Key Lime Pound Cake

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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.

Key Lime Pound Cake on a cake pedestal.

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.
Freshly baked key lime pound cake.

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.) We use Key Lime Juice Concentrate in our Layered Key Lime Coconut Cake as well!

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.

More Pound Cakes

We have so many more pound cake recipes to share with you! Some of our favorites are Cream Cheese Pound Cake, Butter Pecan Pound Cake, Coconut Pound Cake, and Classic Pound Cake.

Thanks so much for stopping by! Make sure to check out our full collection of hundreds of cake recipes and cake decorating tutorials!

Sliced Key Lime Pound Cake on a cake pedestal.

Key Lime Pound Cake

This moist, decadent pound cake has a fine crumb and wonderful key lime flavor!
Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: 1 hour 5 minutes
Course: Dessert
Servings: 15
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Ingredients

  • 3 sticks unsalted butter, softened (339g)
  • 3 cups (600g) sugar
  • 5 large eggs, room temperature (place in a bowl of warm water for 5 minutes to speed up the process).
  • 3 cups (342 g) cake flour (Not self rising. We use Swan's Down, bleached)
  • ½ teaspoon (2)g baking powder
  • ½ teaspoon (3g) salt
  • ¾ cup (176 g) buttermilk
  • ¼ cup Key Lime Juice from concentrate (54g)(We used Nellie and Joe's Key West Lime Juice)
  • 3 tablespoons lime zest (from about 3-4 key limes or regular limes)

Easy Glaze

  • 2 cups confectioners sugar (measure then sift)
  • 3 tablespoons key lime juice add additional juice (or milk) as needed in small increments.
  • pinch of salt
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • lime zest - optional

Instructions

  • Grease and flour a tube pan.
  • Preheat the oven to 325℉
  • In a separate bowl whisk the cake flour, baking powder, and salt to combine, set aside for later.
  • 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.
  • Add the key lime juice and zest to the ¾ cup of buttermilk.
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • This makes approximately 8 cups of batter.
  • Allow to cool in the pan for 10 minutes before turning out.

Key Lime Glaze

  • Combine ingredients, stirring until smooth. If it is too thick, add more. milk in small increments. If too thin, add additional confectioners sugar. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap until ready to use. Add a bit of zest if you'd like!

Decorating the Cake

  • Once the cake has cooled, you can spoon the glaze over the cake, or for more control, you can spoon it into a disposable piping bag with the tip snipped away.

Notes

Substitute for Buttermilk: No Buttermilk? Here is a substitution: Add 1 tablespoon lemon juice or vinegar to a measuring cup. To that, add milk to the 1 cup mark. Stir and allow to sit for a minute or two to thicken.
Substitution for Cake Flour: Using all purpose flour (plain in UK) to make Cake Flour: For each cup of flour in a recipe, remove 2 Tablespoons of flour and replace with 2 Tablespoons cornstarch (cornflour in the UK). This recipe has 3 cups of flour so you will measure out 3 cups of all purpose flour, remove 6 Tablespoons and replace with 6 Tablespoons cornstarch, whisk to blend.
Bundt Pan: Our bundt pan has a baking capacity of 12 cups and measures about 10 inches. If you are working with a smaller pan, it will take longer to bake. Be careful not to overfill. (General rule of thumb: don't fill pan past ⅔ full)
Freezing: This cake can be frozen. If working in advance, we like to tightly wrap our freshly baked cake in a layer of plastic wrap and foil while the cake is still a bit warm and pop in the freezer. The cake can be frozen for up to three months.
Thawing: Bundt cakes take longer to thaw than cake layers. It is best to move the frozen, wrapped cake to the refrigerator the night before, and then move to the kitchen counter the next morning (still wrapped) to continue thawing for a few hours. If you'd like, you can remove the foil after a condensation has formed.

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