This is a delightfully fragrant cake, studded with tender pieces of feijoa. I like to add a mashed banana for texture but you can leave this out if preferred and just add a couple more chopped feijoas instead.

175g butter
½ cup caster sugar
½ cup firmly-packed brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 eggs
6 medium feijoas, peeled and chopped
1 large ripe banana, mashed
1 teaspoon baking soda
3 tablespoons boiling milk
1½ cups plain flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
LEMON FROSTING:
25g butter, softened
2 cups icing sugar, sifted
Juice of 1 lemon
BURNT HONEY FEIJOAS:
3 tablespoons runny honey
2-3 medium feijoas, peeled and finely sliced
Preheat oven to 160C fan bake. Line a 17 x 27cm sheet cake tin with baking paper, leaving a 5cm overhang on all sides.
In a mixing bowl, beat the butter and sugars together until pale and creamy. Beat in the vanilla and the eggs, one at a time. Add the feijoas and banana and beat well. In a small bowl, mix the baking soda into the hot milk – it will foam – then add this to the cake mixture.
Fold in the flour and baking powder, sifted together. Spread the mixture into the prepared cake tin.
Bake for 35-40 minutes or until a skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean. Remove to cool in the tin.
Once cold, cover with lemon frosting and dot with burnt honey feijoas.
For the lemon frosting, whisk all ingredients together in a bowl until pale and fluffy.
To make the burnt honey feijoas, put the honey in a small pot set over medium heat. Cook for a minute or two or until the honey starts to caramelise and smells like burnt caramel – but take care so that it doesn’t actually burn. Remove from the heat and immediately stir in a couple of tablespoons of cold water and the feijoas. Cook over medium heat for 2-3 minutes, stirring gently every now and then until feijoas are soft and a bit jammy in texture. Remove to cool and then loosely dot over the surface of the frosting.
Serves 14-16