Amazing Key Lime Cake Recipe

Hey , I'm John Connell .

And today on Prey kitchen , we're making a zingy delicious key lime cake .

So let's get started .

First off , set your oven to 3 50 into a large bowl .

We're gonna add 2.5 cups or 300 g of all purpose flour .

I didn't turn the scale on poop .

Poop .

That's OK .

Turn your scale on 300 g .

Perfect to puff things up .

I want 1.5 teaspoons of baking powder and half a teaspoon of baking soda .

Use baking soda when you have an acid that it could react to .

So in this key lime cake , the acidic key lime juice will activate the baking soda .

The more you know , for some contrast , we're gonna add one teaspoon of kosher sea salt , sea salt is actually a little bit mellower tasting than like iodized table salt .

So be forewarned .

Our scale is done for the moment .

We're gonna give this a whisk to distribute everything nice .

And even if you've ever had a cake come out and you see like this divot , it's happened to me too .

You're like , oh what's that random spot where it just didn't rise when you whisk the baking soda and baking powder didn't get evenly distributed .

So it was like a little space that had no agent set that aside .

And now it's time to get our stand mixer out into my stand .

Make sure I'm adding three quarters of a cup of veggie oil .

And if you're wondering why aren't you using butter today ?

It's because this is a big layer cake and the flavor is gonna be key lime with some delicious cream cheese frosting to cover it .

The cake itself is gonna be stored in the refrigerator .

I guarantee you and you don't wanna cut into the cake and have a hard crumby like situation butter cakes need to be room temperature .

So they're lovely fresh like freshly made .

They're lovely like in a loaf cake where you can leave it on the counter .

But for a big layer cake that you're gonna store , you want to use at least some oil to make it nice and soft when it's cold for added richness and a tender crumb .

I'm adding three quarters of a cup of sour cream .

If you don't have sour cream at the house or you can't get it .

Go ahead and use full fat Greek , yo , you're gonna get a similar tangy , delicious feeling from it and to sweeten things up 1.5 cups or 300 g of granulated sugar .

So the sugar and the sour cream do interesting things in a cake sugar makes things sweet , but it also makes the cake soft .

If you've ever decreased sugar in a recipe , it'll still come out like if you want to make this with 200 g or one cup , it's gonna work .

But the cake is not gonna be as soft and tender .

You'll be able to like feel the difference on your tongue .

Sour cream does something similar .

It's a weak acid and it's going to inhibit the gluten from bonding and forming and it's gonna give you a more tender crumb these two things working together .

Chef's kiss of deliciousness .

Oh Right .

Grab a whisk attachment and we're gonna mix this up till it's nice and smooth about 1 to 2 minutes on medium speed and I'm going to scrape the ball down because you never know what's lurking underneath .

Looks smooth and delicious .

I just wanna make sure there's no lump of sour cream or sugar at the very bottom of my bowl .

And if you wanted to , you could definitely make this cake with a hand mixer and a big bowl .

And if you don't have a hand mixer , a whisk will do too .

You'll just be doing some more work yourself .

This recipe needs three large room temperature eggs .

The eggs are gonna hold things together and give our cake some structure and some more richness .

So I'm just gonna crack these into that measuring cup .

I used earlier .

I'm on shell patrol .

I made an omelet this morning and one egg just shattered .

Like look at this .

Uh It's a little shell fragment right there .

You trickster .

How dare you ?

All right .

One more .

That would have been a disaster in my cake .

You don't want a crunchy cake .

Now I'm gonna add the eggs one at a time while I'm mixing on medium .

Let the first one incorporate before you go on to the next .

And I realized just now that there was one bit of prep .

I forgot for this key lime cake .

Haven't juiced those key limes yet have I ?

That's OK .

You can juice them at any point .

So let's take a little break from the mixer and do that next .

OK ?

Three eggs .

No shells .

That looks great .

So smooth and nice .

Oh My gosh .

The sugar's really dissolved , which is great .

I'm setting this aside for just a moment and now let's get those key limes .

So you don't need that many .

And if you can't find key limes , a lime will do if you can't find a lime , then then you can buy um some key lime juice from the grocery store .

It'll be OK or make a different cake .

I don't know .

So let's grab a cutting board .

These delicious key limes are very small .

So there's a trade off .

Look tiny , annoying to juice large .

I can find them everywhere .

These guys are a little bit less acidic , a more floral taste .

And that's basically it these have seeds .

These don't annoying easy .

So you can definitely use limes if you can't get the key limes .

That's all I'm gonna say .

I'm gonna zest my key limes with my rasp .

If you have limes laying around the house or you wanna just cheat .

Go ahead and use lime zest .

That'll be the same .

Citrus zest has so much flavorful oil in it that it is like it's a flavor bomb .

So we're gonna add this to the cake with just a little bit of the juice .

You're gonna be amazed by how zingy and light and wonderful it is .

I love this cake when you zest something , it's easier to hold it still and use the rasp to move .

So one hand is still and one hand is tracing the edge of the fruit , which is very difficult on a tiny little fruit like this , but still it'll work .

And I'm saying one tablespoon is three key limes .

That's my informal measurement .

Grab a sharp knife and carefully cut your key limes in half .

Now daintily squeeze them into a measuring cup .

I want two tablespoons .

So it'll be several key limes or 1 to 2 regular limes .

This cake I think comes from our key lime capital the Florida keys .

And if you love key limes , I have a key lime pie on the channel .

So click up here for that , switching hands .

There we go fresh fingers .

This is a great cake to make if you don't have any paper cuts , I don't .

Hm .

This measuring cup looks so empty but I've done so many lines .

Ok .

I think that's two tablespoons .

Let's see .

Back to our mixer .

Adding this in fingers crossed for two tablespoons , one and two .

Every last drop .

That's just two tablespoons .

It smells so good .

Mm .

I'm also adding my tablespoon of key lime zest .

Look how pretty that color is , by the way and to round out my flavors one teaspoon of vanilla .

You know a little secret .

I like to make my vanilla with some dark rum so not just vodka , a little dark rum and it adds so much flavor especially for a cake like this .

It's giving like very tropical cocktail vibes .

We're gonna mix this up until it's nice and combined .

Just a few seconds is all you need .

One thing .

I'll tell you though .

Make sure to get all the lime zest off of your Beater .

That's where the flavor is at .

It's time to combine and I'm gonna do this step by hand .

I don't wanna overmix the batter when you over mix cake batter , you're activating the gluten .

It's gonna be a little bit tougher but that's where you get that gummy dense cake fluffy light cake is just folded together .

Let's be careful .

I'm gonna use a spatula for that grab 38 inch cake pans and we're gonna prep these just with some baking spray and parent rounds .

But if you want , you can butter and flour them .

Instead , this is not a sticky cake .

It's gonna be fine .

But I like using parent rounds for all my cakes .

It's just like the foolproof insurance that your cake is not gonna get stuck in the pan or cracks .

I some paper around and call it a day .

Now we're gonna combine .

But before I do that , you have to take a look at this mixture .

Look at that color and all the flex of zest in there , pour this in and just work it together with your spatula and you're just trying to get it just combined .

So as soon as the flower streaks disappear , you're done .

And as I do this , I'm scraping the bottom of the bowl down .

So I know there's no hidden surprises at the end .

Ok ?

This is all folded together .

I'm going to distribute the batter evenly between my three pans and in case we're using a scale , I'll let you know how many grams that is per pan .

I'm gonna eyeball this first and then adjust as needed .

My guess is like 300 g ish per pan .

Hm .

400 3 99 3 45 .

So maybe like 380 g per pan , spread the batter out in the pan before you pop it into the oven .

And now as an optional step , I'm going to pop some cake strips onto my pants .

These are just wet fabric strips and they help the cake rise evenly , which is great for a layered cake .

You're gonna decorate .

Not necessary though , but it's nice to have my cake layers are ready to go into the oven .

3 50 for 15 to 20 minutes or until the centers are springy to the touch and a skewer comes out clean .

In the meantime , we're gonna make our delicious cream cheese frosting electric cakes cool in the pan for about 10 minutes .

Then invert them onto a wire rack , remove the paper and let them cool completely .

These guys are so pillowy soft and tender .

Oh my gosh .

While those cool I'm gonna make this amazing creamy scintillating delicious cream cheese frosting .

So grab 1.5 cups of nice room temperature , unsalted butter and 14 ounces of cream cheese .

Not a full two packages .

14 ounces , add the butter and cream cheese into the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment .

Your life's gonna be much easier if your cream cheese is soft , not brim temperature , normal butter soft but like softened cream cheese .

So it should be like that like very spread from one package .

Two ounces gets reserved for something later .

Full package that's 14 ounces .

We're going to cream this together for about a minute .

Just so it's nice and smooth .

You know , my favorite childhood snack was when I was left to my own devices .

One was toast with butter and then peanut butter on top of that .

And then the other one was a tortilla on the flame nice and cooked with a big log of cream cheese in the middle .

You roll it up and it's a cream cheese burrito .

Try it .

That's the perfect amount for a cream cheese burrito to this delicious mixture .

I'm adding 8 to 9 cups of powdered sugar .

You can add a cup or two in and now we're gonna mix on low mix on low until it's combined .

Then add more powdered sugar , a cup at a time and alternate with a little bit more key lime juice .

I juiced some more key limes and I have about two tablespoons , maybe three here .

A little bit of lime juice , a little bit of powdered sugar .

Repeat , repeat , repeat cream cheese frosting is like one of the most delicious things ever .

The only problem is cream cheese frosting is very slack .

A delicate balancing act between adding enough powdered sugar that will hold its shape especially for a layer cake and making it too sweet .

You don't want to do that .

The lime juice is really going to give you that acidic kick which just makes it feel so balanced part of the appearance of my mixer .

I know it's getting crazy looking , but we'll wipe it off later .

Last little bit of lime juice .

And by the way , I didn't cheat off camera .

I was juicing tiny little key limes .

So I really used the key lime juice for a little extra flavor .

I'm adding one teaspoon of vanilla .

I'm gonna let this mix up , scrape the ball down .

Actually , I didn't do that once , scrape the bowl down .

You never know what's lurking beneath .

All right , I'm gonna let this mix for just a couple more minutes .

So I know everything is nice and smooth .

Then it's time to assemble the cake .

So grab your favorite cake plate and let's get to work .

I just gave it a taste while it was finishing its mix .

And I'm gonna add just another half key lime in there for some more acidity .

And if you really want to go to town , you could add some lime zest in here as well .

Lime zest , key lime juice , it'll look really pretty .

That's nice .

I'm gonna grab about a cup of frosting and plop that into a piping bag fitted with a star tip .

This is like a medium closed star tip , which is one of my favorites for dollops .

I think that's right .

Set that aside .

And now we're going to build the cake place your first layer down and your cake needs to completely cooled .

I'm gonna add about a cup of frosting on and then smooth that out yesterday .

I was making a cake and I tried to rush it .

So I popped the cake layers into the fridge , which is normally fine and they felt cool to the touch .

So I brought them out I assembled the cake and that heat from the inside of the cake layer started radiating out and melting everything and it was not the most fun cake decorating experience .

I've had it worked out , but it wasn't fun and making a cake should be fun .

That looks nice .

Add the next layer on , oop one , add the last layer on .

This is important at this stage .

Take a careful look at your cake .

My cake is slanting a bit because I didn't add enough frosting right here .

I'm just gonna add some right now , just like you're fixing somebody's concrete sidewalk .

We're gonna inject into the cake right here where I should have added some more frosting just like that .

Yeah , that lifted it up and now it's more level good job .

Top your cake with more frosting .

And now at this point , it's gonna be easier if you have a cake turntable .

This makes things so easy .

This is super cheap and this is your life saver .

If you're decorating a cake , lift it up , pop it on and now you can rotate it and it makes smoothing so easy and we're gonna coat the side .

This is almost a crumb coat .

I just wanted to make sure my layers were nice and straight and everything was covered .

And now I'm going to add the final bit of frosting and smooth it out .

Work that frosting down and now go for a complete coverage .

I will say don't go crazy on cream cheese frosting .

It is what it is .

It's delicious .

The cake's gonna be beautiful .

Don't worry about it being perfectly smooth .

It's not like an American or Swiss butter cream .

Normally I'd use a bench scraper , but this cake stand goes up .

So it's beautiful .

I'm gonna use it , but it's not practical for decorating on the cake stand .

Pull the edge in .

So it's nice and neat .

And one final semi smooth for the top .

Don't let the Virgo feelings take over at this point .

No one to walk away .

I'm talking to myself .

Not you finish the cake off with a crown of dollops .

Perfect .

Yay .

A final flourish is going to be some lime zest .

This time .

I'm using a regular lime , do this part right before you serve because the lime zest will dry out just a light Sprinkle and just for looks slice of lime on the top .

Give your cake a slice and you're ready to enjoy .

This .

Cake is soft as a cloud .

Oh My gosh .

I could cry perfectly kissed with key lime flavor .

So soft .

And that luscious tangy cream cheese frosting is bringing it all together .

I hope you had a chance to make this recipe .

And if you like this video , check out my cake playlist .