Key Lime Pound Cake Recipe – a simple from scratch pound cake bursting with key lime flavor. This cake only takes a few minutes to make and is to-die-for delicious. Butter, shortening, sugar, eggs, flour, baking powder, milk, vanilla, and key limes. Top the cake with a quick key lime glaze. You can make the cake in advance and refrigerate or freeze it for later. Great for parties, potlucks, and this makes a delicious homemade gift.
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Pin This RecipeEasy Homemade Pound Cake Recipe
This Key Lime Pound Cake is a new favorite. I made this for a cookout a few weeks ago and it was a HUGE hit! A simple from scratch pound cake bursting with key lime flavor. This cake only takes a few minutes to make and is to-die-for delicious. It is so soft and has great flavor. And that crunchy topping – oh SO good! Give this a try the next time you get a sweet tooth. I promise you won’t be disappointed!
How to Make Key Lime Pound Cake
This cake is very simple to make with only a few simple ingredients. Start by beating the butter together and shortening it in a heavy-duty stand mixer at medium speed. Add sugar and beat until light and fluffy. Next, add eggs to the butter mixture.
Stir together the dry ingredients: all-purpose flour, baking powder, and salt. Add to butter mixture alternately with whole milk, beginning and ending with flour mixture. Stir in vanilla, key lime juice, and zest. Pour the cake batter into the prepared pan and bake until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Let the cake cool in the pan for about 10 minutes. Remove the cake from the pan and cool completely on a wire rack.
In a small bowl, whisk together powdered sugar, key lime juice, and vanilla. Drizzle the glaze over the cake and garnish with more lime zest.
Helpful Tips & Frequently Asked Questions
- One cup of flour weighs 4.25-ounces. To properly measure flour, give the flour a stir to loosen it up in the container. Use a spoon and lightly spoon the flour into your measuring cup. Use a flat straight edge (like the straight back of a knife) to level off the top of the flour in the measuring cup. Do NOT compact the flour in the measuring cup.
- I use Bakers Joy or Pam Baking Spray to grease and flour the tube pan. Either works great. You can also use Crisco or butter and dust the pan with flour.
- You can substitute lime juice for the key lime juice if you prefer.
- Check the cake around the 1-hour mark. If the cake starts getting too brown, cover it with foil until it is done.
- You can use fresh or bottled key lime juice.
- You can use regular lime juice and zest if you can’t find fresh key limes.
- I use a tube cake pan. A tube pan holds more batter than a standard Bundt pan. If you want to use a Bundt cake pan, make sure to leave a few inches of the pan unfilled. If you overfill the Bundt pan, the cake will overflow in your oven!
- Can pound cake be made in advance? Yes! You can make the cake ahead of time and store it in an airtight container for 3 to 4 days. The cake will keep in the refrigerator for up to a week.
- Can pound cake be frozen? Yes! You can freeze the baked cake. Wrap the cooled cake in plastic wrap and aluminum foil. The cake will keep for up to 6 months in the freezer.
- Store the cake in an airtight container at room temperature.
Great Dessert for a Crowd
This cake is AH-MAZ-ING. I’ve made this several times and everyone loves it. You can easily serve 12 to 16 people with this one cake. This is great for potlucks, parties, and makes a nice homemade gift. We like to serve this cake with fresh whipped cream and a slice of lime. This is also great with some vanilla ice cream!
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Key Lime Pound Cake
Equipment:
Ingredients:
Key Lime Pound Cake
- 1 cup butter, softened
- ½ cup Crisco shortening
- 3 cups sugar
- 6 large eggs
- 3 cups all-purpose flour
- ½ tsp baking powder
- ⅛ tsp salt
- 1 cup milk
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- ¼ cup key lime juice
- 1 tsp key lime zest
Key Lime Glaze
- 1 cup powdered sugar
- 2 Tbsp key lime juice
- ½ tsp vanilla extract
Instructions:
- Preheat oven to 325ºF. Grease and flour a 10-inch tube pan and set aside.
- In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat together butter and shortening at medium speed until light and creamy.
- Gradually add sugar to the butter mixture, beat until light and fluffy.
- Add eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition.
- Stir together flour, baking powder, and salt. Add to butter mixture alternately with milk, beginning and ending with flour mixture.
- Stir in vanilla, key lime juice, and zest. Pour batter into prepared pan.
- Bake for 1 hour and 15 minutes to 1 hour and 20 minutes or until a long wooden pick inserted into the middle of the cake comes out clean.
- Let the cake cool in the pan for 10 minutes. Remove the cake from the pan and cool completely on a wire rack.
- Prepare glaze by whisking together powdered sugar, lime juice, and vanilla until smooth. Pour glaze over the top of the cake.
Notes:
- One cup of flour weighs 4.25-ounces. To properly measure flour, give the flour a stir to loosen it up in the container. Use a spoon and lightly spoon the flour into your measuring cup. Use a flat straight edge (like the straight back of a knife) to level off the top of the flour in the measuring cup. Do NOT compact the flour in the measuring cup.
- I use Bakers Joy or Pam Baking Spray to grease and flour the tube pan. Either works great. You can also use Crisco or butter and dust the pan with flour.
- You can substitute lime juice for the key lime juice if you prefer.
- Check the cake around the 1-hour mark. If the cake is starting to get too brown, cover it with foil until it is done.
- Can pound cake be made in advance? Yes! You can make the cake ahead of time and store it in an airtight container for 3 to 4 days. The cake will keep in the refrigerator for up to a week.
- Can pound cake be frozen? Yes! You can freeze the baked cake. Wrap the cooled cake in plastic wrap and aluminum foil. The cake will keep for up to 6 months in the freezer.
Steph
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Salted or unsalted butter?
Either is fine, but I always use unsalted butter.
Cake baked beautifully & I froze it for Christmas. How would you recommend thawing?
On the countertop works great.
Made this key lime pound cake today with all Splenda instead of sugar. Put the batter in a bundt pan and checked at 45 minutes and it was done . Turned out great
Great recipe!! Super moist and differently a hit. Thank you
This is the best pound cake I’ve ever made and I’ve been baking forever!
When do you add the milk??
step 5
After just coming back from the Virgin Islands. We had a wonderful key lime cake with a rum glaze… I made this cake recipe and added 1 tbsp of spiced rum to the batter and added rum to the glaze!!!!! Took me right back to St John!!!!👌
I found your website and recipe when I Googled Key Lime Pound Cake. I followed the recipe to the letter and it came out perfect! I made the glaze as well and it was a big hit! Thank you so much! Oh, I added a little green food coloring to make the cake green! I intended to do so for the glaze as well but I was so excited about the outcome that I forgot! :
I don’t have a tube pan – could I use a couple loaf pans instead? Or a 9×13 pan? How do you think that’d affect the baking time?
I have the same question — can this be made in loaf pans instead? Thanks.
I’m sure it could. I’ve never made it in loaf pans, so I can not give cook times.
Just a question…..What shortening do you use, Crisco? To me all butter would be better tasting. What reason do you have for using shortening along with the butter?
I used Crisco.