Weekend is here and summer is here (at least on paper, UK didn’t get the memo yet!) so I figured that a light and citrusy cake recipe that feeds a crowd may come in useful. On this account, I made a big sheet of coconut and lime drizzle cake topped with lime icing and crushed pistachios.

This cake is designed for entertaining, it’s simple to make – comes together in a single bowl – and will feed a bunch of empty cakeholes (not sure why but I love that word, such an on point descriptor).

Once out of the oven, it gets a generous drizzle of tangy lime syrup, which delivers bucketloads of citrusy flavour. Once cool, it will gracefully accept a layer of simple lime icing and a smattering of pistachios but neither are necessary.

If it’s a hot day and you have fired off a BBQ, a dollop of whipped coconut cream (or thick coconut yoghurt) and some pineapple charred on a BBQ will mesh with the flavours wonderfully and replace the need for icing. This is what I essentially did (I used a griddle pan as it was too cold for a barbie, woe me!) when we had friends round a weekend or so ago and it went down a storm. I hope you’ll make it and if you do that it will be enjoyed by all.

MORE ABOUT THE INGREDIENTS

VEGAN BUTTER – this cake uses unmelted vegan butter, the one that comes in a solid block rather than in a tub. I used Naturli and Violife and they both worked perfectly. Alternatively, coconut oil will also work well, either odourless coconut oil or extra virgin coconut oil as this cake already has coconut in it. Whisking unmelted fat with sugar, makes this cake extra fluffy.

SUGAR – I used caster (superfine) sugar, but coconut sugar will work just as well if you prefer to use that – the colour of the cake will be a little darker though.

LIMES – this cake uses a lot of limes, both zest and juice. Before you start working on the cake batter, zest all of your limes and juice them – you’ll need a total of just under
¾ cup (170 ml) of lime juice for this cake which 8 limes should provide easily. To soften your limes and make them easier to juice, roll each lime on your kitchen counter pressing it down with the palm of your hand as you roll first.

PLANT MILK – any plant milk will work well here although I like using soy milk in baked goods.

DESSICATED COCONUT – I like a combination of desiccated coconut and lime so I used some desiccated coconut in the batter. It makes the cake lighter as well. If you prefer, finely ground almonds or almond meal can be used instead.

FLOUR – I used white all purpose flour here, but I’ve also tested with a gluten-free flour mix this one and I found that gluten-free version needed a couple less minutes in the oven and that it benefited from the addition of xanthan gum (1 tsp).

CORNSTARCH – I replaced some of the flour with a small amount of cornstarch (cornflour in the US) to make the cake crumb lighter. It’s not the end of the world if you don’t have it though – use an extra 40 g / generous ¼ cup of extra flour instead.

LIME SYRUP – lime syrup is a key component of this cake, it gives it much needed tang, which cake batter cannot provide as the process of baking makes any tanginess more subtle. The key thing to remember about soaking cakes with syrup is that there needs to be a difference of temperature between the cake and the syrup for the syrup to soak in so either the cake needs to be hot and the syrup cold or the other way round.

ICING – icing is a traditional topping for this kind of cake, but you could also use whipped coconut cream (or whipped oat cream) to top this cake with or stop at the syrup.