lime cake

Can I share something very exciting with you?

I'm going to be a maid of honor.

Even more exciting? One of my very best friends is getting married! Or perhaps you had guessed that much already?

This is cause for excitement for many reasons, a couple of which I'll tell you about. One, I've only been to one wedding in my 22 years (yeah — people in my family don't seem to get married), so getting to go to a wedding in the first place is quite the novelty.

Two, the bride-to-be, Danielle, has been dating Paul since before I met her, oh, three and a half years ago. To me, there's no Danielle without Paul, or vice versa, so the fact that they're going to tie the knot makes perfect, felicitous sense. There are happy endings, you see?

In celebration of all things good, Danielle and Paul came over to dinner Sunday night. We had a crazy amount of food between the spinach-walnut-cranberry-goat cheese salad they brought, the breaded zucchini appetizers, the intensely garlic-y bread, my mom's lasagna recipe and the lime cake. Oh, the lime cake.

This cake. It emits the loveliest lime scent you can imagine. The dense, flavorful cake is accented delightfully by the citrusy-sweet frosting, which is almost a little crunchy with sugar. Amazing. And with fresh lime zest sprinkled on top just before serving ... well. We couldn't get enough.

Lime Cake

Adapted from The Cookie Shop (which has a beautiful picture)

The only thing I altered with the recipe was the frosting measurements, which I doubled because it didn't look like quite enough.

Cake:

2 cups flour

1 tablespoon baking powder

pinch of salt

1 tablespoon lime zest

2 cups sugar

1 stick unsalted butter, softened

2 large eggs

2 egg yolks (reserve the whites for making the frosting)

1 cup milk

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour two round cake pans* and set aside.

In a bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder and salt.

In another bowl, rub the lime zest into the sugar with your fingertips until the sugar becomes moist and fragrant. (the SCENT! so good!) Add the butter and beat with an electric mixer until white and fluffy. Add the yolks and the eggs one at a time, beating well after each. Add the flour mixture, alternating with the milk, and beat until smooth.

Split the batter evenly between the prepared cake pans and bake 30 - 40 minutes, or until golden and a toothpick comes out clean. Let cool to unmold and frost.

Update: The cake pans I used were 9 inches.

Frosting:

4 egg whites

1 stick unsalted butter, softened

3 to 4 cups confectioner's sugar, added to taste

juice of 1 to 2 limes, added to taste

lime zest to taste

Beat the butter until creamy. Gradually add 2 cups of sugar and beat until white and fluffy.

In a new bowl, beat the egg whites until firm peaks form. Gradually add 1 to 2 cups more sugar and beat until hard and glossy. Add this to the butter mixture and fold in with a whisk. Add the lime juice and mix well. Cover the cooled cake with the frosting, and then sprinkle lime zest over the top before serving.