For the non-English among you, Pimms is a botanical, gin-based liqueur. A Pimms cup is the perfect summer cocktail with bright citrus flavors if the liqueur being brought out by the cucumber, lemon,and mint in the drink. There is a lot of variation on how people make their own Pimms Cup, but my Geordie mother always make a pitcher with plenty of ice, ginger beer, cucumber and lemon slices, with a mint leaf for garnish. We are experiencing the summer’s last hurrah here in NW Ohio so i figured it would be a perfect time to go a Pimms cake!
I based it off of this cucumber cake recipe but added a few twists to make it a Pimms cake. The cake has a teaspoon of ginger powder and a tablespoon of molasses to represent the ginger beer, a splash of peppermint extract in the icing, and i subbed out the gin for Pimms No. 1. I recommend a quarter teaspoon for the peppermint extract in the icing. I used half a teaspoon but it was too strong and overpowered all the interesting flavors of the Pimms No. 1 in the icing. Maybe next time I’ll put the peppermint extract in the cake and put the ginger powder in the icing. Either way, it’s an excellent summer snack for the adults!
I forgot to mention, but the cucumbers for both the cake and the pitcher of Pimms came from my neighbor’s garden. We are being iver run by cucumbers and i am running out of things to do with them all! Naturally the other 2 glasses of Pimms are for said neighbors. They were absolutly delighted by the cake and were impressed at how true ro the cocktail the cake tastes!
If you’re looking for something else to do with cucumbers, I’ve made this pasta sauce a few times and like it.