When I posted my ridiculous salted caramel spiced carrot cake, a friend of mine who can’t eat chocolate let me know that she was always looking for sweet, chocolate-free treats. So I promised her I’d post my lime and coconut cake – it is something I’ve made loads of times but on this occasion, I actually made notes on how to adjust it from a bog standard plain vanilla cake.
The lime and coconut cake dials back the butter because it features a generous hit of coconut milk and the juice of a lime, along with my old favourite, desiccated coconut, for extra texture. The result is a fluffy texture that is, dare I say it, moist.
For the frosting, a boring butter cream frosting is elevated by a coconut milk and a little more lime juice – it’s perfectly fine to use bottled lime juice, especially if you’ve only got one lime in the house and its juice has already gone into cake batter. Indeed, I sang the praises of bottled lemon and lime juice earlier this month in a post about easy food cheats that nobody should be ashamed to use. And because I hate waste, the first step for this lime and coconut cake is the ceremonial zesting of the lime for a pretty green finishing touch.
As I cooked this cake, my husband said the house smelled like cocktails, particularly mojitos by the pool on holiday. While it’s nigh-on impossible to go on holiday to somewhere warm and European at the moment, if I can bake a lime and coconut cake and be briefly transported to good times in Spain, Greece and Cyprus, that is surely a Good Thing.
Lime and coconut cake
Ingredients
For the cake
125g butter, room temperature
175g self-raising flour
175g caster sugar
1 tsp baking powder
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla essence or extract
Juice of one lime or two tablespoons of bottled lime juice (plus the zest for decoration, if you’re using a fresh lime)
125ml coconut milk
125g desiccated coconut
For the frosting
100g butter, room temperature
1/2 tsp vanilla essence or extract
2-3 tablespoons coconut milk
325g icing sugar
Desiccated coconut and lime zest to decorate
Instructions
- First, zest the lime if you’re using a fresh lime. Set the zest aside in a clean bowl for decorating at the end.
- Preheat the oven to 180C and grease a cake tin. This recipe can also be used to make approximately 12 cupcakes.
- Put all cake ingredients into a large mixing bowl and mix with an electric mixer or a wooden spoon until all ingredients are well-combined. The only bumps should be the desiccated coconut.
- Pour the cake batter into the prepared tin and bake for 40-50 minutes.
- When the cake is golden-brown on top and a skewer comes out clean after you poke it in the middle, let the cake cool completely before frosting.
- To make the frosting, combine all frosting ingredients apart from the coconut milk in a bowl.
- Add 2 tablespoons of coconut milk and mix in well. If the texture is too thick for your liking, mix the third tablespoon of coconut milk through.
- Spread the frosting on the cooled cake with a table knife or dessert spoon. Sprinkle the lime zest and some desiccated coconut on top to finish.