Passionfruit Cupcakes With White Chocolate And Passionfruit Ganache

I wanted to make passionfruit cupcakes to celebrate an almost-over summer, a summer that has brought much joy, of beach, of ocean, of sun, of glowing blue skies. I was deliberating over a simple icing or I thought a white chocolate ganache would be more interesting. Leisurely browsing March Gourmet Traveller in bed on Saturday morning (is there anything better?), there was a feature on passionfruit, with white chocolate passionfruit ganache, so there was my sign.

Buying the passionfruit was almost a mission impossible, but when I fix my mind on something...I finally found them at $1 each and they were lovely heavy, juicy numbers. Use fresh passionfruit; I was wary of the tinned stuff for it's syrupy sweetness and adjusting the other ingredients accordingly. For the ganache, I used Lindt couverture (available at The Essential Ingredient, where I went a bit overboard, ssh).

Note: This is a Women's Weekly recipe I found on the divine Cupcaketastic blog. However my batter only yielded 9 cupcakes, with a slight amendment.

Passionfruit Cakes (mine yielded 9, not 12 as stated)
30g butter, softened (I added another 30g)
1/2 cup castor sugar
2 eggs
1 cup self-raising flour
1/4 cup passionfruit pulp, strained

Preheat oven to 180C. Beat butter until soft and fluffy, add eggs and beat until pale. Stir in sugar and flour and beat until the mixture is light and fluffy. Stir in passionfruit pulp. Spoon mixture into cupcake liners resting in muffin moulds until 2/3 full. Bake for 20 minutes, or until a skewer comes out clean. Leave to cool, then top with ganache or other frosting.

White Chocolate And Passionfruit Ganache (adapted from March Gourmet Traveller)
90mL cream
180g white chocolate, cooking or couverture, broken into small pieces
1 Ts passionfruit pulp, strained

Warm cream and pulp in a saucepan until almost boiling, then stir in chocolate pieces until melted. Leave to cool, then refrigerate for at least 4 hours. The ganache will thicken and then be ready to pipe or spread over cupcakes.