This Lime – Mint Cake is a sort of a virgin Mojito cake. It’s the perfect summer treat, it’s fresh, moist, incredibly delicious and most important for me, that the cake doesn’t taste too sweet.
If you love virgin mojitos or the combination of mint and lime, this cake is definitely for you.
How to make this Lime & Mint cake ?
This delicious cake is chef Yann Couvreur’s recipe.
First let’s make the lime powder :
This lime powder adds a concentrated tangy citrus flavour to the recipe, so please don’t miss it.
It’s important to use organic lime, because we will use the peel to make the powder.
Preheat the oven to 70C. Wash and dry the limes with a clean tea towel or a kitchen paper. Use a vegetable peeler, to remove the “zest” which is the coloured part of the skin, the white pith tastes bitter, so avoid it. Then place the peels on a baking tray lined with baking parchment. Bake for 1 hour. Remove from the oven, it should be crisp to touch, leave it to cool. Using a clean coffee grinder or spice mill, grind the dried peels, until you have a fine powder. Use a small sieve to filter out any chunks that didn’t grind properly, ( you can use them later to add more flavours to the soup or broth). Put the fine powder in small airtight container until needed.
You can use this technique for any citrus that you like, specially when you make a limonade and you don’t know what to do with the peels.
Now let’s make the cake :
Make sure that the butter and the egg are at room temperature. Preheat the oven to 170C fan, grease and line the loaf tin, and set aside.
First place the lime zest and the mint leaves, in a food processor and blitz for about 2 minutes.
Add it to the butter and sugar, beat on high speed for 3-4 minutes, until light, lower the speed and add the egg, once it’s combined add the sifted flour and the baking 1/3 at a time, alternating with the cream, and mixing well in between.
The combination of lime and mint pairs perfectly together, so the best way to release all these amazing flavours in the cake is to sit the batter in the fridge overnight. ( It’s optional but makes a big difference ).
Reduce the heat to145C Fan, and bake for 50-60 minutes or until a skewer inserted in the middle of the cake comes out clean. Leave the cake to rest 5 minutes, then remove it from the pan. After 10 minutes pour the lime juice all over the cake using a brush. The trick is to pour the lime juice over when the cake still warm. This allows the cake to soak up all the juice and keeps the cake moist for days.
Cover it with a cling film and place it in the freezer for 30 minutes. Meanwhile combine the glaze ingredients in a small bowl and mix together until smooth, be sure that there’s no lumps.
Preheat the oven to 170C Fan. Brush the cake twice with the glaze, sprinkle with the lime powder, then place it on a wire rack, bake for 2-3 minutes just to make the glaze dry.
The thing I like about this cake is that it gets better the next day. It stays moist, vibrant and full of flavours. Give it a try, you will love every bite of it.
And, here one of my favorites citrus cakes recipes that you should try “Lemon & olive oil cake – Christophe Bacquié”, or if you want something more sophisticated, try these” two citrus & orange blossom tart”.
