Lime Spiked White Chocolate Cake

It's no secret that I harbour a profound love for all things citrus (but I suppose my blog title kind of gives that away!). There's nothing like the taste and smell of oranges, lemons and limes to get my knees shaking and my lips quivering. As I mentioned in my previous Daring Cooks post, this month it has been quite lime-centric in the kitchen. I also realised that I tend to favour oranges and lemons in my desserts - so it's quite serendipitous really that I received a bag of homegrown limes at the same time that I decide to gives limes a bigger starring role in the sweet stuff.

It's hard to pinpoint which one of the citrus fruits I love the best but there's no doubt in my mind that limes have the most intoxicating and ambrosial smell. So much so that I could never stop smelling my fingers each time I use it. As odd as it may sound, lime and chocolate is pure heaven together. Normally I'd bake these flavours into a sweet tart (I love my tarts!) but as a change I decided to bring out the cake tins. And even though I don't eat white chocolate (I love the dark stuff too much!), sometimes I just crave for it in desserts in a bad way.

White chocolate glaze

This is a lime and white chocolate cake that is brushed with a mixture of lime and vanilla and sandwiched with a lime cream filling. The white chocolate glaze is literally, the icing on the cake. The lime and white chocolate is quite prominent in the batter but you'll find these flavours slightly subdued once it's bake. But it won't matter as you'll have the zesty cream filling and the sweet white chocolate glaze to make up for it. Sometimes I can find white chocolate desserts too sweet but the cake here was nicely balanced with the lime a soothing partner to the often cloying white chocolate.

And it proved popular with the parentals and The Captain for their afternoon tea (and a covert midnight snack or two) that they polished it off in quick succession. I barely ate a slice out of it myself *grumble*.

Ingredients

4 large eggs
200gm caster sugar
pinch of salt
240gm self raising flour
100gm butter - melted and cooled
100gm good quality white chocolate - melted
zest and juice of 2.5 limes (you'll need 4 limes altogether - the remaining 1.5 limes are used for the cream filling)
2 Tbl caster sugar
1 Tbl vanilla extract or white rum (if the mood takes you)

Vanilla Cream Filling

200ml pouring cream
finely grated rind of 1.5 limes
40g icing sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract

White Chocolate Glaze

1/2 C pouring cream
225gm good quality white chocolate - finely chopped

Method

Preheat oven to 180°C and grease and line the bottom of a 23cm springform cake tin.

With an electric mixer, whisk eggs, sugar and a pinch of salt until thick and pale (at least 5 minutes).

Whisk in the flour, zest, melted butter and melted white chocolate until just combined.

Pour into cake tin and bake in the oven for 35-40 minutes.

Remove from the oven and cool in tin for 5 minutes before removing the sides of the tin.

Mix the juice from 2.5 limes with the sugar and the vanilla extract or white rum until sugar is dissolved.

Prick the top of the warm cake with a skewer and brush over the top and sides of the cake with the lime mixture and let the cake cool completely.

Filling

Whip the cream with the sugar, zest of 1.5 limes, icing sugar and vanilla extract until it's stiff enough to sandwich the cake. Leave to cool in the fridge until you're ready to use.

White Chocolate Cream

Bring cream to a boil in a small saucepan and remove from heat. Add the white chocolate and stir until melted and smooth. Leave to cool.

Halve the cakes horizontally and sandwich together with the lime cream filling. Pour the white chocolate cream over the cake to coat the top, allowing some to spill over the sides.

Refridgerate the cake for up to 30 minutes before serving or until the chocolate has set.