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
- 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.
- 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.
- Pour mixture in the prepared loaf pan and bake for 40 minutes or until a skewer poked in the middle comes out clean.
- 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.
- Stir in the lime juice, remove from heat and set aside.
- If using sugar sprinkle, crush the remaining sugar with the lime zest until it becomes a damp green paste. Set aside.
- 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.
- Once completely cool, remove from pan and sprinkle with lime sugar (if using).
