difficulty, but it was rated by my friends and family as the best thing I’ve made in 2025 thus far, so it might be worth the waiting and the trials and tribulations involved with executing each technique?

Makes 1 6-inch cake, or 6-8 servings:
For the banana milk-chocolate chip chiffon cake:
2 eggs, separated
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1oz banana milk
1oz canola oil
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
a pinch of salt
1/3 cup mini chocolate chips

In a bowl, whip together the egg whites with the vanilla and half of the sugar to stiff peaks. In another bowl, whisk together the egg yolks with remaining sugar, oil, and banana milk, whipping them together until light and airy. Sift into the egg yolk mixture your flour, baking powder, and salt. Then fold into that the whipped egg whites to form your batter. Spread the batter into a lined 1/4-sheet tray and sprinkle over that the chocolate chips. Bake at 350 degrees F for 20 minutes. Allow the cake to cool down before cutting out 3 5-inch disks from it, using cake scraps if necessary.

For the soak:
3oz Korean banana milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
a pinch of salt

Mix everything together.

For the passionfruit jam:
pulp from 4 passionfruit
1oz granulated sugar
1 tsp cornstarch
a pinch of salt

In a pot, stir everything together over medium heat until it all comes up to a boil. Allow the jam to cool before using.

For initial assembly:
Line a 5-inch ring mold with cling wrap and cooking spray. Start with one round of cake, then apply 1/3 of the soak onto that. Then add in 1/3 of the jam. Repeat these steps for the second round. For the third round, add on the last of the cake and the soak – save the rest of the jam for the top of the cake. Freeze the cake solid, at least 1 hour in the freezer, before attempting the next part of the assembly process.

For the banana milk mousse:
4oz Korean banana milk
1/4 cup white chocolate
2 egg yolks
1 tsp gelatin powder + 1 tbsp cold water
a pinch of salt
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup heavy cream, whipped stiff

In a pot, heat up the banana milk with the white chocolate until the two are melted together. In a bowl, whisk the egg yolks, gelatin, salt, and temper that with half of the white chocolate mixture. Then add the egg yolks back into the pot of white chocolate-banana milk and whisk everything on medium-high heat until the gelatin fully dissolves into the liquid. Pour the liquid through a sieve to remove any lumps and then whisk into that the vanilla extract first. Allow the mixture to cool down to room temperature before folding in the heavy cream to form your mousse.

Line a 6-inch ring mold with acetate and place onto a lined sheet tray. Pour the mousse into the ring mold, then press the cake into the mousse until the cake is submerged in the mousse itself. Freeze everything together until solid, another 2 hours, before attempting to unmold. Keep the cake frozen solid until time to glaze.

For the banana milk-chocolate mirror glaze:
1/4 cup Korean banana milk
2 tbsp gelatin powder
1/3 cup heavy cream
a pinch of salt
1 cup dark chocolate

Mix the gelatin into the banana. Heat up the gelatin mixture with the heavy cream and salt. Once the mixture is boiling, add in the dark chocolate. Let the mixture cook on low heat for 1 minute before taking off heat and stirring until combined. Pour through a sieve to remove any lumps and the tangerine zest. Allow the glaze to cool down to 90 degrees F before attempting to use on the cake. To glaze, place the frozen cake on an elevated surface(I use an upside down deli cup on a sheet tray to catch the spare glaze). Pour the glaze onto the cake and allow it to set at room temperature for at least 2 minutes before transferring to the freezer.

For garnish:
2 fresh bananas
1 cup granulated sugar
Reserved passionfruit jam
Gold pearl sprinkles

Spread the passionfruit jam on top of the cake. With the bananas, slice them into 1/4-inch thick disks and cut out stars from each disk. Sprinkle sugar on top of each banana slice and brulee the sugar using a blowtorch. Garnish the top of the cake with the bruleed bananas and the gold pearl sprinkles to finish.