Right, then. Are we all ready? Off we go, headlong into 2015.
Most of us are now back at work, and speeding towards that date the newspapers always tell us is the most miserable in the entire year, the fabled ‘Blue Monday’, somewhere near the end of the month. It’s actually complete nonsense, of course, dreamt up by the never-backwards-at-coming-forwards news broadcasters to promote holiday travel, and we’ve all somehow gone along with it ever since.
I’ll agree, though, that this time of year does seem to be terribly gloomy. It’s almost always grey and blustery out – we seem to have to wait until February for the snow and crisp weather to arrive, and we’re all understandably a little down after the festivities at the end of last month. And let’s not forget that the delights of the December credit card bill are always plonked right there on the calendar.
So I thought we’d all cheer up a bit with a spot of baking. It’s something that always seems to revive me, standing there whisking and folding in a warm kitchen, the grey and cold banished outdoors, and the air filled with the warm scent of sugar, eggs and flour working their magic in the oven.
I also wanted to throw in a few ingredients that remind us of warmer climes, so this week we’re making a version of the classic drizzle cake, but instead of the traditional lemon we’re using lime, and that most tropical of flavourings, the passionfruit.
It’s nice at this time of year, to whisk ourselves across to the Caribbean or the Far East with a few exotic ingredients guaranteed to make us feel, briefly, as if we’re waist-deep in turquoise warm sea, soaking up the rays. And this cake is just what the doctor ordered. I love drizzle cakes; there’s a great pleasure to be had biting into a pillow-soft slice of light cake, which is infused with wonderfully tart syrup, adding moisture and that essential counterbalance of sharpness, a tingle on the tongue.
I like a well-drenched cake, not quite at rum baba-level (though that’s one of my all-time favourite puddings), but certainly with easily detectable levels of moistness. In my opinion, there’s nothing more disappointing than a drizzle cake that’s only soaked to a couple of millimetres beneath the surface. One must commit to the process fully, be confident with your syrup-ing, and this cake certainly ticks those boxes.
Passionfruit adds its wonderful sweet perfume to this cake, with all that intense tart flavour and, of course, the crunchy little seeds that those of us still denture-free can enjoy crunching between the teeth.
We bake some of the seeds into the cake to make things fun, but most of the pulp is simply spooned over the top, to retain that sparkly tropical freshness.
Lime works incredibly well here, as it’s more insistent than lemon, and seems to marry up well with the warm, cake-y flavours and comforting roundness of the vanilla.
It’s an easy cake to make, and I guarantee it will brighten up the darkest of days with its rays of tropical sunshine.
FOR THE CAKE:
4 large free-range eggs
250g unrefined golden caster sugar
70g unsalted butter, diced and softened
190g self-raising flour, sifted
100ml full fat milk
The grated zest of 3 limes
The pulp of 3 ripe passionfruit
A splash of vanilla extract
A pinch of Maldon salt
FOR THE DRIZZLE:
Juice of 4 limes
100g caster sugar
FOR THE FINISHING ICING:
50g icing sugar
Fresh lime juice
The pulp of 3 passionfruit
EXTRAS:
22cm by 11cm loaf tin
Skewer
A little butter
METHOD:
Lightly butter the loaf tin and line the bottom with a neat rectangle of greaseproof paper. Heat the oven to 180°C / Gas 4. In a mixer, beat the butter and sugar until pale and fluffy, then add the eggs, one by one, making sure each egg is incorporated fully before adding the next.
Add the lime zest, vanilla and passionfruit pulp and stir to mix. Add the milk, and then carefully fold in the flour to make a thickish batter.
Spoon this carefully into the prepared loaf tin and bake for about an hour, checking the cake after about 40 minutes, and covering with a little foil if the top becomes too dark.
Try to avoid opening the door before this time, as drizzle cakes are rather shy and can deflate if agitated.
The cake is ready when a skewer inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean.
As the cake bakes, make the drizzle. Mix the lime juice and sugar together in a pan, and warm gently to dissolve. When the cake is ready, prick holes with a skewer over the surface of the cake and pour the drizzle carefully over it. Be brave, the cake can take all that syrup.
Leave the cake to cool fully in the tin before releasing it and peeling away the greaseproof paper, and set it on a nice plate or stand.
Mix the icing sugar and enough lime juice to make a slightly runny icing.
Drizzle or pipe this over the cake and finish by spooning over some fresh passionfruit pulp.
Serve immediately with a nice cup of green or rooibos tea, or a strong espresso.
