Makes 4 x 6 inch round sponges
Ingredients
Sponge
Wet
360ml soya milk
200ml vegetable oil
100ml ginger beer
50ml dark rum (you can leave out the alcohol by using 50ml soya milk instead)
8ml rum flavouring
15ml lime juice
Dry
500g self raising flour
300g dark brown sugar
2 tablespoons ground ginger
2 teaspoons baking powder
large pinch of salt
6 pieces of stem ginger, finely chopped
3 tablespoons stem ginger syrup
Frosting
250g vegan butter eg. Flora Plant butter or Naturli block at room temperature
500g icing sugar
1-2 tablespoons boiling water
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
zest of one lime
brown gel colouring (optional)
Lime curd
16g vegan butter or margarine
8g cornflour
80ml lime juice
40g sugar
pinch of salt
To decorate (optional)
strips of lime zest
50ml water
50ml sugar, plus extra for sprinkling
Method
Grease and line four 6 inch round tins and preheat the oven to 175 degrees C
Finely chop the stem ginger so that it is ready to be added quickly to your cake batter.
Mix all the wet ingredients together in a large jug, and all the dry ingredients together in a large bowl. Pour the wet into the dry and mix thoroughly – you might want to use a whisk for a few seconds.
Stir in the chopped stem ginger, pour the batter equally into the four tins and bake for about 30 minutes until a skewer comes out clean out of the sponge.
Allow the cake a few hours to cool and firm up completely while you make the lime curd, frosting and candied lime.
To make the lime curd, gently melt the butter then remove from the heat. Stir in the cornflour to make a paste, then add the sugar, salt and lime juice. Return to the heat and stir until the curd thickens. Allow to cool, then store in the fridge until it sets.
To make the frosting, beat the butter with or in an electric mixer for five minutes with the vanilla extract and water, then add the icing sugar. Beat until the frosting is smooth. If it is too stiff, add a little more water. If it is too soft, add more icing sugar.
Split the frosting into two halves and add the lime zest into one half, stirring it in well. This lime frosting will be used inside the cake, while the plain frosting will be used to decorate the outside. If you want to use some dark brown colouring on the top half of the cake, mix in a little brown gel or paste colouring to about two tablespoons of the plain frosting.
To make the candied lime, bring the water and sugar to the boil and add the long strips of lime zest. Gently boil these in the syrup for 5 minutes, then drain, sprinkle with sugar and allow the zest to dry on baking parchment.
To assemble the cake, level the four sponges and brush each one with the stem ginger syrup. Sandwich the four sponges together with the lime frosting.
Lightly coat the outside of the cake with the frosting using a palette knife and, if you’re using it, add the brown frosting to the top half of the cake. Smooth the frosting with a cake scraper to reveal some of the sponge, creating a semi-naked effect.
Use the rest of the frosting to pipe swirls on top of the cake and sprinkle on the candied lime.
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