On the day I turned 25, I was still living the rural life in Shropshire. So, this past Sunday I made my way to the parental homestead for a belated birthday celebration. Cake is appropriate on many occasions, but during a birthday do it is absolutely essential. I decided to bake this moist and fruity lime drizzle and it went down a treat with all the guests!

Ingredients:

for the cake:

225 g softened butter

225 golden caster sugar

4 medium eggs

zest and juice of 2 limes

250 g self-raising flour

25 g ground almonds

100 g blueberries

100 g raspberries

for the drizzle:

8 tbsp lime juice (about 4 limes)

zest 1 lime

140 g golden caster sugar

(recipe from BBC good food’s cake collection book)

• Heat the oven to 160 degrees C (fan). Grease a baking tin (and/or line it with baking paper).
• Cream the sugar and butter until light and smooth.
• Beat the eggs in one by one.
• Add the lime zest, then fold in flour and almonds. Do this gently, so as to keep it nice and airy.
• Add about 3 tbsp lime juice and three quarters of the fruit.
• Spoon the mixture in the cake tin and sprinkle the other berries on top.
• Bake for about 1 hour.
• Make the drizzle. If you want you can put it on low heat to let the sugar dissolve, but I never do this when I make my own lemon drizzle cake, so that’s up to you.
• Take the cake out of the oven. If a skewer comes out clean, it’s done. When it’s still hot, stab it to death and pour the drizzle over it.
• Allow to cool, remove from the tin, slice and enjoy!