Anytime the perfume of orange and lemon groves wafts in the window; the human body has to feel suffused with a languorous well-being.”
Frances Mayes, Bella Tuscany
These are snapshots of some favourites from my blog & some yet to be posted…
And now onto my entry for the immensely talented Tartlettes SHF event. Made this ‘Tangy Fresh Lime Cake’ from a book I recently bought at a book fair. It’s the Readers Digest book on ‘CAKES 1,001 Classic Recipes from Around the World‘; has a collection of recipes from far & wide, with tonnes of variety thrown in. This cake is a simple, everyday tea cake; wasn’t as tangy as the book said even though I had increased the lime juice. So I decided to get it HIGH ON SUGAR for Tartlettes‘ & dressed it up with a saturated sugar-lime syrup.
CRUMBS!! Who’s been eating my cake? The kids had slices as it got out of the oven…nice, moist & light!
The recipe as adapted from Readers Digest ‘Cakes’, pg 22
Ingredients:
Butter – 1/2 cup
Sugar – 1/2 cup
Eggs – 3 / large
Vanilla Extract -1 tsp
Lemon Extract – 1 tsp
Flour – 1 1/3 cups
Baking powder – 1 1/2 tsps
Salt – 1/4 tsp
Milk – 1 tbsp
Lime Juice – of 2 limes
Zest of 2 limes
Syrup
Castor sugar – 1/2 cup
Juice of 2-3 limes to make a nice thick syrup
A few drops of yellow food colouring / optional
Crystallized fresh flowers ( see post here) 
Method:
- Preheat the oven to 180degrees C. Grease & flour an 8″ ring cake tin. I lined the bottom as well.
- Sift the flour + baking powder + salt. Keep aside.
- Cream the butter & sugar till light & fluffy.
- Add the eggs one by one, beating well after each addition, followed by the vanilla & lime extract.
- On slow speed, gradually beat in the flour mix + milk + lime juice + lime zest.
- Spoon the batter into the prepared tin & bake for 25-30 minutes / till done.
- Meanwhile, mix the Castor sugar + lime juice + food colour to get a thick syrup.
- Once the cake is done, cool in pan for 10 minutes, & gently turn it out onto rack.
- Poke the hot cake with a wooden skewer, & pour the syrup uniformly over it. Immediately place the flowers or garnishing & allow to cool completely on the rack.
The pictures are not too clear because I was experimenting with settings on the camera & messed up. By the time I downloaded the pictures & realised, the cake was half gone…such is life!!
This morning I found these pretty seeds on the ‘currypatta‘ tree; the leaves of which are very popular in Indian cuisine. I enjoy looking for ways to use fresh flowers etc from the garden as a centre piece for the table. I brought in a bunch for the table; thought they looked remarkably like speckled eggs!
This post featured on
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KPTV.com FOX 12 Oregon
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TheIndyChannel.com Indiana
Deeba, I just adore citrus flavours and your cake of lime is gorgeous!! I must bookmark this one!
Rosie x
This cake would place a ray of sunshine on anyones table along with the currypatta display:D
Hi…
That was a nice recipe. Lime cake looks so good. Love citrus smell in baked goodies.
Debra, this is the first time I see seeds on currypatta tree. What do you usually make from currypatta leaves?
anyway, I have a pic of tulip for you too as you tagged me last time.
here:
http://dwianakitchen.blogspot.com/2008/05/cheese-muffin-and-lots-of-thanks-to-you_19.html
my site for some reason is not quite work on internet explorer. So far it is better view on firefox.
Heyyy! Starting to experiment with a (new) camera? 😉 Love the cake! Nice ring mold you have there!
Love the citrus flavor 🙂 lovely center piece Deeba!
Thank you for your entry! The overload of citrus flavors make me really happy 🙂
Tartelette
Make some for when I visit 🙂
Hi Rosie…now the slices are piling up; gotta send you choc & lime!xoxo
You always make my day Val…the currypatta has beautiful blossoms too.
Thanks Sukanya.
Actually just in a few Indian dishes like a dal, dry potatoes, beaten rice but I know of some who use it in a raita too. I like the tree because of its blossoms & the nests that birds build in it…thanks for the tulip; it was beautiful & so are the cheese muffins. :0)
Manggy…you shall be the 1st to know!!! Mailed you about the ring mold…ciao
Thank you Cham.
Thanks Helen…your beautiful blog gave me a citrus ‘kick’…I love it!
Hope to see you soon Raaga…will make some for you for sure!
Hi Rosie…now the slices are piling up; gotta send you choc & lime!xoxo
You always make my day Val…the currypatta has beautiful blossoms too.
Thanks Sukanya.
Actually just in a few Indian dishes like a dal, dry potatoes, beaten rice but I know of some who use it in a raita too. I like the tree because of its blossoms & the nests that birds build in it…thanks for the tulip; it was beautiful & so are the cheese muffins. :0)
Manggy…you shall be the 1st to know!!! Mailed you about the ring mold…ciao
Thank you Cham.
Thanks Helen…your beautiful blog gave me a citrus ‘kick’…I love it!
Hope to see you soon Raaga…will make some for you for sure!
Hey Deeba, FOX12 featuring this post! hwdidyadoit?? 😀 Very proud for you! And yes..is it a new mold?? Well new camera too, for awesome cakes!! Wowie..m njoying this along wt the new ‘Speckled eggs’ , loved the beautiful crystallized flower on the pretty sitting cut cake!! Yumm…
This lime cake looks beautiful. I still can’t figure out where you get the time to turn such lovely bakes.:)
These fruits remind me of the tree in my earlier garden. I’m missing all my plants as I now live on the 2nd floor!!:(
You are too cute! I love how you shared some cake with the kids just out of the oven. I made a cake the other day for a party on Sunday & as I was going to bed Alfredo told me that it tasted good…. this was Saturday night! I had to laugh at him because EVERYONE in this house knows not to touch my desserts until we’ve had a full ceremonial unveiling.
Very pretty cake! I have all the ingredients here. I love you plate too – it has all the citrusy colors to it.
Tanti baci, my friend,
Amy
P.S. Thank you for mentioning my blog! 😉
Mmmmm… citrus makes me happy too – must be the sunny, warm feeling I get!
The cake looks delicious – love the icing dribbling over!
The cake looks so delicious. What a great summer taste combination!
you couldnt have used more pics than this to tempt me more 🙁 lovely delicious looking ones.. hats off..
Deeba, pls do pick an apt award for you from me..do visit COOK…ciya!
Deeba luks so yummy……..my mouth is awatering..
Many thanks for the mention! This cake looks really tasty and those flowers make for a beautiful garnish. I really like that dripping glaze in the photos…
Congratulations Deeba for having your recipes featured on two sites, you deserve it as your recipes are drool worthy and your pictures even more. I also love citrus and although we have nearly everything, limes are not easy to find and at last now that I’ve bought some, I do not know what to do with them (lol).
deeba love the tangy freshness of the cake.. I love citrus so much that i use only citrusy perfumes.. keeps me energetic all day long!!
Yes, citrus is the new trendy scene in baking and desserts. I love it too – so refreshing. This cake looks simply awesome. Nice one!
interesting fruits of that tree. they look like palm fruits. and i’m sure the cake tastes gorgeous!
Yum, looks absolutely amazing!!
Ooooh, your cake is positively stunning! I adore lime, and just realized that I’ve never made a lime cake – I look forward to fixing your recipe! (such a great point you made about the internationality of citrus, too… So true…)