Lime & Coconut Drizzle Cake

Again, the thought of throwing out a soon-to-be-expiring can of coconut milk brought out the daring in me. This, I believe, is the first time I have combined coconut and lime in a cake. And take my word for it - it's sublime! Gregg Wallace's recipe in the BBC Good Food magazine of January 2007 provided the source that I adapted. Things I changed: I didn't bother with the sugar sprinkle and I poked (stabbed more like it) the cake many times before pouring in the syrup icing just like the lemon drizzle version.


Lime & Coconut Drizzle Cake

100 g  butter - softened
175 g  caster sugar
2 eggs
175 g  self-raising flour
1 tsp baking powder
400 g  coconut milk - divided
finely grated zest of 2 limes

*For icing
half of coconut milk from the cake
150 g  caster sugar
juice of three limes

*For sugar sprinkle [optional]
50 g  caster sugar
finely grated zest of 1 lime

1. Heat oven to 180°C/fan 160°C/350°F/gas mark 4. Butter and line a 9 x 5-inch loaf pan with baking parchment.
2. Put all the ingredients in a bowl and beat everything with an electric until batter is smooth and well combined. Add and stir in enough coconut milk (about 1/3 cup) to make the batter into droppable consistency.
3. Pour mixture in the prepared loaf pan and bake for 40 minutes or until a skewer poked in the middle comes out clean.
4. While the cake is baking, make the icing syrup: mix the coconut milk with 150 gm of the caster sugar in a saucepan. Boil for about 10-15 minutes, while stirring from time to time, until syrupy and you can see the bottom of the pan when stirred.
5. Stir in the lime juice, remove from heat and set aside.
6. If using sugar sprinkle, crush the remaining sugar with the lime zest until it becomes a damp green paste. Set aside.
7. When the loaf has finished baking, remove from oven; [optional] poke the cake many times with a thin skewer. Pour the icing a little at a time, waiting for the cake to absorb it before adding more. Leave the cake to cool in the pan.
8. Once completely cool, remove from pan and sprinkle with lime sugar (if using).

Note: The original recipe did not require poking the finished cake. I just did this so that the icing syrup would penetrate the cake down in the middle more. It is up to you if you want to do this.