Lime and Poppy Seed Muffins

After all the heavy chocolatey goodness over the Easter period I started thinking about springtime foods and flavours. The lemon cake in whatever guise is a bakers favourite go-to simple cake flavour but then I started thinking about how I could twist it. I mean, lemon has been done before so many times, right? The classic combination of lemon and poppy seed is a classic and so who’d want to mess with that? Well, me actually. So I left the lemons alone and started thinking about limes! So here I give to you my very own lime and poppy seed recipe.

Ingredients
Will make 9 muffins (tulip cases) or 12 cupcakes or a 2lb loaf cake

For the cake:

• 255g self raising flour
• 200g caster sugar
• 115g unsalted butter
• 2 large eggs
• 150ml sour cream
• 1 tbsp poppy seeds
• zest and juice of 2 unwaxed limes

For the lime sugar glaze:
Make in a ratio of 1 tbsp sugar: 2 limes

• 1-2 tbsp caster sugar
• juice of 2-4 unwaxed limes

Method

• Preheat the oven to 180°C.
• Cream the butter and sugar together.
• Add half the flour and one egg to the butter and sugar and then mix.
• Add the remainder of the flour and last egg with the poppy seeds and sour cream and combine.
• Lastly, add the juice and zest of 2 limes. You can add as much zest as you want but it should be from at least 2 limes as they are very small compared to lemons. Note: always juice limes from room temperature. I used to put them in the fridge as they keep longer but these will need to be at room temperature like all other ingredients as otherwise they are much harder to juice.
• Bake in the oven at 180°C. Time will depend on what you bake but muffins will take roughly 15-18 minutes and loaf cakes slightly longer. Cupcakes will want the least amount of time at 12-15 minutes. Check a loaf cake after 20 minutes using a cocktail stick or skewer and smaller cakes after 12. This recipe won’t dramatically brown in the oven so check cakes even if they don’t look done!
• While the cake is cooling make the glaze. Pour or coat your cake(s) with a layer of glaze while still warm. Note: depending on your cakes you may have to make more glaze – don’t forget, limes are tiny beasts! This might seem excessively zingy but it’s this zing that makes the cake! You can always scale down the lime juice if you like. Once the first coating of glaze has been absorbed by the cake add another. This will build the lime flavour into the cake. The top of the cake will be very sticky!
• Eat and enjoy.