Back story:

I had made this lemon drizzle tea cake ages ago and it was really… bad, lol. But THIS ONE is so good and i really want you to try and make it and wow your friends and family too. I’m actually eating a slice as I type this – yum yum yummm! Only downside is that it takes about 1.5-2 hours in total but it’s soooo worth it my dudesss :’) make on a lazy weekend and enjoy!!

You need: 

For the cake:

• 4 eggs
• 3 cups maida 
• 2 cups sugar
• 1 cup butter 
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp baking powder 
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp vanilla essence 
• 6 limes (zest & juice – keep em separate)
• 3/4 cup buttermilk (3/4 cup milk + 1 tbsp lime juice)

For the syrup: 

• 1/4 cup granulated sugar (regular sugar, not powdered sugar)
• 1/4 cup lime juice

For the glaze/frosting: 

• 2 cups powdered sugar
• 3 tbsp lime juice 

How to: 

1. Make sure all your ingredients are at room temperature (butter, eggs, buttermilk etc) – if it’s cold, your cake will not be fluffy and it will be very dense 
2. Preheat your oven to 180 c
3. Whisk your butter, lime zest and sugar together until it becomes creamy (it’s not necessary for the sugar to  melt completely, but let it be like 3/4 melted) 
4. Add the eggs in one by one and whisk until it gets fluffy (should take about 3-4 minutes)
5. In a big bowl, sift in maida, baking powder and baking soda. In another bowl, add vanilla essence, lime juice, buttermilk and salt
6. Now keep adding your dry ingredients and wet ingredients alternately and whisking it together 
7. Take your baking trays and line it with baking paper – I used a 9” circular cake tin and a loaf tin. There is a LOT of batter so you will have to bake it in two tins (one giant one may not cook through) 
8. Pour your batter in and bake for 45-55 minutes until a toothpick inserted comes out clean and not sticky (I’d suggest you check at the 45 minute mark and then adjust accordingly) 
9. When your cake is done, take it out and let it cool down 

1. While that’s cooling, get onto your syrup: heat sugar and lime juice until the sugar melts and sliiiightly thickens
2. Do not boil it as it could become like rock-hard candy, but just keep stirring on low flame until its slightly thick and then let it cool down (it will thicken as it cools down)
3. When both the cake and syrup are a bit room temperature, take the cake out of the tin and make it upside down. With the same toothpick, you can poke holes all over the bottom (space them about 2-3 cms apart – don’t poke too many you don’t want the bottom to fall apart)
4. Then pour over the syrup and you’ll the cake bottom just absorbing it completely and let it sit for about 5 minutes to absorb all that flavour until the base is dry
5. In the meantime, make your glaze by whisking powdered sugar and lime juice together. It’s important to use powdered sugar here as regular sugar just won’t give you the thick gooey consistency you’re after
6. Make the cake sit with the top up, place a paper underneath and then pour all over the cake to glaze. It’s very important that your cake should be cool before you pour this otherwise all of it will melt and drip off – let this cool until it hardens and then enjoy!

Tips: 

1. Keep all the ingredients at room temperature otherwise they will not combine well and you will end up with a dry cake
2. Make sure your cake is cool before you add the glaze otherwise it’ll all drip off and become lime juice on your kitchen counter
3. Wait until the glaze hardens to cut it – it gives a nice crunch to offset the softtttt juicy cake