Lemon & Lime Cake

Servings: 10 – 12                    Time: Around 1hr 50 min including baking and cooling

Difficulty: Fairly easy

A straight-forward cake with a terrific tangy flavour and a lovely grainy texture.

Ingredients

Cake:

  • 300g unsalted butter, softened
  • 300g caster sugar
  • 2 limes – zest/rind + juice
  • Zest + juice from half a lemon (save other half for later)
  • 4 eggs (beaten)
  • 300g ground almonds
  • 160g polenta
  • 1 tsp baking powder

Glaze & Filling:

  • 1 lime – zest/rind + juice
  • Zest + juice from half a lemon
  • 75g caster sugar
  • 300g mascarpone cheese
  • About 50 – 60g lemon curd

Equipment: A deep sided 23cm/9″ round tin, ideally loose bottomed

Directions:

  1. Preheat the oven to 140° fan. Grease the tin and line the base with baking paper.
  2. Put butter, sugar and the lime zest into a large bowl and beat with an electric mixer until pale and fluffy.
  3. Gradually whisk in the eggs, then add ground almonds, polenta, Lemon & lime juices and 1 tspn baking powder. Carefully fold in until thoroughly combined.
  4. Spoon the mixture into the prepared tin. Bake in the oven for about 75 – 80 minutes. (Check after 60 mins – cover if necessary). Put to one side while making  the glaze.
  5. For the glaze, put 75g sugar, 2 tablespoons of water and the juice from the third lime + lemon juice in a pan and stir over a low heat until all the sugar has dissolved, then simmer for 2 – 3 minutes until syrupy. (Keep any zest for later if needed) Spoon the hot syrup over the still warm cake. (N.B. You can prick holes before adding the glaze, but it may not be necessary – your decision)
  6. Leave the baked cake in the tin until cooled.
  7. Meanwhile, make the filling by mixing the mascarpone cheese with some or all of the Lemon curd. (How “lemony” you make this is up to you.) N.B. I must admit, the photos show a filling where I used Greek Yoghurt and Lemon curd. This was too runny. Mascarpone or any full fat cream cheese is probably a better option. If not, let me know please.)
  8. Remove cake from the tin and slice in half horizontally. Keep the flattest half to go on top and place the other half on a board or serving plate.
  9. Spoon or pipe the filling over the lower half* and carefully put the second half on top, flat side upwards. (*You need to save some if you intend having a thin layer on top of the cake to sit sprinkles on.)
  10. More choices now for the topping, three possibilities are: a) icing sugar and zest. b) mascarpone/curd + sprinkles. c) Yellow buttercream……etc.