I know, I know... I've been a bad blogger. Unfortunately, 11 hour work days and 5 hours of sleep do not a good blogger make. However, in my attempt to appease the angry, pitchfork-bearing crowds demanding an update (i.e. my seven followers...ahem), I come bearing gifts. Delicious, cake-like gifts.
See? Present! For you!
A couple of weeks ago at a girly dinner with friends, I had a slice of cake (shock horror!). It was a rather delicious (albeit it too crumbly) lime, ginger and coconut loaf cake. A little light-bulb went off over my head. "I can make this!" said the little light-bulb. (Yes, my light-bulbs speak. Yes, we shall swiftly move on from this mildly worrying confession of mine).
And thus, after a bit of rooting around our rather extensive collection of cookbooks, the lime-ginger syrup cake was born.
I decided against using coconut, to avoid an overly-crumbly texture, and also decided on a syrup cake in the hopes of getting a flavourful, light cake. I think it turned out rather well, and it was very well received by my guinea-pigs, but I'll let you be the judge of that. This recipe is actually adapted from Nigella's lemon syrup cake in "How to be a Domestic Goddess".
Lime-ginger Syrup Cake.
Ingredients
For the cake:
125g unsalted butter
175g caster sugar
2 large eggs
zest of two large limes
Juice of four limes
Pinch of salt
Two tablespoons of milk.
For the syrup:
Juice of two limes
Finger of young ginger
100g of caster sugar
Approximately 100ml of water
Before you get started, preheat your oven to 175 degrees Celsius (fan oven). Butter and line your loaf tin well, making sure you really get into the corners. Few things distress me more than cake getting stuck in the tin (this may or may not be true).
Next, step back and admire the sparkling emerald gems that are going to make this cake extra special. Then frown and figure out how on earth you're going to make their knobbly-looking friend look photogenic.
For an amateur photographer like me, apparently there is no way...
The first step, as with any basic cake, is creaming together your butter and sugar. It really is important to make sure you cream your butter for long enough as the friction of the sugar beating against the butter helps to create a fluffier, lighter cake. You want to cream the butter and sugar until the butter begins to turn pale, rather than a bright yellow.
I very recently acquired a new toy, so very much enjoyed this part of the baking process. I've always wanted a stand mixer (especially since I make a lot of meringue/pavlova and it just makes life that much simpler), and I managed to nick this rather nifty Kenwood Chef off my grandmother, who just doesn't really use it. It's not quite a Kitchenaid, but it'll do for now and I'll just have to keep lusting over Apple Red Kitchenaid mixers online instead...
My New Friend.
Anyway, back on track... Once your butter has started to turn pale, add in the eggs, lime juice and zest, makig sure to beat them in well. Don't worry if the lime juice makes the mixture curdle slightly - it will sort itself out once you add your flour and so far I haven't found that slight curdling affects the taste or texture of the end product.
Pretty, pretty zest. Love zest.
This is probably a good time to note that the amount of juice and zest suggested here is very much to my personal taste. I really wanted quite a tangy flavour to the cake, but if you aren't too keen on overly zingy cakes then reduce the quantity of juice. The zest adds a nice aroma to the cake rather than actually contributing to the tanginess, so you can omit the juice and just keep the zest if you are not looking for a very 'limey' flavour.
Once your eggs and zest have been well combined into the mixture, sift in your flour and salt. Fold the flour into the mixture thoroughly, but gently, and then add in your milk.
When the batter has been thoroughly combined, spoon it into your prepared cake tin and step back and marvel at the tiny little green flecks of zest peeping through the batter.
Place your cake into the oven and bake for 45 minutes or until it is golden and has risen in the middle. It is ready when an inserted cake-tester comes out clean and without any batter sticking to it.
While your cake is baking, this is a good opportunity to make your lime-ginger syrup. Take your finger of ginger and give it a quick rinse/scrub to clean it. Roughly chop it up into slivers and then place it in a small saucepan with your caster sugar, lime juice and water. Bring the mixture up to a gentle simmer, stirring constantly; you do not want the mixture to boil. After a few minutes you should be able to really smell the ginger beginning to infuse in the syrup. Again, the quantities suggested are very much to my own personal taste - if you are not a fan of ginger, you can certainly leave it out and make a simple lime syrup instead. Once the syrup has thickened slightly but is still runny enough to pour freely, strain the mixture so that you have only the liquid syrup.
You should pour the syrup quite liberally over the whole cake. As soon as the cake comes out of the oven, puncture it with a cake-tester (or whatever you have that is suitable - you don't want to gouge big chunks of cake out, but you do want to puncture holes right down into the bottom of the cake without breaking through the other side). When you have thoroughly punctured holes all over your cake, pour the syrup over the cake. Make sure to let the middle part of the cake absorb the syrup as well as the sides, then leave the cake aside to soak up the liquid.
It is important that you don't try to take the cake out of the tin until it has cooled completely as it will be sodden with syrup and will crumble if you try to remove it from the tin too early. Once the cake reaches room temperature, you could clingfilm the top and leave it in the fridge overnight to really let the syrup do its work. Otherwise, wait until it is completely cooled then carefully turn it out of the tin, grab a fork, and enjoy!
Definitely try this out - it is a really great tea cake, or a rather light but more-ish dessert. I'm sure it would taste great topped with a little whipped cream on the side if you were feeling naughty, but it tastes lovely on its own. I brought it as a light dessert to our friend's house, and between 8 of us we managed to polish off the lot in one sitting...
A couple of weeks ago at a girly dinner with friends, I had a slice of cake (shock horror!). It was a rather delicious (albeit it too crumbly) lime, ginger and coconut loaf cake. A little light-bulb went off over my head. "I can make this!" said the little light-bulb. (Yes, my light-bulbs speak. Yes, we shall swiftly move on from this mildly worrying confession of mine).
And thus, after a bit of rooting around our rather extensive collection of cookbooks, the lime-ginger syrup cake was born.
I decided against using coconut, to avoid an overly-crumbly texture, and also decided on a syrup cake in the hopes of getting a flavourful, light cake. I think it turned out rather well, and it was very well received by my guinea-pigs, but I'll let you be the judge of that. This recipe is actually adapted from Nigella's lemon syrup cake in "How to be a Domestic Goddess".
Lime-ginger Syrup Cake.
Ingredients
For the cake:
125g unsalted butter
175g caster sugar
2 large eggs
zest of two large limes
Juice of four limes
Pinch of salt
Two tablespoons of milk.
For the syrup:
Juice of two limes
Finger of young ginger
100g of caster sugar
Approximately 100ml of water
Before you get started, preheat your oven to 175 degrees Celsius (fan oven). Butter and line your loaf tin well, making sure you really get into the corners. Few things distress me more than cake getting stuck in the tin (this may or may not be true).
Next, step back and admire the sparkling emerald gems that are going to make this cake extra special. Then frown and figure out how on earth you're going to make their knobbly-looking friend look photogenic.
The first step, as with any basic cake, is creaming together your butter and sugar. It really is important to make sure you cream your butter for long enough as the friction of the sugar beating against the butter helps to create a fluffier, lighter cake. You want to cream the butter and sugar until the butter begins to turn pale, rather than a bright yellow.
I very recently acquired a new toy, so very much enjoyed this part of the baking process. I've always wanted a stand mixer (especially since I make a lot of meringue/pavlova and it just makes life that much simpler), and I managed to nick this rather nifty Kenwood Chef off my grandmother, who just doesn't really use it. It's not quite a Kitchenaid, but it'll do for now and I'll just have to keep lusting over Apple Red Kitchenaid mixers online instead...
Anyway, back on track... Once your butter has started to turn pale, add in the eggs, lime juice and zest, makig sure to beat them in well. Don't worry if the lime juice makes the mixture curdle slightly - it will sort itself out once you add your flour and so far I haven't found that slight curdling affects the taste or texture of the end product.
This is probably a good time to note that the amount of juice and zest suggested here is very much to my personal taste. I really wanted quite a tangy flavour to the cake, but if you aren't too keen on overly zingy cakes then reduce the quantity of juice. The zest adds a nice aroma to the cake rather than actually contributing to the tanginess, so you can omit the juice and just keep the zest if you are not looking for a very 'limey' flavour.
Once your eggs and zest have been well combined into the mixture, sift in your flour and salt. Fold the flour into the mixture thoroughly, but gently, and then add in your milk.
When the batter has been thoroughly combined, spoon it into your prepared cake tin and step back and marvel at the tiny little green flecks of zest peeping through the batter.
Place your cake into the oven and bake for 45 minutes or until it is golden and has risen in the middle. It is ready when an inserted cake-tester comes out clean and without any batter sticking to it.
While your cake is baking, this is a good opportunity to make your lime-ginger syrup. Take your finger of ginger and give it a quick rinse/scrub to clean it. Roughly chop it up into slivers and then place it in a small saucepan with your caster sugar, lime juice and water. Bring the mixture up to a gentle simmer, stirring constantly; you do not want the mixture to boil. After a few minutes you should be able to really smell the ginger beginning to infuse in the syrup. Again, the quantities suggested are very much to my own personal taste - if you are not a fan of ginger, you can certainly leave it out and make a simple lime syrup instead. Once the syrup has thickened slightly but is still runny enough to pour freely, strain the mixture so that you have only the liquid syrup.
You should pour the syrup quite liberally over the whole cake. As soon as the cake comes out of the oven, puncture it with a cake-tester (or whatever you have that is suitable - you don't want to gouge big chunks of cake out, but you do want to puncture holes right down into the bottom of the cake without breaking through the other side). When you have thoroughly punctured holes all over your cake, pour the syrup over the cake. Make sure to let the middle part of the cake absorb the syrup as well as the sides, then leave the cake aside to soak up the liquid.
It is important that you don't try to take the cake out of the tin until it has cooled completely as it will be sodden with syrup and will crumble if you try to remove it from the tin too early. Once the cake reaches room temperature, you could clingfilm the top and leave it in the fridge overnight to really let the syrup do its work. Otherwise, wait until it is completely cooled then carefully turn it out of the tin, grab a fork, and enjoy!
Definitely try this out - it is a really great tea cake, or a rather light but more-ish dessert. I'm sure it would taste great topped with a little whipped cream on the side if you were feeling naughty, but it tastes lovely on its own. I brought it as a light dessert to our friend's house, and between 8 of us we managed to polish off the lot in one sitting...
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