Chocolate and lime cake

Chocolate and lime cake

Gran and Pop grew the best citrus fruit ever and Gran often used it in her baking. I just love the refreshing combination of lime and chocolate and I urge you to give it a try. You can replace the lime icing with a coffee icing for a traditional mocha cake. This is a very moist cake, and I find it gets better as the days go by.
 

1 and 2/3 cups flour
1 and 1/2 cups sugar
1/3 cup cocoa
1 and 1/3 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 and 1/2 cups milk
100g butter, melted
2 eggs

Lime frosting:
230g white chocolate, finely chopped
85g butter, softened
1 and 3/4 cups icing sugar, sifted
zest and juice of 1 lime
1/4 cup milk

Preheat oven to 180°C. Grease and line a 20cm cake tin. Set aside.

Place all the cake ingredients in a food processor and pulse to mix. Pour the batter into the prepared cake tin. Bake in the preheated oven for 1 hour or until cooked. Cool in tin.

To make lime frosting, melt chocolate in a bowl over a pot of boiling water, ensuring the bowl is not touching the water. Place butter in a separate bowl and beat with an electric beater until creamy. Add sifted icing sugar, lime zest and juice and beat until it's thick and creamy.

Add milk and mix to combine. Lastly, fold in the melted white chocolate.

Once cake is cooled completely, remove from tin and cut in half horizontally. Spread lime frosting on the bottom half and place the top back on. Cover entire cake with remaining frosting. 

See more of Natalie Oldfield's recipes:

Hedgehog Slice
Apple Charlotte
Corn and bacon muffins with chive butter
Blueberry and banana chip cookies
Grapefruit and ginger teacake
Rhubarb breakfast bar

Extract from Gran's Sweet Pantry by Natalie Oldfield. Photos by Todd Eyre, Published by HarperCollins.