Let me let you in on a little secret: my aunt makes the meanest margaritas out there. Her recipe, involving almost equal parts tequila, cointreau and sugar  is extremely popular with all guests, young and old, male and female. They’re incredibly yummy, and as I’ve already told you the alcohol ratio you might have guessed, also incredibly fun. So my mom had the brilliant idea to serve tons of margaritas during the wedding weekend and so proceeded to buy 35 kilos of limes. I’m not joking. Or exaggerating. She actually had 35 kilos of limes. Limes pack a punch. And so there’s absolutely no way she could’ve used all 35 kilos in three days… which means that we still have a fridge full of limes, even though I’ve had a party (in which I of course served margaritas) and baked two cakes involving limes since then. There’s just no way to go through them all! So I’m sharing with you one of the recipes that’s helping me put a dent in the never ending supply of limes around here: Lime and black sesame cream cake. It’s yummy, quick and not so heavy.  A dense texture but a light flavor, the sort that you use your fork to get together all the last crumbs in your plate. Topped with a simple lime-icing sugar glaze, it manages to use a grand total of 9 limes! (Which means if I bake about 55 of these I might finally finish the job before they go sour).  If you like sightly less sweet or for a more simple go-with-your-coffee look and taste, skip the icing and just dust it with a bit of icing sugar. Read more for the recipe, or if you’d like to suggest stuff I can do with limes, leave me a comment!

Lime and sesame cream cake
(Own recipe)

1 cup sugar
2-3 eggs depending on size
1 cup flour
Pinch of salt
2 tsp baking powder
1 cup cream
3 tbsps milk
1 tsp vanilla
2 generous tbsp black sesame seeds
Juice and zest of 6 small limes
(About 2 tbsp zest and 5 tbsp juice)

For the glaze:
3 tbsp lime juice
1 1/2 cups icing sugar
Black sesame seeds for sprinkling

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350ºF. Grease and flour an 11 inch round pan.
Sift together the dry ingredients and set aside. Mix the milk, cream and vanilla in a separate bowl.

In the bowl of your mixer whisk the eggs on high until light and fluffy. Add the sugar and beat for another minute. Add the dry ingredients alternating with the cream and beat just until necessary to have an even batter. (Do not overmix!) Add the sesame seeds, juice and lime zest. Place in the greased pan and bake until slightly golden brown. Transfer to a wire rack and let cool before glazing.

Glaze:

Place the icing sugar in a bowl and add lime juice a bit at a time whisking each addition energetically until you get the desired consistency (thicker is whiter but sweeter, thinner is less overpowering and sweet).

Glaze the cake and sprinkle with black sesame seeds.