Those of you who know me might remember that I have an addiction to collecting Nordicware Bundt pans. I haven’t got as many pans as some people but I have enough to drive Mr S to wish he could flog them all on Ebay! To me, they are pretty and stylish and make an ordinary cake even more exciting to look at. To me, a bundt pan is a thing of beauty.

Recently though, I have had a spate of bundt pan disasters. I know I’m not the only one as I discovered online but it still is heartbreaking when you spend ages and also lots of money on ingredients to find the blinking thing sticks in the tin or falls apart when you try to get it out of the pan. It got to the stage where I was getting so frustrated and it was happening with recipes I had used before!

I am currently having a go at different recipes in the 2019 Great British Bake Off book: Amazing Cakes From The Great British Bake Off. A couple of weeks ago we were at home on the Sunday afternoon and I wanted to bake something I could share at work. I looked through the book and also at what I had in the cupboards and the fridge. I noticed we had some limes which needed using up. Why I had bought three limes I don’t know. I might buy one to cut up in my weekend gin and tonic or to enhance a recipe but not three. So a recipe using limes was a good idea.

Phil who was one of the bakers from the 2019 GBBO series and made a Lime and Coconut Drizzle Bundt Cake on one of the programmes. His recipe is in the Amazing Cakes book and was pictured in the Nordicware Heritage Bundt pan. I love using my Heritage pan and it’s the first pan I bought when I started back full time teaching in 2015. Before that I only had a couple of pans and they had been presents as I couldn’t justify spending it out of my earnings.

Back to this particular Sunday afternoon and I got all the ingredients out of the cupboard. I then started to prep the limes by zesting them and then juicing them. My zester is actually a fine grater which works better than the zester I have. It comes out a lot finer.

To make the cake itself I creamed butter and sugar together until it became light and creamy. I then added in eggs one by one and carefully mixed them in followed by self raising flour and some desiccated coconut. After this I folded in the juice and zest of one of the limes, keeping the other two for the drizzle and decoration to follow.

The cake baked in the oven for 40 minutes approx. This seemed to be much less cooking time than an ordinary bundt cake recipe and even so it came out a little too well done in places. The oven was on at the right temperature: 160oC fan!

Meanwhile I made up a little bit of lime crunch to sprinkle on the top of the cake. This was done by spreading the zest of two limes and some caster sugar mixed up out flat on some baking paper to dry out. Then on with the drizzle which was made up of lime juice and sifted icing sugar. This was ready to be poured onto the cake when it was still warm from the oven. To get an even drizzle, I poke holes in the warm cake with a skewer so that the drizzle syrup soaks the sponge and keeps it moist.

I also made a runny icing glaze to go on the top of the cake and to pour down the sides. This was also with icing sugar mixed with lime juice but there was far more icing sugar to juice here. To pour it evenly I used a plastic bottle with a nozzle to help me. This was put onto the cake when it had cooled down or else it would have soaked into the cake. To finish off, I sprinkled on some of the lime zest crunch. I didn’t need it all in the end.

The cake tasted delicious and moist. A lovely zesty combination of the lime and the coconut which is a good all round bake which was a hit with everyone. I will definitely bake this again!

Happy Baking!

Love Sam xx