Recipe :: Gin & Tonic cake

I’m afraid I haven’t had time this week for writing, so here’s the write-up of a baking adventure I had at the weekend.

We’ll return to regularly scheduled programming shortly.

I recently joined the Clandestine Cake Club and I’m going to my first meeting on September 19th. The meetings are themed with the next being ‘Tipsy Cakes’. I decided I’d like to try a gin & tonic in cake form, so this was my first attempt at baking one. I took a recipe I found online (I have forgotten where :/) and have adapted it slightly and added metric measures (yeah!)

 

Gin and Tonic Cake

makes one large 9×13 baking dish

(This makes a BIG CAKE. You may want to halve these quantities—my cake was far too thick and took twice the time to bake, resulting in a slightly crusty outer edge)

3 cups/720g all-purpose flour (plain flour)

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 cup/240g unsalted butter, at room temperature

1 3/4 cup/420g sugar

4 large eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Zest from 2 limes

1/4 cup/60ml gin

1/4 cup/60ml milk

juice of 1 lime

 

Method

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. 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. (I don’t have an electric mixer and had to do this by hand. Turned out fine, just means my cake had more love in it!)

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 top is golden and center is not jiggly or a skewer comes out clean.

Remove cake from oven and immediately poke holes over top with a toothpick or fork. Pour gin glaze over then, then let cake cool completely.

While cake is cooling, mix up icing and once cooled, cover cake with it. Note: you can sub tonic water in for the gin/milk portion of the recipe if desired (but why would you?).

 

Gin Glaze

1 1/2 cups powdered sugar

5 tablespoons gin

the juice of 1 lime

Mix ingredients together until a glaze forms, then pour over cake immediately while it is still warm. Note: start with 1-2 tablespoons of gin, if more non-gin liquid is needed, use tonic water, milk or cream. You can use more tonic in the glaze if desired.

(I do advise adding some tonic or more lime if it seems thick. Even after reducing the amount of sugar, I found this a bit thick to properly soak into the sponge.)

 

Gin Icing

2 cups powdered sugar

2 tablespoons gin

drop of vanilla extract

(I actually saved some of the lime juice to put in the icing as it was a bit dull with just gin alone. Deliciously strong though! I also found this WAY too much sugar so have reduced the amount slightly. It made a ridiculous amount of icing, resulting in me dancing drunkenly around the kitchen and eating it off a spoon while my boyfriend looked on in horror.)

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 (I spread a very thick layer. A double layer in fact – there was so much!). Note: start with 1-2 tablespoons of gin, if more non-gin liquid is needed, use tonic water, milk or cream. You can sub more tonic instead of gin in the icing if desired.

Don’t be misled by my troubled expression, this cake was beautiful. I thought my gin-hating friends would not approve but they all agreed it was actually delicious. Also it kept moist long enough for me to bring the leftovers into work after the bank holiday (there were only leftovers because the cake was SO BIG).

I recommend this cake whole-heartedly, and please let me know if you make it, or if you have any tipsy cake recommendations!

Tags: cake, cake recipe, clandestine cake club, cocktails, food, gin and tonic, photography, recipes