Gin and tonic cake

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Who's up for a boozy treat masquerading as afternoon tea? Try this gluten-free gin cake that wheat dodgers can eat too!

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I’m going to level with you. Despite coming from an entire family of fervent gin swillers, my conversion to this summer cooler has only been fairly recent. I used to think a G & T tasted like hairspray in a glass. All sourness and weird fragrance. The only good thing going for it was the fact it glowed in ultraviolet light. Pretty cool to use as a makeshift torch to find the way to the loos, but drink it? No, thank you.

Maybe my revulsion came from going on a particularly awful date with a very angry, sweaty man, who, when it was his round, returned to the table with two gin and tonics, despite the fact that I had asked for a dark rum and ginger beer. He was so angry about everything already (“the bloody barman, the bloody prices in here, the bloody Tube journey…”), I felt I couldn’t tell him I didn’t like the drink he’d just got me. I valiantly (if I may say so) struggled through and managed finally to drain the glass, but it wasn’t pretty. Needless to say, that was the last time I saw that bloody man.

Roll forward several years and how my feelings have changed. Not only can I enjoy a G & T if given to me by mistake, I’ll even actively order at least one on purpose. Maybe gin and tonic is a flavour you grow to like, like olives, coffee or whisky. Maybe I’ve finally grown up, or maybe I was just late to the party. Either way, I’m very glad I’ve discovered how refreshing and summery a glass of mother’s ruin can be. And now that I have, the logical next step can only be to celebrate it in cake form. So here you go! Gin and tonic gluten-free cake. Tuck in!

Ingredients

Metric

Imperial

For the cake

  • 110g of unsalted butter, soft
  • 110g of caster sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • 110g of rice flour
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • 5 limes, zest finely grated
  • 30ml of gin
  • 30ml of tonic water

For the syrup

  • 125g of caster sugar
  • 4 limes, juiced
  • 15ml of gin
  • 15ml of tonic water

For the icing

  • 15ml of gin
  • 15ml of tonic water
  • 1 lime, juiced
  • 50g of icing sugar, sifted

Method

1
Preheat the oven to 180°C/gas mark 4. Grease and flour (with GF flour) a 22cm diameter savarin tin or a loaf tin will do the job
2
Whisk all the cake ingredients together until pale and fluffy and spoon the batter into the prepared tin smooth over the top and bake for 20 – 25 minutes, or until an inserted skewer comes out clean
3
In the meantime, put the syrup ingredients in a saucepan and stir over a gentle heat until the sugar has dissolved
4
Once the cake is out of the oven, leave it to cool for ten minutes before upturning on a wire rack. Place a sheet of greaseproof paper underneath the wire rack to catch any drips
5
Stab the hot cake all over with a cake skewer and spoon over the syrup and leave it to soak in. Leave the cake to cool completely
6
Mix together the icing ingredients and drizzle over the cooled cake. Decorate with a little extra lime zest if you like and serve with a gin & tonic
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Victoria is a London-based food writer and recipe developer. She was the Roald Dahl Museum’s first ever Gastronomic Writer in Residence and has written six books, including her latest, Too Good To Waste.

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