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Key Lime Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting
Moist key lime cake with sweet cream cheese frosting. A light and fluffy citrus lime cake with the perfect lime buttercream frosting!
I work long and hard to perfect my cake recipes. I take baking cakes pretty seriously and want to pass on these tried and true recipes to my children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren…so they better be perfect!
I have been baking since the time I could climb up on a stool and help my Mom in the kitchen. Baking cakes and cookies for my friends and family have always been my favorite thing to bake! I shared how my kids get to choose the flavor of their birthday cake every year and they get pretty creative! Since my daughter, Sadie, is obsessed with anything lime flavored, I knew this had to be her special birthday cake.
This is literally one of my husband’s favorite cakes I have ever made. It is seriously the best lime cake!
We just returned home from a Caribbean cruise with the family and had the best time! It was so nice to be away from cellphones and laptops and reconnects as a family. My kids felt like Kings and Queens with access to unlimited food and drinks! Our favorite virgin non-alcoholic drink was definitely the mojito — made with fresh lime juice and mint. This drink was definitely the inspiration for this fresh key lime cake!
This Key Lime Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting can be made as a layered cake with two 9-inch cake pans or three 8-inch cake pans or in a 9 x 13 pan.
How to make the Best Key Lime Cake (the best tips and tricks):
- Whip oil, eggs, whole milk, lime juice, and lemon zest for about 2-3 minutes. I would highly suggest using FRESH lime juice for this cake. It makes such a difference in the flavor. Also, zest the limes first before juicing since it is much easier to zest while the limes are hard and round.
- Fold in dry ingredients. Pour into greased cake pans. It is so important to grease the cake pans well so the cakes easily come out of the pans. You can choose to use two 9-inch cake pans or three 8-inch cake pans, depending on preference. If you use three 8-inch pans, the layers will be thinner and will need less baking time. This can also be made in a 9 x 13 pan.
- After cakes have baked, set aside to cool. Make frosting by whipping softened cream cheese and butter for 4 minutes until light and fluffy. This makes the frosting extra light. Add powdered sugar and whip for 1 minute. If you want a stiffer frosting, add more powdered sugar. Fold in lime juice and lime zest.
- Remove cakes from pan. Spread frosting on top of one cooled cake layer. Place the other cooled cake layer on top and spread frosting all over. I use this angled spatula to spread frosting all over the cake layers. Garnish with freshly sliced limes.
If you love cakes, here are some of the most popular cake recipes:
Lemon Olive Oil Cake
Orange Cake
Love at First Sight Chocolate Cake
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Key Lime Cake
Equipment
Ingredients
Key Lime Cake:
- 1 cup Canola or Olive Oil
- 3 large Eggs
- 1 1/3 cup Whole Milk
- 2 Tablespoons Fresh Lime Zest
- 1 Tablespoon Fresh Lime Juice
- 2 cups Sugar
- 2 cups Flour
- 1 teaspoon Baking Powder
- 1/2 teaspoon Baking Soda
- 1 teaspoon Salt
Lime Cream Cheese Frosting:
- 1/2 cup Butter (softened)
- 8 ounce Cream Cheese (softened)
- 4 - 4 1/2 cups Powdered Sugar
- 1 Tablespoon Fresh Lime Juice
- 1/2 teaspoon Fresh Lime Zest
- Fresh Limes (sliced for garnish)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
- In a large mixing bowl, add oil, eggs, whole milk, lime zest, and lime juice. Cream for 2 minutes.
- In a large bowl, add sugar, flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Stir into egg mixture and fold.
- Spray two 9-inch or three 8-inch cake pans with nonstick cooking spray. Place batter into baking pans. If using three 8-inch pans, bake for 20-26 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean. If using two 9-inch pans, bake for 30-36 minutes. Cool.
To make Lime Cream Cheese Frosting:
- In a large bowl, cream together butter and cream cheese for 4-5 minutes until light and fluffy, scraping sides of bowl often. Add powdered sugar, lime juice, lime zest, and cream together. Chill.
- Remove cakes from pan. Spread frosting on top of one cooled cake layer. Place the other cooled cake layer on top and spread frosting all over. Garnish with fresh lime slices.
Video
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
I had given up making any citrus cake…lime…lemon…orange they all came out dry and crumbly until I came across this one by Modern Honey and I knew it was going to be good. But it was better than good it was so moist and delicious that I’ve thrown all my other recipes away. Thank you Melissa the only thing I would change is more lime zest and juice but apart from that it’s perfect!!
I have made this twice for church dinners and have come home with an empty cake plate each time! This cake is super moist and oh so good! The only change I made to the recipe was I added a little more zest to the batter and the icing. It was delicious!!!
This cake is amazing and has become quite popular at family gatherings and church suppers!!
End product tasted really good. Had a thicker “crust” to the cake and was challenging to get out of the pan despite oiling and flouring pan. Batter was very thin, despite adding 2 Tbsp flour to it. Took about 75 minutes to back. Slight lime flavor, so add some more zest if you’d like it more lime flavored. Would make again and make a few adjustments 🙂
Same! I made adjustments before hand. I also added the zest to the sugar and stirred it around and let it sit for a little bit. I also made a lime simple syrup and cut the carameliziation around and the bottom of cake. Added 2 drops of green gel food coloring. Everyone loved it.
So incredibly delicious!
Your Key Lime Cake recipe sounds really delicious and I’m going to make this. I’m curious as to the steps that you listed. I’m seeing these changes among the younger folks recipes. Very interesting to me.
Everyone who tasted it loved it.
We followed this recipe, word for word, and put the dough into cupcakes, they cake out sunken and doughy, even after adding an extra 10 minutes. The dough itself seemed Very slick and too runny.
I don’t know if the flour called for is too little or What but this did Not turn into cake texture At All.
Tried this recipe & love it.
Amazing recipe. Question- why are you calling this a key lime cake but the video is not showing key limes and the recipe doesn’t specify key limes?
I used key limes and this was amazing!