Gin and tonic cake

Gin and tonic cake
  • Serves icon Serves 12
  • Time icon Hands-on time 25 min, oven-time 45 min

This cake packs a (gentle) punch thanks to the classic flavours of a G&T. It makes the perfect birthday cake for the gin and tonic lover in your life.

Or, for a booze-free alternative, take a look at our easy lemon drizzle cake, and this lemon drizzle bundt cake.

Ingredients

  • 225g butter, at room temperature
  • 275g golden caster sugar
  • Finely grated zest and juice from 2 limes (put the zest and juice in separate small bowls)
  • 3 large eggs, beaten
  • 210g natural full-fat yogurt
  • 330g self-raising flour
  • 100ml gin
  • 100ml tonic
  • 100g granulated sugar, plus 2 tbsp for sprinkling

Method

  1. Preheat the oven to 160°C/fan140°C/gas 3. Grease a 15cm x 30 cm cake tin and line with baking parchment.
  2. Put the butter in a large mixing bowl and add the golden caster sugar. Add the lime zest and, using an electric whisk (or you can do it by hand), give it a quick whisk to bring it all together. Don’t worry about creaming the mix until fluffy – that’s not necessary with this recipe.
  3. Add the eggs and yogurt to the bowl, then give the mixture another quick whisk. Add the flour then, using a metal spoon, carefully bring the mixture together. Don’t beat the life out of it – mix until the flour has just been incorporated. Spoon the mixture into the lined cake tin and smooth the top.
  4. Bake the cake in the preheated oven for 45 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean.
  5. Take out of the oven and leave to cool in the tin for 10 minutes. Meanwhile, put the 100g granulated sugar into a pan with the gin, tonic and lime juice. Place the pan on a medium heat and bring the mixture to the boil, then let it bubble for 3-4 minutes until the sugar has dissolved. Take off the heat.
  6. Using a fork, carefully poke lots of holes in the top of the cake. Spoon half the syrup over the cake and allow it to soak in. After a couple of minutes spoon over the remaining syrup. It may seem as if there’s a lot of syrup, but it will all sink in to create a wonderfully moist cake – so moist it doubles up as a pudding.
  7. Finally, sprinkle a couple of tablespoons of granulated sugar over the top of the cake, remove carefully from the tin, leave to cool on a wire rack, then cut into squares to serve.

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  1. Gorgeous moist flavoursome cake. I happened to use an elderflower tonic water which worked really well and it looked great when turned out of my Nordic Ware Daisy Cake Pan which lucky coincided with the awkward sized bakeware specifications in this recipe.

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