lime and ginger cake

Simple, delicious and very moist - this cake is a lovely treat to put together whenever you've got a little spare time and a sweet craving. It's inspired by the classic 'one-pot yogurt cake' and ciambella recipesand utilises the flavours I had in my kitchen.  There are endless variations for this recipe, it would make a great base cake for a citrus drizzle, or you could top it with a coconut frosting, a simple lemon and cream cheese topping or do as I did and add a layer of homemade lime curd.

Ingredients
1 cup milk soured with the juice of two limes
finely grated zest of two limes
1 cup vegetable oil (any other flavourless oil would work here too)
2 cups caster sugar
3 cups self-raising flour
OR
3 cups plain/all-purpose flour and 3 1/2 tsps baking powder
pinch of salt
1/2 cup finely chopped, crystalised ginger
3 eggs

1. Preheat your oven to 180C and grease and line your cake tin.
2. Put all of the ingredients apart from the ginger into a large bowl and beat together with an electric or hand whisk until everything is smooth and thoroughly combined. 
3. Stir through the crystalised ginger then pour the whole mixture into your prepared cake tin.
4. Place in the oven and bake for around 1 hour or until it is golden brown on top and a skwere comes out clean when inserted. This may take up to 90 mins depending on your oven and tin size.
5. Leave to cool before topping or eat it just as it is.  

lemongrass infused syrup

After struggling to find flavouring syrups in Bangkok that aren't packed with unnecessary additives or at a massively inflated price I decided to have a go at making my own. This syrup would be great for flavouring cocktails - try it with rum or vodka, a generous squeeze of lime juice and some soda water, or  simply with some water, lemon or lime slices and ice cubes for a refreshing summer drink. The ingredients I'm using here are readily available in Bangkok but increasingly easy to find in UK supermarkets now too. When preparing the ingredients don't make any of them too small otherwise they'll be a pain to remove from the syrup afterwards

Ingredients
3 stems of lemongrass
1 Lime (I used a Kafir lime)
thumb sized piece of galangal
1 cup of sugar
1 1/2 cups of water

1. Lightly bash up the lemongrass with a rolling pin or other suitably heavy implement so that it is bruised.
2. With a sharp knife remove the lime zest in large pieces being carefully to not remove too much of the white pitch underneath. You don't want to use the pitch as it will make the syrup too bitter.
3. Slice the galangal into thickish slices lengthways. 
4. Place all the ingredients in a large saucepan and put over a low heat, uncovered, until all the sugar has dissolved and bubbles are gently rising to the surface. Turn off the heat and leave to cool before using allowing the flavours to infuse further.
5. If you're not going to use the full amount straight away transfer the syrup to a properly sterilised bottle or jar and should keep in the fridge for a couple of weeks or so.