Sloooooow food

Okay. Confession time. I'm not the world's best chef. Many of my friends can attest to this, particularly those that have been forced to stand under fire alarms waving towels to clear the air. But I try. Damn, do I try. And my poor friends must endure the results. (T. doesn't endure. He loves it. At least, that's what he tells me. ;)
Some girlfriends are coming around tonight to drink tea and catch up. Kind of like a wine night, but better for our livers. Not, however, better for our thighs, thanks to a poundcake recipe I found at Joy the Baker today. This morning's contemplation went something like this: That lemony cake recipe in Joy's best cakes list looks amazing. But I don't have all the ingredients, and I'm out of grocery money. What can I make with things already in my pantry? Enter Joy's Glazed Lime Cake. Looks delish in the pic, no?
Problem is, not only am I a somewhat ... adventurous chef, I also have an extremely limited supply of tools and bakeware, and am often stymied by North American baking terms. No mixing machine? No problem! I'll cream that butter and sugar by hand. Have no idea what powdered sugar is? No worries! I'm sure I can whip up something similar using my mortar and pestle.
It all makes for some very, very slow cooking. And, sadly, some rather mixed results.


To start, powder your sugar!

Then cream the butter and sugar...

a little bit longer...

Oh, that'll do!!

Now add the flour and eggs and milk and stuff, and whop into prepared baking pan. BUT you don't have the right pan, do you? Nope. So, what do you do? Improvise! With pyrex, and a slightly lower cooking temp. Surely it'll be a breeze.

Righto. While that cooks, get into those limes. You'll have to hand-squeeze, though, because you don't have a juicer either.  

This is really starting to get on my nerves, but dang if the lime zest doesn't look cute!

Turn juice, zest and sugar into a lime syrup and let sit. Once cake is cooked, poke with a skewer while still warm and drizzle over some syrup. (Good in theory. Problem is, cake sank in the middle -- probably something to do with that dodgy stand-in baking pan -- so all syrup runs into the centre.)

'Whisk' remaining powdered sugar into lime syrup to create glaze. Indeed. The results of that effort were so bad, I didn't even photograph them. Needless to say, ground sugar does not, apparently, powdered sugar make. Or at least, it doesn't a glaze make. Pour pitiful attempt at 'glaze' over cake, and cut.  Voila!

Please be aware this is the best picture of the lot. And I took a few. Sorry in advance to my ladeez who will have to pretend to like this tonight.  If it helps, I'll be pretending to like it too.

Update: It actually was delicious - heavy and satisfying, with a distinct lime tang - but supersweet due to the ridiculous amount of sugar I used. Shall rectify when I attempt this again.