Sweet treats: lime traybake

Lime traybake wouldn't usually be my first choice for a cake, but we'd ended up with a load of left over limes from the weekend. We'd had friends over and made 'lovely vodkas' (aka vodka, lemonade and loads of fresh lime juice and wedges) but we'd vastly overestimated the amount of limes we needed and we ended up with a whole fruit bowl jam packed with limes. I needed to make a cake for work so I found this recipe for a simple but tasty lime traybake in Mary Berry's Traditional Puddings and Deserts. 

Problem solved! The limes were used up and I was left with a tasty cake. Win-win.

You will need: 

For the cake: 

175g caster sugar 

250g self raising flower

175 g soft butter or margarine (I used Stork) 

3 eggs

2 tbsp milk 

1 tsp baking powder 

Finely grated zest of 2 limes 

For the icing: 

250g icing sugar (sieved) 

juice of 2 limes

 Method:

• Pre-heat the oven to 180 degrees
• Put all the ingredients into a large mixing bowl and beat for around 2 minutes (I used an electric mixer) until the mixture makes a light, smooth batter. 
• Grease and line a cake tin with baking parchment. Pour all the ingredients into the tin and evenly spread. 
• Place into the oven for 35-40 minutes. The batter shouldn't darken too much and remain a light, creamy colour. To check if it is cooked, place a skewer into the centre of the cake and lift it out. If there is cake batter on the skewer, it isn't properly cooked yet. If the skewer comes out clean, the cake is cooked. 
• leave to cool for a few minutes in the tray, then transfer to a wire rack to avoid the cake going soggy. 
• Make the icing while the cake is cooling. Sieve the icing sugar into a bowl and gradually add the juice of the limes until you have a fairly runny mixture. (not too runny though or it will slide off the cake!) 
• Once the cake is cooled, cover the top with the icing. I poured it from the bowl into a line in the centre of the cake and used the back of a metal spoon to spread it evenly. 

Then grab a cuppa, eat and enjoy! (and avoid the washing up....)