Mojito Cake

Mojito Cake! How do you say scrumptious?! I love mojito flavored anything. My grand-daughter and I both love drinking Mojito iced green tea (green tea infused with lime and mint and it is non-alcoholic). I am not a huge drinker but if I am on vacation...Mojito is my drink of choice. It is refreshing and not too sweet.

I planted a lime tree in my back yard (and I am still waiting for it to produce fruit) and I have a little herb garden with some fresh mint. I call it my MOJITO GARDEN! :) I can't wait for my lime tree to start producing fruit.

I had some fresh limes leftover from taco night and I wanted to make a cake. I wanted to try something new. I decided to experiment with making a Mojito cake. I love it! Very refreshing and not overly sweet. It is a vanilla based cake (You can make the cake from scratch or just make it easy on yourself and buy a cake mix. I have tried it both ways and it turned out great either way). I do gluten free baking at our house but you can certainly make this with a regular cake mix or your favorite vanilla cake recipe as the base. These are also absolutely adorable baked in mini bundt pans!

Mojito Cake Recipe:

• 1 box (9x13 size) gluten free cake vanilla or yellow mix (or you can use my vanilla cake recipe below) As I mentioned before....if you don't have a gluten allergy then you can use a regular cake mix or your favorite vanilla cake recipe as the base for this.
• 3 eggs
• 1/4 cup mayonnaise or sour cream (Mayonnaise is dairy free)
• 1/8 cup finely chopped fresh mint leaves
• zest from two decent sized limes (more if your limes are small)
• 1/2 cup oil 
• 3/4 cup milk or water or cold unsweetened green tea (I used some leftover mojito green tea once and it was delicious too!)
• 1/4 cup lime juice (I use fresh lime juice. I also like to add less water and more lime juice if I have it available). 

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9x13 pan (or cup cake pans or mini bundt loaves). Pour the cake mix (or homemade dry ingredients from your vanilla cake) into a mixing bowl. Beat the cake mix with the milk or water or cold tea, lime juice, oil and eggs. Add in the mayonnaise or sour cream. Stir in the lime zest and chopped mint leaves. The texture should be slightly thick but not as thick as brownie batter. If it is too thick (different flours can absorb more fluid) then add a few additional tablespoons of water at a time until desired cake batter consistency. Pour into greased pan (or cupcake pan or mini bundt pans). Bake 350 degree oven. I usually check my 9x13 pan after 22-25 minutes with a toothpick. If it comes out clean then it is done. If not, I add additional 5 minutes and check it again. Every oven and altitude with affect the baking time so check yours at the lowest cooking time and adjust accordingly. Cupcakes or mini bundt pans should be checked at 15 minutes and then adjust baking time as needed. You can also bake in a bread loaf pan which will take about 40-55 minutes to bake. I check at lowest time and then add 4-5 minutes and check again. Repeat until toothpick inserted comes out clean.

Optional Glaze Recipe:

• 3/4 cup powdered sugar
• lime zest
• finely chopped mint leaves
• few squeezes of lime juice (just enough to make the glaze thin to spread)

Mix ingredients well with a whisk or fork until smooth consistency. If you need to add a little juice to get it slightly runny the go ahead and do that. This glaze should be very thin and soak into the cake when it is still warm. This glaze is not required. The cake is good by itself but I really think it adds a little extra flavor and brings out the tartness of the cake. You can substitute rum instead of lime juice if you want to add a little kick to your cake if it is an all adult group of people eating them.

I like my cake served plain with just the glaze that has soaked into the cake. My hubby and grand-daughter like it with Whipped cream or Cool Whip. This cake freezes great. I also think it would be fantastic with a lime-cream cheese frosting but I haven't tried that yet. I am still in the experimental mode with this cake.

Gluten Free Vanilla Cake Mix (Homemade):

• 2 cups gluten free flour mix (I usually make my own gluten free flour blend but I do like cup4cup, King Arthur, Pillsbury or Trader Joes). I do not like to use any flour mix that contains sorghum in my sweet baked goods. It gives it a weird after taste. I also do NOT like to use coconut flour in this particular cake recipe because it makes the flavor too sweet and the texture is much drier. 
• 1 tsp. xanthan gum (only use this if your flour mix does not contain it or guar gum)
• 1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1 tbs. custard powder or vanilla pudding mix (this gives the gluten free flour a nice heavy texture similar to regular flour for baked goods)
• 1 cups sugar

I hope you enjoy this cake as much as we do at my house! I will try to post more photos when I get a chance. I was having some minor computer difficulties and gave up adding more photos. I plan on making this recipe again soon so I will post any updates and additional photos. 

Feel free to post anything that you substituted or brands of gluten free cake mixes that you have used that worked well (or didn't work) for you. We all learn from each other. Gluten free baking is an adventure! Remember...this cake can EASILY be made with regular cake mix. All of my recipes are baked at my house GLUTEN FREE but you can certainly make ANY of my recipes using regular flour or regular non-gluten products. 

Enjoy!

Tanja

Gluten Free Casually