Key Lime Cake – A Cozy Kitchen

Preheat oven to 350F. Grease and line the bottoms of three 8-inch baking pans.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt. Put it aside.

In the bowl of a standing mixer fitted with the paddle attachment (alternatively, you can do this in a large bowl with an electric hand mixer), add the sugar and key lime zest. Beat both together. This will release all the aromatic oils from the lime flavor and infuse them into the sugar. We want this, we need this.

Add butter and vanilla extract; beat until light and fluffy, about 2-3 minutes. Add oil, vanilla extract; and beat until smooth.

If you want the cake to be a “key lime color”, add very small amounts of yellow and green food coloring. This is of course optional.

Pour the milk, egg whites into the measuring cup and add the squeezed key lime juice.

Reduce the mixer to low speed and alternate between the dry ingredients and the liquid ingredients into the butter/sugar mixture until the batter is relatively smooth.

Pour the batter evenly into the three prepared baking pans (about 470 grams of batter per pan) and smooth until it reaches the sides.

Transfer the cakes to the oven to bake for 22 to 25 minutes, until a skewer inserted in the center comes out clean.

Let the cakes cool in the pan for about 10 minutes, then turn out onto a cooling rack and cool to room temperature. It will probably take a good hour for them to cool completely.

Add sugar and lemon zest to a medium saucepan. Rub the key lime rind into the sugar with your fingers to release the oils.

Then add the eggs, egg yolks, cornstarch and salt. Beat until combined. Then pour in the key lime juice.

Place the saucepan over medium-low heat and continue whisking until the mixture thickens, about 5 minutes. Then remove the pan from the heat and stir in the butter. Squeeze the key lime curd into a small bowl, cover the surface with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes or until completely chilled.

In the bowl of a standing mixer fitted with the paddle attachment (or in a medium bowl using an electric hand mixer), add the cream cheese and beat until smooth. I like to do this, otherwise the cream cheese frosting will have little chunks of cream cheese. Then add the butter and beat until smooth, about 15 seconds.

Add powdered sugar, salt, vanilla and heavy cream. Start at a slow speed so the powdered sugar doesn’t fly everywhere. And then gradually switch to medium speed. Beat for 2 minutes to ensure a fluffy, delicious frosting.

Add about 2 tablespoons of frosting to each of two small bowls. You can do this with ophthalmology. One will be our main limes (lighter green) and the other will be our stems (green).

If your frosting is too soft, add about 1 tablespoon of powdered sugar to each bowl and mix it in. That will help tighten it up.

Add a drop or two of yellow food coloring to one frosting bowl, along with a drop of green food coloring. This will be our key limes. In the second container, add a drop or two of green food coloring gel to the second bowl of ice. Blend until smooth. Transfer the lighter green frosting to a piping bag fitted with a small round piping tip. And do the same with the second frosting.

Place one frozen cake layer on a cake board. Add about 1/3 cup white frosting to the top of the first layer and smooth into a thin, even layer. We put the second layer of cake on top. Repeat with the third layer. Add a thin layer of white frosting to the cake and smooth the top and sides. Transfer the cake to the refrigerator to cool for about 20 minutes. Then add the second layer of white frosting to the cake.

To add key limes, pipe over frost areas; they will turn into key limes when we add the vertices. Add as much as you want. Make them any size you want too. Dip your finger in some water and tap the top of the lime to make them appear smoother.

Pipe a small “V” shape on top of each lime. This will make it look like they have a stem.