Eat, DINK and Be Merry

Happy Independence Day!  Today I am declaring temporary independence from editing my Hawaii photos, and sharing something delicious instead.  I do that every time I take a trip somewhere — I shoot hundreds of photos and then come home and burn out a fraction of the way through the resizing/editing process.  It has taught me to be more selective about determining what I like enough to edit, but I still have to categorize and go through all of them in the first place!  Thank goodness for digital.

The recipe for this summery cake was delivered to my inbox a few weeks ago via the King Arthur newsletter — the source of most of my favorite baked goods recipes.  If your sweet tooth runs your life like mine does, you really should subscribe.  Occasionally there is a recipe for something savory, but you can just delete those emails and nobody will have to know!

This cake is inspired by the lime rickey, a cousin of the mojito.  I think you could dress it up any number of ways and end up with something amazing.  King Arthur suggested a raspberry sauce, but I’m not a fan of fruit with my dessert (wait, isn’t lime a fruit?  Don’t worry, I didn’t use any limes.  The recipe gives you the option of using lime oil, which unlike limes, I already had).  I considered a ginger glaze, but I feel like I always do ginger with lime, so this time I decided to keep it simple.

I opted to use a bundt pan instead of the recommended 9×13 because it always makes me happy to see something pretty on my cake plate.  Plan on about 45 minutes of cooking time if you go this route.  And instead of the glaze they recommend, I whipped the following until it was uniform and stiff:

• 4 tbsp (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, melted
• 2 tbsp milk
• 1/4 tsp lime oil
• 2 cups confectioner’s sugar

I love the crunch of sparkling sugar on top of baked goods, so I mixed half a cup with lime oil as recommended and sprinkled it on the glaze.  I had maybe half a cup of glaze and half of the sparkling sugar left when I decided the cake was frosted enough.

So how did the cake turn out?  We both had seconds on the first night and Mark declared it one of his favorite recipes yet.  He says that about almost everything (except for the one time I made a cake with Crisco that had gone bad, whoops), but this really is a very good cake.  I was a little worried that it would be too candy-like with the lime glaze, and it is very sweet, but not overpowering.

Even if you are a purist who insists on zesting actual limes, this simple cake would be a great last-minute treat that you could whip up and serve with about an hour’s notice.  It’s pretty moist, so I think you could even skip the glaze and whip some heavy cream.  See what you think!