This recipe from ‘GoodFood 101 teatimes treats’ has been nagging at me for a while. It felt like a cursed recipe, because every time I thought, yeah, I’ll make it, I couldn’t get any limes or they only had one left. Or worse, someone would say, ‘can’t you make … instead?’. Mostly, however, I had trouble with the limes.

If this was the 1980s, this would have been ideal for ‘Murder, she wrote’.  I would have contacted Aunt Jessica and I’m confident that when she began her investigation, there would be a sudden murder of a mutual friend of ours whom neither of us had ever mentioned.

And the solitary lime sat on the shelf would have been involved. At the end, we would be in the freeze-frame as we sipped mojitos with the cursed lime adorning our glasses as we grinned our blinding white teeth at each other for the beginning of the music. Oh how we laughed as we recovered from the grisly death of the mutual friend with startling speed.

Anyway, this is not the 1980s and I do not have an Aunt Jessica (and that’s a shame, because frankly, most of her ‘nieces’ were pretty well-heeled) but there you go. I acquired some limes. Game on.

As always, preheat your oven to GM4/180C/350F, butter and line a 2lb loaf tin.

Get this lot ready:

Into a large bowl, put 100g unsalted butter and 175g caster sugar with the zest of 2 cursed limes. Creeeeeeeeeeam until fluffy! (high five!)

Add 2 eggs, beat them in and add 175g self-raising flour and 1 tsp baking powder. As you blend that in, add 200ml of coconut milk (half the tin).

Pour into your prepared tin and bake for around 40 mins, until golden and firm. I ended up putting it back for another 5 minutes because I wasn’t convinced the middle was cooked as much as it could be and bearing in mind how much syrup goes on top, that could all get a bit grim.

Whilst the cake is cooking, make the sugar topping;  put 3 tblsp sugar and the zest of the third cursed lime into a bowl and squish them together – sort of rub the zest into the sugar with the back of a spoon.

From this:

to this:

Then prepare the ‘icing’. You need a pan for this. I have a new child – it’s a kitchenaid milk pan and I cannot tell you the joy that looking at this pan has brought me. In retrospect, I would have been far, far wiser to have used my large saucepan, but admire this little beauty first and then I’ll elaborate.

So into the pan goes the remaining half of the tin of coconut milk (that is 200ml of milk there) and 5.5oz sugar. Confidently simmer this mixture for 5 mins until it goes syrupy.

I did this, but after 5 mins, it wasn’t particularly syrupy but was colouring a little. I reasoned with myself that I have never reduced the ‘drizzle’ of a drizzle cake to a syrup before, so watery would be fine. Also, there was no way I was going to scorch my new pan. As I said, a larger pan would have increased the rate of evaporation, so a syrup – that is, being able to see the bottom of the pan when you stir it -  would have been easier to achieve. Lesson learned, but love for new milk pan intact.

Once the cake is cooked, leave it in the tin and begin to offer the icing to it. I always gently prick the cake with a toothpick/skewer-y thing all over. The law of gravity dictates that the sides of the cake get most lucky, but at least you’re confident that the centre will get some action.

Pour the icing over the hot cake. Slowly and patiently. You cannot do this whilst getting ready to walk out of the door. It will destroy the moment. If it takes to long to soak in, poke it again with your skewer-y thing. You shouldn’t have to have the patience of a Saint.

Now, remembering that I didn’t sufficiently reduce the syrup, I had a LOT of ‘icing’ so i didn’t use it all. I suspect that if I had reduced it more, it would have been just right..

…but it doesn’t exactly look unpleasant hmm?

Leave it on a wire rack, in the tin to cool completely. Once it has got to ‘finger cool’ on top, go ahead and sprinkle the lime zesty-sugar over it.

Then you must leave it alone to cool completely. Sorry.

Alex took a plate back to the kitchen and was there rather a long time. I caught him just before the index finger made contact with the zesty sugar. So let it cool somewhere away from other mammals.

Once cooled, slice and enjoy. Send Angela Lansbury a slice, but I doubt she’ll remember me. Probably because she doesn’t know me. Maybe she knows you?

Yum

Coconut and Lime Drizzle Cake

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The cake:
100g unsalted butter, softened
175g self-raising flour
1 tsp baking powder
175g caster sugar
2 eggs
200ml coconut cake (half a tin)
grated zest of 2 limes (you’ll need 3 in total)

The drizzle icing:
200ml coconut milk
150g caster sugar
juice of 3 limes

The sugar:
3 tblsp caster sugar
zest of 1 (the 3rd and final) lime

Preheat oven to GM4/180C/350F
Grease and line a 2lb/1kg loaf tin.

Cream the butter, sugar and zest until fluffy. Add the eggs and beat in well. Add the flour, baking powder and coconut milk, folding in gently but firmly.
Pour mixture into prepared tin and bake for around 40 mins until golden and firm to the touch.

For icing, pour coconut milk and sugar into a saucepan and simmer/boil for 5 mins or so until the mixture is syrupy (you can see the bottom of the pan as you stir it). Don’t worry if, like me, you lose your bottle, just don’t use all the syrup.
Remove from heat and stir in the lime juice. Set aside.

For the sugar, put the 3 tblsp sugar and lime zest into a bowl and press together with the back of a spoon to get all the lime oil in the zest into the sugar. Set aside.

Remove cake from oven, lightly pierce with a fine skewer all over. Gently and slowly drizzle the icing over the top – let each addition soak in before adding more.
Leave cake in tin on a wire rack to cool, but once the top is cool to the touch, go ahead and sprinkle the lime sugar over the top. Put a little on, if it melts, stop and do it later.
Cool completely in the tin, then once cold, remove from tin and carefully remove the paper. Slice and serve.

recipe adapted from Good Food 101 teatime treats.