• Making time 1 hour 30 minutes
• Preparation time  1 hour 20 minutes

Ingredients

• 175 g soft margarine
• 175 caster sugar
• Three eggs, beaten
• 250 g self-rising flour
• Finely grated rind of 2 limes
• Juice of 1^1/2 limes
• 100 g butter, at room temperature
• 250 g icing sugar, plus extra for dusting
• Four tablespoons of raspberry jam
• 250 g ready-rolled white icing
• 250 g modelling icing edible gold food colouring
• Small tube white writing icing (optional)

Love can change a person the way a parent can change a baby-awkwardly, and often with a great deal of mess.

– Lemony Snicket

Preparation:

1. Beat the margarine and sugar together in a bowl until pale and creamy, mix in a spoonful of the egg and flour until all has been added and the mixture is smooth.
2. Stir in the lime rind and the juice from ½ a lime, spoon the mixture into a 20cm deep round cake tin lined with non-stick baking paper and spread the surface level, bake in a preheated oven at 160⁰C set the timer for 1^1/2 hours until well raising, leave to cool in the tin then turn out, peel off the lining paper and slice the cake horizontally into 3 layers.
3. Beat the butter, icing sugar ab remaining lime juice together to make smooth buttercream, sandwich the cakes together using the buttercream and jam, and spread the remaining mix thinly over the cake top and sides.
4. Drape the rolled icing over the cake, gently press over the top and sides until smooth and trim away the excess icing, press a small piece of modelling icing into a 6 cm non-stick cherub icing mould. Invert the mould and gently ease out the shaped cherub, trim and make another 3 cherubs.
5. Roll out the remaining icing and cut it into thin strips for the icing ribbons, twist each one like a corkscrew over a wooden spoon handle and leave overnight to dry. Paint gold detail on the cherub wings arrange, and arrange the cherubs on top of the cake, with the icing ribbons.