Gin And Tonic Cake

April 12, 2017

The perfect spring time cake. Featuring Marshalls Creek Juniper Berries!

Serves 8-10
Ingredients:
3 small Limes🍈
45 Juniper Berries*
2 large Eggs🥚
1/2 cup Vegetable Oil
3/4 cup granulated Sugar
1 tbsp Marhsalls Creek Pure Vanilla Extract*
2 cups Flour
2 tsp Baking Powder
2 tsp Baking Soda
1/2 tsp Salt*
2/3 cup Gin🍸
3/4 cup Water
2 cups powdered Sugar

Line an 8” cake pan with parchment paper; lightly grease paper and sides of pan. Preheat oven to 350 F. Finely zest limes; set aside zest. Juice limes and measure out ¼ cup juice and, separately, 1 tablespoon juice; set both aside. Using a mortar and pestle or spice grinder, mash 30 of the juniper berries until small flakes are formed; set aside. In a large bowl, beat together eggs, oil, granulated sugar and vanilla until even and smooth.

Sift over the mixture: flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Mix on low speed, gradually adding 1/4 cup lime juice and 1/3 cup gin. Beat until smooth. Toss in the lime zest and crushed juniper berries, mixing until evenly dispersed. Gently fold in the tonic water with a spatula, then quickly pour into prepared pan. (If desired, watch the batter bubble, brown and gloriously raise in your oven! Height will depend on freshness of baking soda and tonic.) Bake the cake for about 40-45 minutes, first checking center with a wooden skewer or toothpick at the 35 minute mark; cake is done when golden brown and no wet batter appears.

Remove cake from oven and let cool in pan at least 45 minutes. Loosen sides of cake with a butter knife, remove parchment, and carefully transfer cake to a wire rack over a baking sheet. While cake cools a bit longer on rack, place the powdered sugar, remaining tablespoon lime juice, and remaining 1/3 cup gin in a saucepan. Whisk over medium heat for only about 30 seconds; remove from heat while still opaque and keep stirring. (This amount of heating is just enough to activate the thickening power of the corn starch in the powdered sugar. Longer heating turns the sugar into a clear sticky glaze that will remain wet; if this happens, whisk in more powdered sugar immediately, but don’t use too much more; keep the glaze at pouring consistency.)

Working quickly, pour half of the glaze over cake; it should harden fast. Immediately repeat with second half of glaze, letting it drip down the sides of the cake. Reserve a bit of glaze in pan, tossing the remaining 15 juniper berries in it. If glaze in pan is already too hard, place pan over low heat momentarily. Using small tongs or baking tweezers (the sugar coating is HOT), quickly place glazed juniper berries evenly around edges of cake and a few in the center. (You may notice that I only used 8 around the edges of my cake, but I suggest placing 12+ around the edges so that each slice bears at least one berry.) Store the cake covered at room temperature (don’t refrigerate); eat within 2 or 3 days.

This inventive recipe is from the ButterSugarFlowers blog!