BAKE | LIME BERRY CAKE

Ever since I made this carrot cake and I realized that I didn't have a bundt pan, I've really wanted to make a bundt cake. Bundt cakes caught my eyes on Pinterest and I dreamed about them in my sleep. I refused to make the recipes in regular cake pans and convinced myself I needed a bundt pan. And then one magical day my mom bought me one. A super cute, lime green bundt pan! And so I made the first bundt cake recipe I could find.

The important part of this cake is the lime. I was really excited to find one lime in my produce drawer but didn't realize how long it had probably been sitting in there until I was too far into the recipe. Lesson learned #1: use a fresh, new, juicy lime with bright skin. So that your lime zest will be fragrant and amazing and make your sugar lime-zesty-amazing which, in turn, will make your cake amazing. My cake was still moist and berryful but I couldn't taste the lime.

Lesson learned #2: Don't over grease and flour coat your bundt pan. My biggest fear is having my gorgeous cake get stuck. So I went a little too overboard with the cooking spray and flour, and my cake had a weird flour/cooking spray coating on the top of it. I disguised it with powdered sugar, but still, it was weird.

Sweet Berry Lime Cake adapted from Joy the Baker
makes 1 Bundt cake

• 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
• 1 TBS fresh lime zest
• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 TBS baking soda
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon (optional)
• 3 large eggs
• 1 cup unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly
• 1 cup plain yogurt (or buttermilk)
• 1 TBS fresh lime juice
• 1 and 1/2 cup frozen mixed berries or (3/4 cup fresh raspberries + 1/2 cup fresh blueberries)

1. Grease and flour a Bundt pan.  Set aside.
2. In a small bowl, combine granulated sugar and lime zest.  Using your fingers, or the back of a spoon, rub the zest into the sugar, releasing the essential oils.  The sugar will be lime scented.
3. In a large bowl, combine lime sugar, flour, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon.  In a separate bowl, whisk together eggs, butter, buttermilk and lime juice.
4. Add the wet ingredients all at once to the dry ingredients.  Stir until all of the dry ingredients are moistened and the mixture is thoroughly combined.  The batter will be fairly thick.  Add the berries and gently fold into batter. (I used frozen berries and pushed them into the batter as I spooned it into the bundt pan because the berry colors tend to bleed when you fold them in.)
5. Spoon the batter into the prepared pan.  Bake at 350 degrees F for 45-50 minutes, or until a skewer inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean.  Allow to cool in the pan for 20 minutes then invert onto a wire rack to cool completely.  To serve, sprinkle with powdered sugar and serve with coffee.

I can't wait to make more bundt cakes in my pretty pan!

xoxo, allison