Lime, Walnut and Date Tray Bake.

Bought a bundle of cookery magazines from a charity shop the other day, and this recipe was in an Australian one. I like traybakes.
The bake has lots of good things in it - dessicated coconut, lime zest, walnuts, dates, and it's easy to make. The biggest problem was changing the Aussie cups into grams. The cake turned out fine, so I must have my conversions fairly accurate!

Preheat oven 180C/gas4

Grease and line a rectangular tin about 28 x 8 cm.

For the cake:
Put 150g flour, 110g caster sugar, 85g dessicated coconut, finely grated zest of 1 lime [you'll need another lime if you're going to make the candied lime peel, 150g chopped dates and 60g chopped walnuts into a bowl. Stir together.
Add 180g melted butter and mix together; then add 1 egg [lightly beaten] and stir together. Press this mixture into your tin and bake for 20 mins till golden.
Leave in tin for 5 mins then turn out onto wire rack.

For the lime Icing:
Put 225g icing sugar in a bowl with 15 melted butter and 1-2 tbspn lime juice. Mix together and spread over cool cake. Leave to set then cut into squares.

Make some candied lime peel - peel rind off 1 lime with a potato peeler and cut it into thin slices. Put 110g of caster sugar in a pan with 60ml of water. Add lime rind and stir over low heat till sugar has dissolved. Simmer uncovered, without stirring for 5 mins. Drain on wire rack and use it to decorate the tray bake.

Great flavours, lovely textures - crunch from the walnuts, soft from the dates, and the lovely hint of lime. The candied lime peel gives it that extra lime kick. One to make again.
I made the peel before making the cake so it could 'set', if that's the right word. Think I'll make some candied orange and lemon peel using this method - don't like the taste of the shop bought stuff.

Key Lime Mousse Cake

The title is not quite correct because I couldn't find any Key limes! I've made this cake before using oranges, which were the fruit used in the original recipe.It's  from Woman's Weekly magazine, but when I don't know, as it's in my recipe folder. I thought I'd try it with limes, and it turned out well. It's a thick layer of mousse, and it's definitely a dessert cake, rather than a cake to have with a cuppa.
I haven't used the original cake recipe either this time, as I wanted to make a Victoria sandwich.

175g butter
400g caster sugar- 175g for the cake
3 eggs
175g sr flour
1 tspn baking powder
400ml double cream
250g mascarpone cheese
juice and rind of 5 limes
juice of a small orange
1 tbspn gelatine powder
icing sugar to dust
if you want the filling really green, you can use a few drops of green colouring, which I did.

Preheat oven 160C/gas 3
Grease and line a 23cm springform tin.
Beat the butter and 175g of the sugar together till it's creamy and fluffy using a hand mixer. Then add the eggs one at a time, beating between each one. Stir in the flour and baking powder gently and then spoon the mixture into the tin.
Bake for 30-35 mins. Leave the cake in the tin for 5 mins and then turnit onto a wire rack.
For the filling - beat the remaining 225g of sugar with the cream, mascarpone, lime juice and zest and the orange juice to a smooth cream using a hand mixer.
Put 2 tbspn of water in a bowl over a half full pan of simmering water. Sprinkle over the gelatine and stir till it's dissolved. Don't overheat it or the gelatine won't set properly, as I discovered the first time I made it!
Stir the gelatine into the filling mixture and add the green colouring if you want. Beat the mixture again.
Cut the cake in half (horizontally!), clip the side back on the cake tin and put the bottom of the cake in the tin. Spoon the filling on top then put on the top layer of cake. Put in the fridge for 2 hours, then put onto a plate and dust with icing sugar.

I'd forgotten just how much filling there was, and I think maybe I'll try just half the quantity next time.
The mousse laye is refreshing and luxurious, but I think its a bit overwhelming. I'd like a bit more cake.
I like the idea of this cake, and think I'm going to try it with raspberries next time.

Lime fingers

Limes were on offer today in the supermarket, so I decided to try this recipe which comes from one of my cookery books I bought in France called 'Patisserie'. I had no difficulty finding 'fromage blanc'. Another recipe using oil instead of butter.

200g plain flour
4 tspns baking powder
100g fromage blanc
1 tbspn milk
4 tbspns oil - I used rapeseed
60g demerara sugar
7.5g vanilla sugar [or 1 sachet - I found mine in Lidl]
50g icing sugar
2 tspns lime juice and the zest of 1 lime

Preheat oven to 180C/ gas 4
Grease and line a cake tin 30 x 20 cm.

Mix the flour and the baking powder together in a bowl.
In another bowl mix the fromage blanc, milk, oil and sugar together to get a creamy mixture.
Add the flour to this a bit at a time.
Spread the mixture into the tin and bake for about 15 mins till golden.
Cool on a wire rack.
Mix the lime juice and icing sugar and spread over the cooled cake and cut into 16 pieces. Decorate each piece with a little lime zest.

The icing gave the cake a nice lime flavour, but I think if I did it again, I'd add some lime zest to the cake mixture to enhance this flavour - give it a lime kick. The fromage blanc makes it moist. A nice every day cake.