Key Lime Pound Cake from Scratch
Key Lime Pound Cake has a melt-in-your-mouth texture and great key lime flavor. With a ribbon of lime curd filling, this cake is rich, tangy and velvety.
I love a great pound cake and I love Key Lime Pie. I wanted to marry these two favorites into a pound cake with plenty of lime flavor.
Recipe Ingredients
- Eggs
- Vanilla
- Sour cream
- Limes
- Cake flour
- Salt
- Baking powder
- Granulated sugar
- Unsalted butter
- Lime Curd
- Confectioner’s sugar
How to make Key Lime Pound Cake
- Prepare and gather all the cake components before you begin mixing.
- Mix the softened butter into the dry ingredients
- Add the lime juice and mix on high speed to aerate.
- Add the eggs.
- Mix until smooth.
- Drizzle the lime curd over the batter.
- Top with remaining batter and smooth the batter to cover the curd.
- It’s ok if a little curd shows through. It will sink as the cake bakes.
- The top of the cake will crack as it rises.
- Add the lime zest and juice to the powdered sugar.
- The glaze should have the texture of pancake batter.
- Drizzle the glaze over the slightly warm cake.
- Allow the glaze to drip over the sides.
- Leave the cake on the rack until the glaze is set.
Learn more about baking cakes
It took months of baking hundreds of pounds cakes to create my basic Pound Cake recipe. If you’re a baking geek like me, you can read all about how I adjusted the ingredient percentages in this comprehensive post about creating a great cake recipe.
I have also created a comprehensive “Cake Batter Course” which explains step by step and ingredient by ingredient how I created a great pound cake by adapting the “original” recipe. If you’re interested, over 7 classes you can learn all about the ingredients and mixing methods for cake batter.
It’s pretty detailed stuff, but what you learn about baking can be applied to all your recipes, not just cake batter. And it’s free here on Baking Sense.
Here are some other pound cake recipes for you to try:
- Perfect Pound Cake
- Honey Pound Cake
- Blueberry Pound Cake
- Sour Cream Pound Cake
- Marble Pound Cake
- Coconut Pound Cake
- Chocolate Pound Cake
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Key Lime Pound Cake Recipe
Ingredients
Cake Batter
- 3 large eggs
- 3 egg yolks
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 oz sour cream (1/4 cup)
- finely grated zest from 2 limes
- 1 oz lime juice (2 tablespoons)
- 9 oz cake flour (2 cups, see note)
- ¼ teaspoon table salt
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 10 oz granulated sugar (1 1/4 cups)
- 9 oz unsalted butter (room temperature)
- 6 oz Lime Curd (2/3 cup, no gelatin)
Assembly
- 8 oz confectioner's sugar (2 cups)
- 1 oz fresh lime juice (2 tablespoons)
- finely grated zest from 1 lime
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to at 350°F. Butter and flour a 10" tube pan or Bundt pan. Combine the eggs, yolks, vanilla, sour cream and lime zest in a small bowl. Whisk to combine and set aside.3 large eggs, 3 egg yolks, 1 teaspoon vanilla extract, 2 oz sour cream, finely grated zest from 2 limes
- Sift together the flour, salt and baking powder in a mixing bowl. Add the sugar to the flour and mix at low speed for 30 seconds. With the mixer running on low, add the butter a tablespoon at a time to the flour. Mix until combined. Add the lime juice and increase the speed to medium high. Mix for a full 2-3 minutes. The batter will lighten in color and texture. If you're using a hand mixer add another minute or two to the mixing time.9 oz cake flour, ¼ teaspoon table salt, 1 teaspoon baking powder, 10 oz granulated sugar, 9 oz unsalted butter, 1 oz lime juice
- Scrape the bowl and beater thoroughly. On low speed, add the egg mixture in 3 increments, scraping the bowl after each addition. Mix just until the eggs are incorporated.
- Pour 2/3 of the batter into the prepared pan and smooth to an even layer. Drizzle the lime curd over the center of the batter, trying not let it touch the sides or middle of the pan. Dollop the remaining batter over the curd and spread to cover. A little curd may show through on top, that's ok.6 oz Lime Curd
- Bake until the cake springs back when lightly pressed and a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean (about 40 minutes). A crack will probably form on the top of the cake.
Finish the Cake
- In a small bowl, combine the confectioner's sugar with the lime juice and zest. If it’s very thick add just a few drops of water or lime juice at a time until the glaze is the texture of pancake batter. Whisk until smooth.8 oz confectioner's sugar, 1 oz fresh lime juice, finely grated zest from 1 lime
- Cool the cake in the pan for 20 minutes, then turn it out onto cooling rack set over a clean sheet pan. Allow the cake to cool until it's slightly warm.
- Drizzle the lime glaze over the top of the cake. Allow the glaze to drip down the middle and sides of the cake.
- The glaze will set as the cake finishes cooling. Transfer to a serving plate.
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Could this be made into a lemon poundcake with lemon curd just by substituting lemon for the lime??
Yes. For sure.
Can mini bundtbe make with the lime pound cake, if can they be frozen with limecurb.
Sorry, I’m not sure I understand your question. If you’re asking if you can bake this in mini bundt pans I would say yes but you’d have to be very careful putting the curd in the batter. After baking they can be frozen.
I have curd left over from the key lime here cake cake recipe. It has gelatin . Can I use that?
Yes.