This cook was not the disaster it deserved to be, given what I did wrong, and I think that’s testament to a very sound basic recipe. Which is another way of saying, though this did not end brilliantly, it’s not the fault of the recipe. In any case, it was all eaten, and there were no complaints.

The starting point was limes. I have a small tree – not much more than 1m tall and bearing just 7 fruit – and the limes were ripe and I wanted to use them in a cake. And yes, I know this lime is very yellow for something that should be green, but this variety goes quite yellow when fully ripe.

What I did wrong in this bake was forget to add the melted butter. So the cake was a bit dry, though all the flavours, particularly the wonderful lime tang, were excellent. I will definitely make it again, though I will also definitely remember the butter next time (duh).

Lime and coconut cake

Put in a food processor and process for 20 seconds:
200g self-raising flour
155g caster sugar
1 tsp baking powder
50g shredded coconut

Add:
3 eggs
150g melted butter
125ml (1/5 cup) fresh lime juice
1 tbs finely grated lime rind

Put in an 18cm square tin lined with baking paper, and bake at  180C for 40 minutes. Sprinkle with 15g of coconut and bake 10 mins more. (This bit didn’t work for me, and I am not sure if that’s because of the lack of butter, but I suspect it is. But the coconut did not stick at all and simply fell off as soon as you picked it up).

Verdict: great taste, though it was fairly dry, and I know that was all my fault.