Mini Coconut and Lime Curd Cakes

   What better way to start seven days off than a birthday weekend! Not my birthday, but Mother Loves Food's. On Friday afternoon I pushed my way through the sweaty train crowds with flowers and baking supplies for the weekend.

   First up was a Limoncello cake from Peggy Porschen's Boutique Baking book. I seem to struggle with aesthetics when baking anything from this book. Maybe its the fact that everything in there is just so beautiful, its a little daunting! That and the fact that most recipes in there require three same sized sandwich tins, which I do not own. I never learn that throwing it in one big tin doesn't work quite the same.

   The result, an inch high cake. It did have a good rise for the extremely wide tin I put it in but not the impressive towering oozy boozy lemon cake I'd envisaged. Instead, I carefully filled it with some lemon curd and Limoncello buttercream and drizzled with more Limoncello and a sprinkling of gold stars.

   Next up were these little lime cakes baked for my mum to take into her work tomorrow. Of course I sneaked one to test, especially after overheating in a hot kitchen in this heatwave. I was so excited to try my new baking tray for mini square cakes from Lakeland, the perfect individual size servings and the cakes slipped out with very little encouragement. I always worry when not using cake liners.

   Each little square lime cake is filled with Mackays lime curd and topped with coconut soaked in lime juice. With a little help of some icing sugar, the curd has the perfect sweetness to cut through all the lime. 

Mini coconut and lime curd cakes

(Makes 24)

     250g unsalted butter, softened

     250g caster sugar

     4 large eggs

     2 teaspoons vanilla extract

     zest of 2 limes

     250g self raising flour, sifted

     drop of milk

     half jar Mackays lime curd

     juice and zest of 1 lime

     3 tablespoons desicated coconut

     3 tablespoons icing sugar

• Heat the oven to 180 degrees celsius and grease two mini cake trays.
• Cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
• In a separate bowl beat the eggs. Add a tablespoon at a time to the butter mix, beating well after each addition.
• Add the lime zest and vanilla extract and gently stir to incorporate.
• Fold in the flour with a large metal spoon until the mixture just comes together.
• Fill the baking trays a quarter of the way up, about 1 tablespoon per cake, before adding a teaspoon of lime curd to each and topping with the rest of the cake mixture.
• Bake for 20 minutes, or until golden and the cakes start to come away from the sides of the tray.
• Leave to cool in the tray for 10 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack to cool completely.
• To make the icing, whisk together the icing sugar, lime juice and coconut and spoon onto each cake once cooled. To finish, top with a sprinkling of lime zest.