Lime Drizzle Cake

This Lime Drizzle Cake is a buttermilk lime loaf cake recipe topped with a lime drizzle. Brush the warm lime cake with the optional juniper syrup, and you have a non-alcoholic gin and tonic cake that’s perfect for breakfast or dessert or snacking any time.

So read on for all the detailed tips and tricks about baking ratios and why cakes fall. Or just grab your limes, hit that purple Jump to Recipe button, and let’s make a lime drizzle loaf cake!

Ingredients

I initially created this lime loaf cake with juniper berries for the reddit 52 week baking challenge (Week 31: unusual ingredients). I had the idea to make a gin and tonic cake recipe using ground juniper berries and lime.

I mistakenly thought it would be simple – take my blackberry lemon bread recipe, omit blackberries, substitute lime for lemon, and add finely ground juniper berries. This lime loaf cake recipe failed – four times!

It provided lessons about why cakes fall, which I’ll share with you below. But you can trust that this lime drizzle cake recipe has now been tested successfully multiple times in 2025, and my staff gobbles it down when I bring it to staff meeting.

Recipe tips and tricks

Probably the most common reason for why cakes fall after baking is because they are underbaked. Moist baked goods can’t sustain the structure they’ve risen to, and they collapse. But there are a variety of reasons why cakes sink in the middle during baking.

Why Do Cakes Sink: Inadequate chemical leavening.

I initially wondered whether the change from lemon juice to lime juice could have varied the acidity enough to result in less reaction with the chemical leavening agents, but limes are actually more acidic than lemons.

To check to see if your baking powder is still active, mix baking powder with boiling water – it should froth up immediately. Mixing baking soda with vinegar should do the same

Step 1: Sift or whisk the dry ingredients together in a small to medium sized bowl.

Why Do Cakes Sink: Insufficient mechanical leavening.

Step 2: With the creaming method, you need to beat the butter and sugar together until they are really well incorporated and truly light and fluffy. This should take several minutes – don’t skimp here since it will help protect your lime cake batter from curdling once you beat in the eggs.

You can also use the reverse creaming method here like I use in my tiramisu layer cake, but I found that reverse creaming made my lime drizzle cake a little denser than I liked.

Why Do Cakes Sink: Change in altitude or barometric pressure.

Step 3: Add the half the dry ingredients, beat on low until just incorporated, and then add the lime juice and buttermilk. Add the remaining dry ingredients and mix until incorporated.

Why Do Cakes Sink: Wrong sized pan

This again comes down to cake structure. A smaller pan actually leads to a greater initial rise, and so your cake might fall in the middle if that rise isn’t supported.

Step 6: Spoon the lime cake batter into a buttered and floured loaf pan. Give it a few thwacks to even it out, and bake.

Why Do Cakes Sink: Opening the oven door

Don’t do this until the cake has set! The rush of room temperature air into the oven can make the cake sink in the middle.

Step 7: Bake in the middle of the oven until the cake is a light brown, a tester inserted into the middle comes out with just a few moist crumbs, and the loaf cake is starting to pull away from the sides. You’ll want to check about 30 to 40 minutes into baking to make sure your lime cake isn’t browning too quickly.

Step 8: Let your lime loaf cake cool in the pan about 10 minutes, turn it out onto a cooling rack over waxed paper, and brush with the optional juniper syrup if you’re making a gin and tonic cake. Let it cool completely.

Step 9: Glaze with the lime drizzle. I tend to thin my glaze out too much so it drips onto the wax paper. Nothing wrong with scooping that lime glaze up with a spoon or spatula and drizzling it back on your loaf cake!

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