Sweet and Tangy Lime Cake: The Moosewood Recipe

 

This lime cake comes from the super moist and just-sweet-enough Orange Cake recipe from another one of my favorite cookbooks, The NEW Moosewood Cookbook. The cookbook has been around for some time and a new updated version has been on the shelves for, oh, a couple of years now. Some of the recipes have been played with, maybe some of the more not-so-good-for-you ingredients have been trimmed down, replaced, or done away with all together. It’s a vegetarian cookbook packed full of tasty main dish ideas, salads, soups and yes, desserts. An assortment of yummy cakes, breads, pies, puddings and mousse’s galore to tempt and entice your wicked sweet tooth. Have I told you how evil mine can be??

This recipe, let me tell you, makes one luscious cake. It’s great because you can just replace the orange with any other citrus or throw a few variations together for a zesty burst of fresh flavor. I had a bowl of limes waiting way too long to be zested and squeezed. So, in my case, a lime cake was the citrus of choice. The original recipe calls for plain yogurt or sour cream with the fruit juice whisked in as the liquid. I used buttermilk instead because it’s all I had on hand and it worked like a charm. Also, most of the cake recipes in this cookbook call for a bundt pan. For this recipe, I used a 9x9x2 pan and it worked beautifully. Nice even square pieces.

How does the finished cake taste?? Tart, sweet, moist and tangy. So good and so hard to say no to. The buttermilk gave it a dense yet very soft crumb. A perfect texture for the citrus glaze to settle into for an extra pop of flavor. Oh yes, the citrus glaze. The glaze recipe in the cookbook is delicious. But, I decided to go with a different glaze instead just to mix it up a little bit. Throw a few fresh raspberries on top and you’ll have yourself a true slice of bliss! 

Lime Cake

Adapted from Mollie Katzen’s “Orange Cake” Recipe- The New Moosewood Cookbook

Ingredients:

butter for pan

3 sticks unsalted butter, softened

1 3/4 cups sugar

4 eggs

1 tsp grated orange rind ( or whatever variety of citrus you are using)

1 tsp vanilla extract

3 cups flour

1 tbsp baking soda

Whisk together:

1/2 tsp salt

1 cup sour cream or yogurt

1/2 cup orange juice ( or whatever citrus variety you are using)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Butter a 10 inch tube or bundt pan. 

In a large bowl, beat together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.

Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.

Stir in the rind and vanilla. Set aside.

Sift together the dry ingredients in a separate bowl. Add this to the butter mixture alternately with the combined sour cream or yogurt mixture, beginning and ending with the dry ingredients. Mix by hand after each addition only until ingredients are just incorporated.

Transfer to pan. Bake for 50-60 minutes or until a knife inserted all the way down comes out clean. Cool for about 15 minutes then invert onto a plate. Allow to cool completely.

The Glaze:

Adapted from Bon Appetit’s Lime Cake Recipe

1/4 cup lime juice

1 tbsp lime zest

1/4 cup sugar

1 cup powdered sugar

Combine the lime zest, lime juice and regular sugar in a bowl. Whisk ingredients together and set aside.

Poke a some holes into the cooled cake with a skewer and pour about half of the liquid over the cake. Whisk the 1 cup of powdered sugar into the remaining syrup mixture, drizzle over cake and let set for about 15 minutes.

Tagged as: citrus cake, lime cake, mollie katzen's orange cake, moosewood orange cake