Commander Limes

It was a wet Sunday in February, the dog woke me up before 8am in her usual way involves pawing me in the side until I come round. After some tactical cereal, that tasted like a mix of sawdust and raspberry ripple, we pushed our way through wet snow and I talked to an aged farmer's widow as we took in a morning a walk.

On our return to the house I decided to make some comfort food and specifically a cake that used some stray limes I had left over from a recent trip to the local shop.

On the player as I made the sponge mixture was Frank Zappa's excellent and eclectic Sheik Yerbouti album which comprises of great song writing, comedic moments and scorching guitar solos.

The sponge mixture ingredients comprised of:

180g/ 6oz Self-Raising Flour
180g/6oz Caster Sugar

60g/2oz Ground Almonds

120g/4oz Margarine

2 Medium Eggs

Juice of half a Lemon and half of a  Lime.

Teaspoon of Almond Essence.

First I creamed together the Margarine and Sugar to make it fluffy before I gradually added the Eggs, which I'd already beaten thoroughly, and then the Flour and Ground Almonds. After that I added the Lemon and Lime Juice and the Almond Essence.

Next I stirred all these ingredients together with a wooden spoon to create a thick mixture that I then folded into a greased cake tin and then cooked for 30 minutes on Gas Mark 6. Once this was cooked I left it to cool on one side and later turned the sponge out onto a cold baking tray.

Later I made the icing which comprised of the following ingredients:

Juice of half a Lime and half a Lemon.

75g/3oz sieved Icing Sugar

125g/4oz Margarine (at room temperature)

I first creamed together the Icing Sugar and the Margarine to make a rather runny icing mixture. Then I added the Lemon and Lime and juice and stirred it into the Icing Sugar and Margarine. It was then spread over the top of the sponge and allowed to run down the sides of it.

To finish the job I sliced up another Lime widthways and used the slices to decorate the top of the cake. The end result was a cake that was light tasting and with the Lemon and Lime evoked thoughts of hot summer days and parties in people's back gardens with an option Gin and Tonic.

The Limes have it: plenty of citrus fruit in this recipe gave the cake a taste of summer in dark midwinter.