Key Lime Pound Cake

This delicious Key Lime Pound Cake is buttery and decadent with amazing flavor. It has a soft, moist crumb and bright key lime flavor, making it a perfect dessert for all sorts of occasions! We especially love it for spring and summer.

Table of Contents

How to Make Key Lime Pound Cake

Grease and flour a tube pan or bundt pan. Preheat the oven to 325℉.
In a separate bowl whisk the cake flour, baking powder, and salt to combine, set aside for later.
In a measuring cup or small bowl, add the key lime juice and zest to the ¾ cup of buttermilk.

Dry and wet ingredients for the Key Lime Pound Cake.

Using an electric mixer (paddle attachment if using a stand mixer), cream the butter on medium speed until smooth. Next, gradually add the sugar and beat until light and fluffy for 3 to 5 minutes.
Add the eggs one at a time, blending after each until the yolk is incorporated.

Two photos- one of creamed butter and sugar, the other shows adding the eggs.

With the mixer on low speed, add the flour mixture alternately with the buttermilk to the butter/sugar/egg mixture in the mixing bowl. Begin and end with the dry ingredients. We do three additions of dry, alternating with two additions of wet.

Cake batter in bowl and in bundt cake pan.

Scoop batter into prepared bundt pan.
Bake at 325 degrees for 1 hour and 5-10 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. *Baking times may vary.

Easy Key Lime Glaze

This pound cake is delicious just as it is, but this simple glaze is so easy to make, and adds another layer of flavor.

This recipe, which is based in part on our easy vanilla glaze, consists of powdered sugar, key lime juice, vanilla, and a pinch of salt. We added a bit of lime zest as well (add however much you like)!

Apply the glaze to the cooled cake either by spooning it over, or for more control, you can pipe the glaze onto the cake with a disposable piping bag with the tip snipped away (or ziplock bag with the corner snipped away).

Sliced Key Lime Pound Cake on a cake pedestal.

Cake FAQs

No, this cake can be kept at room temperature for 2-3 days, in an airtight container or under a cake dome.

Yes, just as with most of our cakes (from cream cheese pound cake to lemon pound cake, strawberry pound cake and more), this cake freezes beautifully.

Once the cake has cooled to slightly warm (or room temperature), wrap tightly with plastic wrap followed by aluminum foil. Freeze for up to three months.

To thaw, we prefer to move the wrapped cake to the refrigerator the day before. The next morning, move the cake to the kitchen counter, unwrap, and continue to thaw.

You will get the most key lime flavor from key lime concentrate. Unfortunately, if using fresh juice, the flavor tends to bake out. (This is why for lemon cakes, etc. we use extracts in addition to juice.)

Buttermilk's acidity softens the strands of gluten in the cake batter, which makes for a more tender cake.

Many of our favorite cakes contain buttermilk, including Five Flavor Pound Cake, Vanilla Buttermilk Cake, Coconut Cream Cake, and more.