Lime & coconut cake

Ever since tasting the coconut and lemongrass cake at Kate's Kitchen in Sligo town, I've been trying to figure out how to recreate this delicious cake. I decided to use lime (the juice and zest) instead of lemongrass (which would require a food processor that I don't have to purée). And I figured that the almond flour and shredded coconut would provide enough oils/fat on their own that I could leave out butter/coconut oil.

Batter 

Ingredients for the cake

3 limes, zested and juiced (about 100ml liquid)
 ≈ 1 C demerara sugar

6 free range large eggs
1¼ C almond flour, sifted
1 C medium desiccated coconut
1 tsp baking powder
, sifted
⅛ tsp Himalayan rose pink crystal salt

Ingredients for the syrup

¼ C organic honey
¼ C water
zest of 2 limes

Method

1. Preheat oven to 160°C.
2. Rub sugar and lime zest together until the oil from the zest is combined with the sugar. 
3. Beat the eggs and zesty sugar on a high speed until smooth and creamy.*
4. In a separate bowl, combine the sifted almond flour, baking powder, and salt.
5. Whisk the flour mix into the egg mix in batches until fully combined.*
6. Whisk in the lime juice in batches until fully absorbed.*
7. Add in the dessicated coconut to the mix. Let batter sit for 20 minutes to ensure liquids are fully absorbed into the flour.
8. Pour batter into a silicon pan or lined tin (I used a 9" silicon round pan) and place the pan in a water bath (use hot water).
9. Bake for 55 minutes or until a skewer (or a dry spaghetti noodle) inserted into the cake comes out clean.
10. Let the cake cool in the pan and then put in the fridge to set for a few hours or overnight.
11. Just before serving, mix the honey and water in a small pan and heat until bubbling and reducing. Stir in ⅓ of the lime zest and remove from the heat. Let the zest infuse the syrup for a few minutes and then pour evenly over the cake.
12. Sprinkle the remaining zest on the cake and serve. 

* Important to whisk thoroughly, alternating between medium and high speed. I find that whisking it longer creates the fluffiness that flourless cakes often lack.

Still reeling from the less than perfect flip of my last cake, I deliberately let this cake set in the fridge for nearly 20 hours before taking it out of the silicon pan. It certainly worked better. The intense aroma from the lime zest was ever so enticing that I couldn't wait to cut a (small) slice to taste. Even though the cake was packed with shredded coconut, it tasted light (perhaps thanks to no butter/oil) and fluffy. And the flavour of the lime really came through. Husband wasn't going to have a slice as it was past midnight, but after tasting a bite, he promptly asked for some more, and then some more. Upon finishing, he declared that this was the best cake I'd made to date. (Then we had a 'discussion' of what was wrong with the other cakes... Even though it stung a bit to hear, I'm glad Husband doesn't blow smoke up my ar$e.)

One thing I did wonder about the cake was the sweetness. When I first tasted it, I thought it may have been a tad too sweet. I shared the thought with Husband, to which he reminded me not to cut the sugar too much. I also gave a slice to a friend at lunch and asked him about it afterwards. He didn't think it was too sweet either. Still, I'm going to cut the sugar from nearly 1 cup to ¾ cup and see what happens.