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A slice of Key Lime Cake is almost as good as a visit to the tropics! It is a light, fluffy, moist cake with a delicious lime cream cheese frosting.Â
Lime runs a close second to lemon at our house and during the summer we can’t see to get enough key lime! If you are a key lime fan too be sure and try these key lime bars, key lime cookies and key lime pie ice cream for more key lime goodness! And don’t forget key lime pie!
Cake Buffet
Cake BuffetSeveral years ago I put on a Wedding Cake Buffet for the wedding open house for the son of a friend. We hosted the open house at our home. I did a lot of experimenting with cake recipes in preparation for the event. Believe me no one around here was complaining.
I put a lot of time and effort into the cake menu and making sure the flavors were balanced and well represented.
The first cake I selected was a California Orange Cake, a recipe I shared several years ago. It is probably my all time favorite cake!! Chocolate cake is a must, so that meant the Best Chocolate Cake. And the bride’s father had requested Red Velvet Cake. Of course, I needed a lemon cake and when I came across the recipe for a Key Lime Cake over at Bakerella I knew it had to be part of the line up too. How could Bakerella steer me wrong? She didn’t. I loved having three citrus flavors represented – lemon, lime and orange.
I loved this cake. It is a sweet cake but isn’t that what cake is suppose to be? Sweet!
How to Make Key Lime Cake
The recipe calls for key lime juice. If you have never purchased key limes before you know they are small and it takes a lot of limes to get the amount of juice I needed so I just bought the bottled Nellie and Joe’s key lime juice you can find in the juice aisle of the grocery store. It works great, the flavor is amazing!
If you want more of a green color to your cake and frosting you can add some green food coloring but I just went with the natural, lighter color that the lime juice gives.
I used three 6 inch cake pans for a 3 layer cake. If you use bigger cake pans you will only get two layers. You can cut each of those two layers in half if you like to give you four layers.
The frosting uses cream cheese but you can also just use a plain buttercream frosting if you prefer. Just use key lime juice instead of the milk in the frosting. The frosting recipe makes a lot so you can be generous when adding the frosting between the layers of cake.
I garnished the cake with some sweetened whipped cream and lime zest. Then, I used a piping bag and a large star tip to pipe the whip cream stars onto the cake. Keep the cake refrigerated until ready to serve if you garnish with whipped cream.
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For other yummy cakes check out these:
Key Lime Cake Recipe
Key Lime Cake
Ingredients
Cake
- 2 cups all purpose flour
- 1 1/2 cup sugar
- 3/4 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 3 eggs
- 2/3 cup oil
- 2/3 cup key lime juice
- 3/4 cup sour cream
- lime zest for garnish
Frosting
- 1 cup butter softened
- 1 8 oz. cream cheese softened
- 6 cups powdered sugar add more if needed
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 1/4 cup key lime juice optional
- green food coloring optional for color
Whipped Cream
- 1 cup heavy whipping cream For garnish on cake
- 1 tablespoons sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
Instructions
Cake
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour 2 8-inch cake pans or 3 6 inch pans.
- Mix together flour, sugar, powder, soda and salt into mixer.
- Add eggs, oil and lime juice. Beat until smooth.
- Add sour cream and beat until smooth.
- Pour in prepared pans and bake for 20- 25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Cool and then split each layer into two. Frost
Frosting
- Mix together butter and cream cheese until smooth.
- Add in powdered sugar
- Add in vanilla.
- Add in 1/4 cup of key lime juice.
- Add a small amount of green food color if you’d like the frosting tinted.
Whipped Cream
- In a chilled bowl whip cream with sugar and vanilla until stiff peaks form.
- Garnish top of cake with whipped cream, sprinkle with lime zest
Nutrition Facts:
Originally posted June 12, 2013
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Kelley Adams says
Absolutely the best cake ever ! I used cake flour and added 2 tbsp. of extra cake flour for every cup of flour I used. The frosting was a little wet after adding the lime juice. I did not find key lime for this so I used the limes I had ! Delicious cake ! My birthday and my sister’s birthday is on the same day! Thanks again !
Leigh Anne says
Happy Birthday! So glad you enjoyed the cake!
Paula says
Does this cake need to be refrigerated? I just frosted it, I was a bit disappointed that my two layers didn’t rise a lot? Any suggestions? Both my baking soda and powder are fresh.
Paula says
Is the whipped cream part only for piping onto the cake? A bit confused as the recipe doesn’t say…
Leigh Anne says
Paula, yes the whipped cream is for the garnish on top. I added the info to the recipe. Thanks