Inspiration for our weekly Cakes & Bakes posts come from all manner of places. This week’s was slightly out of the ordinary – a scrap of crumpled old paper with Justin’s handwriting on it, that fell out of a book whilst we were tidying some shelves.
He’d jotted down a recipe for a coconut and lime cake. I showed it to him but he couldn’t remember doing it or where he’d, in fact, copied it from; I guessed it might have been an episode of a Rachel Allen cookery program from years ago maybe. I’m probably wrong!
The notes he made were pretty vague. The instructions read thus: “Mix all ingredients together. Bake in cake tins. Gas Mark 3 → 30-35 mins”.
Delia’s All-in-one sponge method is pretty similar; however, with the addition of lime juice, I thought that the mixture would be prone to curdling if I just chucked it all in together. In the end, I did the classic creaming of the butter & sugar, adding the eggs (pre-beaten) a little at a time interspersed with a serving spoon of the flour, then the juice, followed by the sifted flour/baking powder and dessicated coconut.
The other thing I did differently was to use a single cake tin instead of dividing the mixture equally between two. I merely upped the cook time from 30 minutes to an hour, keeping the temperature the same. Sometimes I prefer to simply slice the one cake horizontally through the middle; I find that it sandwiches back together better after spreading the icing.
Oh, and I didn’t have any coconut milk powder (the original recipe calls for 2 tablespoons) – I substituted it with powdered skimmed milk and a little coconut extract. It worked for me!
Finally, I decided against the water icing topping and went instead for a butter icing. I think it turned out brilliantly. It’s an attractive, ‘summery’ looking cake. The combination of coconut and lime is a well established cooking classic – sweet, yet zingy. I can vouch for the fact that it works really well in this sponge cake manifestation!
Click here to save the recipe to Pinterest
Coconut and lime cake
2019-06-25 14:43:18
Serves 6
- 170g/6oz butter, softened
- 170g/6oz caster sugar
- 3 eggs
- juice of 2 limes
- 170g/6oz self-raising flour
- 1tsp baking powder
- 60g/2oz dessicated coconut
- 285g/10oz icing sugar (powdered sugar)
- 50g/1¾oz butter, softened
- 2tbsp lime juice
- Zest of 2 limes
Add ingredients to shopping list
If you don’t have Buy Me a Pie! app installed you’ll see the list with ingredients right after downloading it
- Preheat the oven to 160ºC/325ºF/Gas mark 3
- Grease and line a 15cm/6" loose-bottomed cake tin with baking parchment
- In the bowl of a stand mixer, cream the butter and the sugar
- In a measuring jug, lightly beat the eggs
- Pour the eggs into the butter/sugar mixture in 3 stages and mix in, with a serving spoon of the flour (to prevent curdling)
- Mix in the lime juice
- Fold in the dry ingredients (flour/baking powder/dessicated coconut)
- Spoon the mixture into the prepared cake tin, levelling out the surface
- Bake for 50 minutes to an hour or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes away clean
- Allow to cool in its tin for 5 minutes before removing it and letting it cool completely on a wire rack
- Sift the icing sugar into a bowl to remove any lumps
- Add the butter and combine well
- Add the lime juice, a tablespoon at a time, until the required consistency is achieved
- Sprinkle over the lime zest and serve
Print
H is for Home Harbinger https://hisforhomeblog.com/
A Victoria sandwich is a quintessentially British cake and this sponge cake with raspberry and mascarpone cream is a little twist on that. It follows the Delia Smith all-in-one sponge recipe that I use as the base of many of my sponge cakes.
I spread a few large dollops of the wild raspberry jelly I made in the summer between the layers and used a mascarpone/fromage frais mix instead of whipped cream. I like that little bit of acidity it gives to counter the sweetness of the jelly. This is a lovely cake to have for afternoon tea!
Sponge cake with raspberry and mascarpone cream
Cook Time 30 minutes mins
Total Time 30 minutes mins
- For the sponge
- 8 oz/220g self raising flour sifted
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 8 oz/220g caster sugar
- 8 oz/220g butter or margarine at room temperature
- 4 large eggs
- 4-6 drops vanilla essence
- For the filling
- 8 tbs raspberry jam or jelly
- 250 g mascarpone
- 200 g fromage frais
- 1 tbs castar sugar
- 3 drops vanilla essence
Pre-heat the oven to 170ºC325ºF/Gas mark 3
Into a large mixing bowl, sift the flour and baking powder, holding the sieve high to give the flour a good airing. Then simply add all the other ingredients to the bowl, and whisk - preferably with an electric hand whisk - until thoroughly combined
If the mixture doesn’t drop off a wooden spoon easily when tapped on the side of the bowl, add 1 or 2 teaspoonfuls of tap-warm water and whisk again
Add equal amounts of the mixture to the 2 prepared tins, level off and bake on the centre shelf of the oven for about 30 minutes
When cooked leave in the tins for only about 30 seconds, then loosen their edges by sliding a palette knife all round and turning them out onto a wire cooling rack
For the filling, combine the mascarpone and fromage frais in a bowl; a balloon whisk will amalgamate them more quickly
Stir in the sugar and vanilla extract
Spread 4 tablespoons of jam/jelly over one of the sponge sandwiched, do the same with the other Spread the cream mixture over one of the sandwiches then put the other one, jam side down, on top
Press down carefully to sandwich everything together and finish off with a light dusting of icing or caster sugar
