When I ran across this recipe, I stopped dead in my scrolling and zeroed in on two words; lime and cake. Those words are my favorite combination when it comes to cake. I love citrus cakes and a pound cake, to boot. I glanced over the ingredients and wondered where I would find some key limes in my area. After all, when I think of key lime I immediately envision some place tropical like Florida but I did some checking and found that key limes are pretty common at most markets.

I was determined to baked this cake for Easter so I saved it in my post, at least I thought I did but when it was time to go to the market for the ingredients, I couldn’t find the recipe. Luckily, I shared the recipe with my high school classmate, Lisa. I reached out to Lisa who was “Joanie” on the spot. Lisa tracked down the recipe for me. Thanks to Lisa, my family and friends experienced a puckering delight as they wrapped their soup coolers around this amazing pound cake.

Enjoy,
MJ

Ingredients: Cake
• 1 pound butter (4 sticks butter)
• 3 cups sugar
• 6 large eggs (try 8 eggs for a higher volume cake)
• 4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup fresh key lime juice
• 1/4 cup evaporated milk
• 4 tsp. key lime zest
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
Directions:
Make sure all ingredients are at room temperature. Preheat oven to 300°. Grease and flour a 10” tube pan. In a large mixer, beat butter until fluffy. Add the sugar and beat well for at least 5 minutes. Add eggs one at a time and beat only until the yellow disappears. Combine juice, milk, zest and vanilla together. Stir well. Beginning with the flour, then alternating with the key lime juice mixture, add these ingredients to the butter and sugar. Beat in between each addition just enough to mix well. Don’t over beat the batter. Spoon evenly into the tube pan and tap pan on the counter to loosen any air bubbles. Bake for 1 hour and 45 minutes or until cake tester comes out clean. Cool on a cooling rack for 15-20 minutes in the pan then transfer from pan to cooling rack and allow cooling completely.

Ingredients: Frosting
• 8 ounces cream cheese
• 3-4 tablespoons butter
• 4 cups confectioner’s sugar
• 1/4 cup freshly squeezed key lime juice
• 2-3 teaspoons key lime zest
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Make sure all ingredients are at room temperature. Using a mixer, beat cream cheese and butter in a large bowl until well blended. Add sugar and beat well until completely smooth and fluffy. Add key lime juice, zest and vanilla beat until all ingredients are incorporated. Frost the cake. Place the remaining frosting in the hole of the cake and garnish with sliced key limes.