Key Lime Cake
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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