Key Lime Poundcake With Key Lime Frosting

This recipe uses lots of limes. You could say, in fact, that the limes are key. THANK YOU! I’M HERE ALL WEEK! TIP YOUR SERVER!

  • The Cake!
  • 1 lb. room-tem­per­a­ture butter
  • 3 cups sugar
  • 6 large eggs plus 2 yolks, room tem­per­a­ture
  • 3 1⁄2 cups all-pur­pose flour
  • 1⁄3 cup plus 2 tbsp. fresh Key lime juice 
    • OPTION: Reg­u­lar limes will do, but avoid bot­tled lime juice; it leaves a metal­lic taste
  • 1⁄4 cup evap­o­rat­ed milk
  • 1⁄4 cup grat­ed key Lime zest
  • 1 tsp. vanilla

Pre­heat oven to 325°. Cov­er inside of 10- inch tube pan with non-stick spray.

Using a stand-up mix­er or elec­tric hand-held, beat the but­ter well until light and fluffy, scrap­ing down the sides of the bowl as needed.

Add sug­ar and again beat well for at least 5 minutes.

One at a time add the eggs and beat only until the yel­low disappears.

Add lime zest to bat­ter and mix to combine.

Stir juice, milk and vanil­la together.

Now mix­ing by hand, grad­u­al­ly flour to the butter/egg mix­ture alter­nat­ing with the key lime juice and milk mix­ture. Begin and end with flour. Mix just enough to incor­po­rate all ingre­di­ents. Don’t over­do it unless you real­ly like cake-fla­vored foam rubber.

Pour even­ly into the tube pan; tap pan on the counter to loosen any air bubbles.

Bake for 90 min­utes or until cake tester comes out with a few moist crumbs but not wet.

Cool on a cool­ing rack for 10–15 min­utes in the pan then trans­fer from pan to cool­ing rack and allow to cool anoth­er hour or until com­plete­ly cool.

The cake is far bet­ter the fol­low­ing day or 2 days later.

  • The icing!
  • 8 oz. cream cheese, room tem­per­a­ture
  • 3–4 tbsp. but­ter, room tem­per­a­ture
  • 4 cups confectioner’s sugar
  • 2 tbsp. fresh­ly squeezed Key lime juice
  • 2–3 tsp. grat­ed key lime zest
  • 1 tsp. vanil­la extract

Using a hand mix­er beat cream cheese and but­ter in a large bowl until well mixed.

Add confectioner’s sug­ar and beat well until com­plete­ly smooth and fluffy.

Add key lime juice, zest and vanil­la and mix until all ingre­di­ents are incorporated.

Ice cake.

This makes lots of icing. You could fill the mid­dle hole with the excess icing and spoon some extra on slices when you serve it. Or you can put it in a fan­cy bowl so your guests can add some extra themselves.

The best choice is mine: Keep it for your­self. Chef’s pre­rog­a­tive, baby.