Key Lime...Cake?

I feel like I should say something about my posting habits, mostly because I feel my blogging skills are inadequate. Because of my 10-hour, 4 day work week, and most of my days occupied after work, my time to sew and cook and whatnot is rather limited, so I don't want to disappoint anyone, but I simply don't have enough time and whatnot to post every day like the superior blogs out there. But I will post when I can.

That said, I have a recipe for you. Summer is a great time to make citrus desserts, and I happen to love love love lemon flavored desserts of any kind, but I can’t say I had ever really considered a key lime cake. Key lime pie, yes, but cake? I have to say, it’s really delicious. Even when you screw it up.

Key Lime Cake

Cake:

1 3-oz pkg. lime-flavored gelatin
1 ½ granulated sugar
2 cups all-purpose flour
½ tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
5 large eggs, slightly beaten
1 ½ cups vegetable oil
¾ cup orange juice
1 Tbsp lemon juice
½ tsp vanilla extract
½ cup key lime juice
½ cup confectioners sugar

Cream Cheese Icing:

½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 8oz pkg creem cheese, softened
1 lb confectioners sugar

For the cake:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees, and grease 3 9-inch round pans.

2. In a large mixing bowl, combine the dry ingredients, and stir well to combine. Then add the eggs, vegetable oil, orange and lemon juice, and vanilla extract. Pour the batter evenly among the 3 pans, and bake for 35 to 40 minutes. When they are done (you can tell by the toothpick method, or if the cake pulls away from the edges of the pan, or if you touch the middle and it springs back), let them cool in the pans for about 5 minutes, then carefully remove them from the pan (One trick a lot of pro bakers use is to cut parchment paper to the size of the pan, and put that in the bottom of the pan and grease it like you would the pan itself. It makes taking them out of the pans SO easy and they will never stick.).

3. While they are still hot, pierce the layers several times with a fork or toothpick. Combine the lime juice and confectioners sugar, and pout over the layers, letting it soak into the holes you just made. Cool completely.

4. Prepare the icing by creaming the butter and cream cheese, and slowly adding the confectioners sugar. Ice the cake between the layers and on top, but not the sides. You want to show off the bright green color of the cake. I decorate the top with key lime slices and leaves of stevia. The icing is optional, but, really, who doesn’t love a good cream cheese icing?

Now, when I made this cake, I was making it for my grandparent’s arrival for my graduation, but because of unforseem circumstances I didn’t get started on the cake until much later than I planned. Just as I was finishing the batter my grandparents pulled up at the same time some guy knocks on our door and mom is yelling at me to open the garage for my grandparents. Needless to say, I was a little distracted, and poured the lime juice into the batter. Oops. The whole time they were baking I was convinced we would be having key lime pudding for dessert. Luckily they did actually set, although the texture was effected. Regardless, everyone seemed to like it (even the boyfriend who doesn’t like cirtus desserts, although it took him a couple of tries to really enjoy it). I would say following the directions is a good idea, though. Just know, if you happen to screw it up, it will probably still turn out great.

Oh, and I didn’t take a picture of it when I made it because I didn’t take my own advice in putting parchment paper on the bottom of the pans, and that combined with the strange texture caused the cake to stick to the bottom of the pans like crazy and as a result created something less than a beautiful cake. But I can say that the color of the cake is very striking and great for the summer! You really should give this a try. Enjoy!