Lime, raspberry & white chocolate drizzle cake
Cut this cake into hearty chunks and take it on a summer’s picnic or slice it in delicate fingers and nestle it amongst other dainty morsels on a fine china cake stand for afternoon tea. You can even serve it as a scrumptious dessert – straight from the oven, with clotted cream or crème fraîche. Aromatic limes with tangy raspberries and sweet velvety white chocolate… sheer bliss! I love making this cake in the summer with freshly picked raspberries, but you can make an equally delectable autumnal version by replacing the raspberries with blackberries.
What you need:
One 22cm (9 inch) square cake tin
FOR THE CAKE:
– 200g / 7oz raspberries (1½ cups)
– 225g / 8oz butter (2 sticks)
– 225g / 8oz golden caster sugar * (1 cup)
– 4 free-range eggs (UK medium / USA large) *
– 30g / 1oz ground almonds * (¼ cup)
– 2 limes, zest and juice
– 100g / 3½oz good quality white chocolate, broken into pieces (½ cup)
– 250g / 9oz plain flour * (2 cups)
– 10ml / 2 tsp baking powder
FOR THE LIME SYRUP:
– 85g / 3oz granulated sugar (6 Tbsp)
– Juice of 2 limes
– 45ml / 3 Tbsp boiling water
– 2.5ml / ½ tsp vanilla extract *
– Zest of 1 lime
What you do:
Makes 12 hearty portions (and many more delicate ones)
- Before you start, spread the raspberries on a baking sheet and freeze them for about 30 minutes. (If you mix them into the cake batter without freezing them first, they break up and the cake turns bright pink!)
- Preheat the oven to 160ºC / 320ºF.
- Line the base and sides of the cake tin with baking parchment.
- Cream the butter and sugar together until pale and fluffy. Beat the eggs lightly and add them to the creamed mixture in several batches, mixing well between each addition.
- Add the ground almonds. Grate the lime zest directly into the mixture and then add the juice and fold in the white chocolate chunks.
- Sift the flour and baking powder into the bowl and mix. Lastly, add the raspberries, taking care not to break them up.
- Spoon the mixture into the cake tin. Bake for 35 – 40 minutes, until the cake is firm to the touch and golden in colour. You can also test it with a skewer to be sure it is cooked through.
- While the cake is baking, make the lime syrup: Combine all the ingredients except the zest in a small heavy-based pan, stir well to dissolve the sugar and then boil for 3 minutes, until it becomes ‘syrupy’.
- As soon as the cake comes out of the oven, prick the surface with a fine skewer. Sprinkle the lime zest onto the cake and spoon the syrup over it.
- Leave the cake to cool completely and absorb all the syrup before removing it from the tin.
- This cake is perfect as is, but you can decorate it with a drizzle of melted white chocolate or with fresh raspberries and a dusting of icing sugar.
Enjoy the picnic! If you’re craving more royal recipes, there are 100 more delicious dishes created by Robb, in her new cookbook: The Royal Touch: Simply Stunning Home Cooking From A Royal Chef. And if you’d like your very own copy, ACC Art Books is offering Urban Suburban Mommy’s readers a 35% discount, just use promo code: ROYAL to save on your order!
Carolyn Robb was Personal Chef to TRH Prince and Princess of Wales, Prince William and Prince Harry for ten years.
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