- 4 limes, juice and zest only
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1 tsp ground mixed spice
- ½ tsp ground cloves
- 100g/3½oz desiccated coconut
- 230g/8oz self-raising flour
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 230g/8oz golden caster sugar
- 230g/8oz butter
- 70g/2½oz coconut butter
- 4 large free-range eggs, lightly whisked
- 50g/1¾oz unsalted butter
- 175g/6oz icing sugar
- 250g/9oz mascarpone cheese
- green fondant icing
- brown fondant icing
- chocolate beans
- 1 lime, zest only
- Preheat the oven to 180C/170C Fan/Gas 4 and line a 30x23x4cm/12x9x1½in baking tin with two pieces of aluminium foil, overlapping in the middle.
- In a bowl, mix the lime juice, zest, the spices and desiccated coconut together and leave to soak.
- Sift the flour and baking powder into a separate large bowl and set aside.
- Put the sugar, butter and coconut butter in a food processor and pulse until smooth. Transfer to the bowl of dry ingredients and mix until well combined. Fold in the eggs and soaked coconut mixture.
- Spoon the mixture into the prepared tin and bake for about 30 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean.
- Leave to cool in the tin for about 5 minutes then turn out onto a wire rack. Remove the foil and leave to cool completely.
- For the icing, put all the ingredients into a food processor and pulse until smooth.
- When the cake is completely cool, spread the icing all over the top. Trim the cake and cut into 12 equally-sized squares.
- For the decoration, roll out both coloured fondants. Use the green to cut out 48 ‘leaves’ and the brown to cut out 12 ‘trunks’.
- Decorate each square of cake with the fondants to make a palm tree ‘trunk’ and ‘leaves’. Use the chocolate beans to represent coconuts and finish by sprinkling over a little lime zest.