Glazed Lime Cake

Martha Stewart’s Lime Meltaways were the first lime-themed sweets I made that truly captured my attention (alas, I made them before my blogging days so there are no photos to share, but Smitten Kitchen made them so you can see how enticing they really are). Now I can't get enough of these small green wonders.


I’m not in the habit of baking during the week. Baking requires time, energy, accurate measuring, and a certain amount of patience to be successful. When I get home from work and need to magically put ingredients together in under an hour, baking is the last thing on my mind. Now, give me a lazy Saturday or Sunday afternoon and there is always time to precisely follow directions and even enjoy a vanilla latte or a quick magazine read while my treats are baking away in the oven.

Enter Wednesday. It's the one day a week that my husband goes jogging after work, leaving me with plenty of time to bake. Thankfully, this cake is simple. Its ingredients come together in a stand mixer and head straight to the cake pan. During the 35 minutes it bakes you can easily prep ingredients for your main course and finish the glaze that will be drizzled on top. Aside from an extra round of dishes, it didn’t appear to be more work than usual, and ended our evening on a sweet note.

Glazed Lime Cake

Recipe courtesy Bon Appetit

Ingredients

3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) butter, room temperature
2 1/2 cups powdered sugar, divided
2 large eggs, room temperature
1/4 cup milk
1 1/3 cups self-rising flour
2 to 3 large limes
1/4 cup sugar

Preparation

Preheat oven to 350°F. Butter and flour 8-inch square baking pan. Using electric mixer, cream butter and 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar in large bowl. Beat in eggs 1 at a time. Beat in milk, then flour. Transfer batter to prepared pan; smooth top. Bake cake until tester inserted into center comes out clean, about 35 minutes.

Meanwhile, finely grate enough lime peel to measure 1 tablespoon. Halve limes; squeeze enough juice to measure 1/4 cup. Mix peel, juice, and 1/4 cup sugar in small bowl. Set lime syrup aside.

Using skewer, poke holes all over baked cake. Spoon half of lime syrup (about 3 tablespoons) over hot cake. Cool.

Whisk 1 cup powdered sugar into remaining lime syrup; drizzle over cake. Let stand 1 hour. Cut cake into squares.