Paloma Bundt Cake

I can't make the same cake twice. It's boring. What's the point? I like my baking to be exciting, and a little bit terrifying. I almost like looking through the oven door and thinking 'have I pushed it too far this time?' It's never happened yet, but you never know. 

On Saturday we were going to our friends' for dinner, and it was declared that there would be a Mexican theme. The obvious choice would be a Margarita bundt, however, it had been done already, and was therefore dead to me. A bit of research geekery later, and it turns out that the most popular cocktail in Mexico is a Paloma (meaning Dove, not the ginger singer). 

A Paloma is predominantly made form tequila, grapefruit juice, and lime, which are perfect for putting into a cake. I split them out to give the flavours some depth, which got a pretty good reaction from my fellow party-goers. 

It works a bit like this; tequila and lime flavoured cake, the first layer of icing would be made from pink grapefruit juice with a shot of tequila, but the thicker green icing is made from neat lime juice. This means you get a taste sensation with every bite.

Cake:

• 225g butter
• 450g golden caster sugar
• 4 medium eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 350g Homepride plain flour 
• 1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp ground ginger
• 250ml low fat lemon yoghurt
• Zest and juice of a large lime
• 5 tbsp Tequila

White icing:

• 300g icing sugar 
• 3 tbsp Tequila
• Grapefruit juice

Green icing:

• 200g icing sugar
• Lime juice
• Green food colouring gel

• The naffest of naff foil umbrellas
• Lime and grapefruit segments

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to gas 3/160 c
2. Prepare a regular sized bundt tin - 2.4l, 10 cup, 10 inch with melted butter and dust with flour.
3. Cream the butter and sugar until pale and fluffy.
4. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. 
5. In a separate bowl, measure out the flour, bicarbonate of soda, salt and ginger.
6. Pour the yoghurt into a jug, and add the Tequila and the lemon zest and juice.
7. Sift in a third of the flour mix followed by half the yoghurt. Repeat this until everything is combined. 
8. Give everything a quick mix on a low speed for about 10 seconds.
9. Pour the mix into your prepared tin. 
10. Bake in the centre of the oven for about 1 hour 15 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean. 
11. Leave the cake to cool for ten minutes before removing from the tin.
12. When completely cool, make the white icing by mixing the icing sugar with 3 tbsp Tequila and enough pink grapefruit juice to make a runny icing (must be strained if it has bits - mine did!)
13. Tip it all over the cake.
14. Leave it for about 30 mins.
15. Make the green icing by mixing the icing sugar enough lime juice to make a thick icing, still runny enough to fall off a spoon.
16. Add a little green food dye. 
17. Spoon over in a zigzag manner, or pop it in a squeezy bottle for a bit more control.
18. Decorate with citrus segments and whatever cocktail naffness you can get your mitts on. 

Bloggers: Please respect the fact I am sharing my own ideas and basic recipe. Blood, sweat and many tears have gone into getting this right, so you may enjoy a perfect bundt. If you wish to re-blog a recipe from these variations, please credit my blog and link to this original post rather than pasting the recipe on your own page.