Saturday 15 January 2011

Limey Chocolate Limes Cake

A belated 'Happy New Year' which means I should have given everyone time (about two  weeks) to fall back into their old ways. Time for cake?


Hidden in Tangy Lime; a Smooth Chocolate Buttercream

Starting with a fun make, based on an old English candy - chocolate limes - a crispy lime sweet shell with a smooth chocolate center. Translated into a tangy lime cake with a crunchy lime meringue frosting and a smooth milk chocolate buttercream hidden inside. Now say the title again really fast as a tongue twister....

Chocolate limes from a really lovely, old fashioned, sweet shop in Ross-on-Wye. Where rows of sweet jars line the shelves and you have to ask the lady for what you want and say please ...Tudor Sweets of Ross
 


Ingredients:

Cake:

6oz (170g) Butter
6oz (170g) Caster sugar
3  Large eggs
2 Egg yolks

2 Limes*
6oz (170g) Self raising four
Few drops of green food colouring


Chocolate buttercream:

4oz (110g) Icing sugar
2oz (60g) Butter
2oz (60g) Chocolate (choose your favourite)

Lime Meringue Frosting:

2 Egg whites
15oz (425g) caster or granulated sugar
3 ½ fl oz (100ml) water
*Juice of one of the limes mixed with green and yellow food colouring

Method:
Preheat oven 140c/120c Fan/300F/Gas Mark 2

Grease 2 sandwich cake tins; add greaseproof paper at the bottom as well.

Cream the sugar and butter together. Add the eggs one at a time and beat well. Sift and then fold in half the flour. Add the eggs yolks, the zest from the two limes and the juice from one of the limes. Fold in the rest of the sifted flour and add the food colouring. Put equal quantities into cake tins and place in oven.

Check after 20 minutes. I didn’t want the top to brown too much to detract from the green colour so I baked this at a lower temperature. Remember; cook until risen and a skewer comes cleanly out. Allow to cool.
 
Melt the chocolate. Whisk butter and icing sugar together and add melted chocolate. Spread on one cake half and place the other cake half on top. Put into fridge until buttercream has set.

For the meringue frosting, (also known as American Frosting in old Good Housekeeping books), sort the colouring and flavouring out first. This mixture sets pretty quickly and you won’t have time to suddenly look for things. Add two drops of yellow food coloring to two drops of green and add the juice of the remaining lime. This should give you a lime green colour at the end.  

Place sugar and water in a heavy based saucepan and allow water to start to dissolve the sugar. In another bowl whisk both egg whites until stiff. Heat the sugar and water syrup until 240°, or to the soft-ball stage. Pour the syrup slowly into the egg whites whisking all the time. The mixture will start to thicken. Whisk a few drops of the coloured lime mix at a time until the desired shade is acquired, hopefully lime green! Spread the icing, covering the whole of the cake.

Notes:

I endeavour to make as much of my baking 100 % organic and avoid Evil E numbers and such like. However, with food colourings that has become a bit of a challenge and something I am still sourcing and experimenting with. A lot of food colourings may claim to be ‘natural’ but that doesn’t mean organic. These too can be very expensive compared to others and some of the colour ‘holding’ qualities are not so good.
I’m currently researching more brands, especially for a green colour, so I can come up with one that doesn’t impart an unwanted flavour such as spinach to the icing or go from green to pale grey. Fine if you want it but not in this case. I am not adverse to a very pale natural colour but in sugarcraft it's sometimes good to have fun at mimicking the real thing. I wanted a Limey Chocolate Limes Cake!



23 comments:

  1. Now that is interesting and the opposite of how I'd think of such a treat with the lime being the companion flavor with the chocolate making up the bulk.

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  2. I have to confess to liking both and next time I'm baking a cake based on a Key Lime Truffle, will try and get it ready for the National Chocolate Cake Day 27th Jan mentioned on your blog http://thechocolatecult.blogspot.com/2011/01/january-chocolate-holidays.html

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  3. That cake sounds like such and amazing combination of flavors and textures!! I would absolutely love to try a big slice!!
    Cheers
    Dennis

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  4. wow.. Yummy post ! I love you put chocolate between the lime flavor !.. enjoy the color also.. hmmm..just yummy post ^_^

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  5. Okay, that cake is mine... what are you having?

    The lime / Choco combination looks wonderful!

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  6. Time for cake? You betcha! I love Oatfield Chocolate Limes so I know I'm going to love this gorgeous cake. American (meringue) frosting is a favourite with my family too so this is a must try. Happy New Year!

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  7. Whoa, I had never heard of these two flavors before. But the cake look so scrumptious!

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  8. Oh I love this...such intriguing and delightful flavors :)

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  9. Thanks for the add on Foodbuzz. This cake looks wonderful! I love the Spring-y color! :-)

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  10. Oh my goodness. This looks so good. I REALLY miss chocolate limes. I lived in Englad for about 3 years and my co-worker got me hooked on them. I guess I'm going to have to make this cake! I'm your newest follower :)

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  11. Thanks for all your comments and follows-
    @ Brandie: I have to confess while I was in Florida over Christmas I was eating Key Lime Truffles (Godiva).We can't get them over here :-( and I really, really like them ( first found them 12 years ago)

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  12. I have been craving something like this! Looks delish!

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  13. Hey Pauline, great take on classic confectionary. Love that green tint on the first picture.

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  14. That looks absolutely lovely. I have never had chocolate with lime, and I now I cannot imagine why I have been so deprived--I will have to try this.

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  15. Wow this looks delicious! The lime and chocolate combo sounds amazing too!

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  16. Looks soo yummy. I'm your newest follower! If you get a chance get out my blog. http://www.somethingdifferentfordinner.blogspot.com

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  17. What a perfect looking cake! When I saw the picture it reminded me of something mint, but man would you be surprised taking a bite of that thinking it was mint and then get a bolt of lime! YEOOW! Looks awesome!

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  18. What a fun cake. I love the color. ;)

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  19. Thanks for all the positive comments:-) I have a fun midweek distraction coming up so stay tuned.

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  20. Wow, on this cake I could play disappier act. Looks wonderful:)

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  21. This looks amazing and I can't wait to attempt making it.

    I just have one question - what size tins are best to use for making this?

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    Replies
    1. Hi Fran

      Thanks for your lovely comments - I made it originally in a 7 inch ( 17.78 cm) tin - simply based on a standard Victoria sponge recipe or you can adapt it to your favourite sponge cake recipe. What makes it different is the lime frosting which if I remember rightly made quite a generous amount. Quite fancy making it again now :-)

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