Gin and Tonic Cake

By popular request, here's my recipe for Gin & Tonic cake. It seems that many of you may  be quite keen to try it.   I made it yesterday for Richard's birthday.   It tasted superb and was appreciated by everyone.   Be a great cake for a picnic.  Don't do what I did though, attempt to ice it when it was still warm.  Icing kinda melted a bit but still tasted good, although the little yellow icing lemons I carefully made ended up being just blobs against the white icing. However the thinly sliced lemons and limes on top of the cake looked superb! 

Gin and Tonic Cake

makes one large 9×13 baking dish / cake tin

3 cups all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup butter, at room temperature
1 1/2 cup granulated sugar
4 large eggs (I used 6 ordinary eggs)
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1-2 tablespoons freshly zested lime rind (or lemon)
1/4 cup gin
1/4 cup milk
juice of 1 lime (or lemon)

Preheat oven to 175 degrees C. Mix flour, baking powder and salt together in a bowl and set aside.

In the bowl of your electric mixer, beat butter on medium speed until creamy. Add in sugar and beat on medium-high speed until fluffy, about 5 minutes, scraping down the bowl if needed. Add in each egg one at a time, beating until fully incorporated before adding the next. Add in vanilla and lime zest and mix.

With the mixer on low speed, add in half of the dry ingredients. Add in gin, milk and lime juice, mixing until combined and scraping the bowl if necessary. Add remaining flour and beat until just combined. Pour into a greased 9×13 baking dish, and bake for 35-40 minutes, until a knife comes out clean. Make up the glaze while the cake is cooking.   Remove cake from over and immediately poke holes over top with knife. Pour gin glaze over then, then let cake cool completely. While cake is cooling, mix up icing and once cake is cold, put on the icing.   

Gin Glaze

1 3/4 cups icing sugar (I used castor sugar instead successfully)
Half cup of gin
half cup of tonic (you can have more tonic and less gin or vice versa but the cake soaks up whatever liquid you throw at it)
the juice of 1 lime or lemon (included a bit of pulp too)

Mix ingredients together until sugar is well dissolved, then pour over cake immediately while it is still warm.

Gin Icing

2 1/2 cups icing sugar
2-3 tablespoons gin & tonic
Lemon zest & lemon juice to taste
Mix ingredients together until a very thick but spreadable icing forms. Once cake has completely cooled, spread a thin layer of icing all over the cake. Note: start with 1-2 tablespoons of gin, if more non-gin liquid is needed, use tonic water, milk or cream. You can substitute more tonic (instead of gin) in the frosting if desired.