Key Lime Cake
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Built on all the classic, favorite flavors of key lime pie, this key lime cake is fun, refreshing, and brilliantly flavored! It’s made with three moist, sweet vanilla cake layers, a tart key lime frosting, and (optional, but recommended) sky-high dollops of whipped cream.
Why You’ll Love This Key Lime Cake
Cake layers: the cake layers are subtly infused with key lime flavor, but they still have a sweet vanilla cake taste, so the cake isn’t overpowered by tartness.
Frosting: to achieve the most key lime flavor in the frosting, we’ll stir in a homemade lime curd. I first used this technique in my lemon frosting (this is a game changer for infusing flavor into frostings!).
Decoration: a crown of stabilized whipped cream and miniskirt of graham cracker crumbs puts things over the top and gives everything an authentic key lime pie taste and feel.
Technique: from the reverse creaming method used to make the tender cake layers to the curd-infused frosting, every bit of work you put into this cake will be well worth the reward.
Ingredients:
Cake
- 2 ⅔ cups (333 g) all-purpose flour
- 2 cups (400 g) granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon table salt
- ½ cup (113 g) unsalted butter cut into 8 pieces
- ¼ cup (60 ml) avocado, vegetable, or canola oil
- 1 Tablespoon lime or key lime zest usually about 2 limes
- 1 ½ Tablespoons key lime juice
- 1 ½ (333 ml) scant cups whole milk
- 2 large eggs room temperature preferred
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Curd
- 2 large egg yolks
- ⅓ cup (80 ml) key lime juice
- 2 Tablespoons granulated sugar
- ¼ teaspoon table salt
- 2 Tablespoons (28 g) unsalted butter cut into pieces
Frosting
- ¾ cup (170 g) unsalted butter softened
- 6 oz (170 g) cream cheese softened
- 4-5 cups (500-625 g) powdered sugar
- ¼ cup (28 g) graham cracker crumbs for decorating
- ½ batch Stabilized whipped cream frosting (optional but recommended)
Prep Time:
50 minutes
Cook Time:
40 minutes
Total Time:
90 minutes
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