A sweet, moist, dense key lime pound cake drizzled with a tart key lime glaze. A delicious Southern twist to a traditional pound cake.
This recipe I originally shared as part of a virtual progressive dinner – of course I brought the dessert. This cake has become one of my most popular cake recipes and if you missed it the first time around, you’ll definitely want to give it a try.
The recipe uses both butter and shortening in the batter. I thought about changing the recipe and using all butter, but decided not to because shortening creates higher, lighter-textured baked goods, while the butter adds great flavor. So I knew a combination would give me the best of both worlds.
When I’m baking with shortening I love using the Crisco Baking Sticks. It makes measuring shortening so much easier. My cakes stuck to the pan little bit, so I used my thin, flexible icing spatula to loosen the edges. They looked a little ragged when I took them out of the pan, but after adding the glaze, they were gorgeous – so don’t be discourage if your cakes are perfect.
I did however, make several changes to the recipe, including adjusting it for my high altitude, and baking it in two half sized bundt pans instead of a 12 cup tube pan. Unless I’m serving a crowd, I prefer two small bundts so I can serve one now and put one in the freezer for later.
The cake has a mild key lime flavor, but the tart glaze gives it a great burst of lime flavor. It’s a sweet, moist pound cake, but not quite as dense as most pound cakes, which made it feel like you’re eating a little lighter.
I served the cake the way they served it on Southern Living with a dollop of whipped cream and a slice of lime.
Check out the video to see just how easy this popular Key Lime Pound Cake is to make.
Key Lime Pound Cake
Ingredients
- 3 cups all-purpose flour
- ½ teaspoon baking powder*
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 1 cup unsalted butter softened
- ½ cup shortening
- 3 cups sugar*
- 6 large eggs
- 1 cup milk
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon lime zest
- ¼ cup fresh Key lime juice
Glaze
- 1 ½ cups powdered sugar
- 3 tablespoons fresh Key lime juice
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 325°. In a mixing bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt; set aside.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat butter and shortening at medium speed until creamy. Gradually add sugar, beating until light and fluffy. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating just until blended.
- Add flour mixture to butter mixture alternating with milk, beginning and ending with flour mixture. Beat at low speed just until blended after each addition.
- Mix in vanilla, lime zest, and lime juice. Pour batter into a greased and floured 10-inch (12-cup) tube pan. (I used two 6-cup bundt pans.)
- Bake for 1 hour and 15 minutes to 1 hour and 20 minutes or until a long wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. (Bake half size Bundts for 50–55 minutes.) Cool in pan on a wire rack 10 to 15 minutes; remove from pan to wire rack.
- Prepare Key Lime Glaze by whisking together powdered sugar, 3 tablespoons fresh Key lime juice, and ½ teaspoon vanilla until smooth. Immediately brush or drizzle over top and sides of cake. Cool completely before serving.
Video
Notes
Thanks to Barb from Creative Culinary for creating the Progressive Eats group. Now that you’ve had your dessert first, jump over to all the delicious recipes the group put together for our Southern progressive dinner:
Main Course
Never Enough Thyme – Creole Style Smothered Chicken
Appetizers
The Heritage Cook – Old Bay Shrimp Boil Skewers
Stetted – Fried Green Tomatoes with Smoked Tomato Basil Aioli
Bread
Savvy Eats – Jalapeno Cornbread + How to Store Cornbread
Salads
Miss in the Kitchen – Creamy Coleslaw
Life’s a Feast – Shrimp, Grilled Peach and Quinoa Salad
Soup
Spiceroots – Maque Choux Soup
Sides
Creative Culinary – Bacon and Caramelized Onion Creamed Corn
Pastry Chef Online – Spicy Succotash
Beverage
Healthy. Delicious. – Watermelon Lemonade
Desserts
Barbara Bakes – Key Lime Pound Cake
That Skinny Chick Can Bake – Banana Cream Cheesecake Pie
Phelida Hughes
Turned out deliciously beautiful👩🏾🍳
Barbara Schieving
That’s great to hear – thanks Phelida!
Gloria
Can you use a boxed cake mix for cake part and add zest and lime juice??
Barbara Schieving
Hi Gloria – if you want to use a cake mix, I would use this recipe for the cake https://lilluna.com/key-lime-cake/#wprm-recipe-container-98485 bake it in a bundt pan until the internal temperature is 210 degrees and then you can glaze it with my recipe. Enjoy!
Jacqulyn
Need the steps what to mix first try to bak this cake now at stand still about to mix butter and crisco what next waiting on answer
Barbara Schieving
Hi Jacqulyn – I’m not sure about your confusion. After you mix the butter and crisco, you beat the sugar until creamy, beat in the eggs – then the flour and milk, then the vanilla, lime zest and juice.
Nicole Johnson
Can you store the cake to eat at a later date, if so how would i do it.
Barbara Schieving
Hi Nicole – if it’s more than a day or two, then you’ll want to freeze it. It freezes and thaws very well on the counter. You can freeze it unwrapped and then once it’s frozen, wrap it well with plastic wrap.
Linda
How long to bake as cup cakes?
Barbara Schieving
Hi Linda – I haven’t tried making cupcakes from this recipe, but cupcakes will probably take 20 minutes.
Joyce
This cake was D.E.L.I.C.I.O.U.S.!!! Totally a hit! ❤️
Barbara Schieving
That’s G.R.E.A.T – thanks Joyce! 🙂
Marie
In search on google it shows there are 119 reviews of this recipe. However, I cannot find any reviews which helps me decide how I might alter or improve on a recipe. Are there any reviews on this recipe? Thanks!
Barbara Schieving
Hi Marie – thanks for the question. The vast majority of the reviewers leave a star review and no comment. However, if you read the comments, there are 96 comments with the kind of information you’re looking for.
L. T.
Disappointed that my cake turned out just ok. I’m sure it’s something I did or didn’t do. 😔
Barbara Schieving
Sorry you didn’t love it. Do you think you cooked it too long? Were your limes not flavorful?
L.T.
I used the Nellies lime juice and lime zest but it didn’t come through in the flavor at all. I’ll try it again soon. Have a great Thanksgiving!
Lori
Lovely cake! Delicious!
Barbara Schieving
Thanks Lori!
Rosie Swindell
I have a pan for making mini bundt cakes. How do I adjust baking time for lemon blueberry pound cake?
Barbara Schieving
Hi Rosie – my guess is 20 minutes for mini bundt cakes. Just keep an eye on them and when they start to pull away from the sides of the pan and bounce back when lightly pressed on top and has an internal temperature of 210 degrees they’re done.
Stephanie
Oh my goodness, this cake is amazing. Thank you for sharing your recipe!
Barbara Schieving
Glad it was a hit – thanks Stephanie!
Tilkeya Ware
Do you still use butter when you use the baking stick
Barbara Schieving
Yes, you still need to use both the butter and the shortening. Enjoy!
Barb
Delicious pound cake; key lime taste is not too over powering. However I thought the glaze was way too strong. I’ll definitely make this again but cut the key lime juice in glaze down by half.
Barbara Schieving
Thanks Barb – definitely change it up to suit your tastes.
Britney Ray
Is cake flour the same as all purpose flour? And if you use cake flour will you still need to add the salt and baking powder?
Barbara Schieving
Hi Britney – no, cake flour is a mixture of all purpose flour and cornstarch. I haven’t tried it in this recipe, but assume you could use cake flour with no other changes. You will still need to use the salt and baking powder. Enjoy!
Jane
This looks great! However, I don’t own a bundt pan. I’m wondering if I could make this in a loaf pan?
Barbara Schieving
Hi Jane – yes, you can make it in loaf pans. I haven’t tried it, but I assume the batter will fit in two loaf pans – don’t fill the pans more than 2/3’s full. Your cook time will be less, probably about 40 minutes.
Wendy
Hi! Just tried this recipe. Followed all the directions. Baked at 325 for 90 min. The toothpick came out dry. So I assumed it was done. Came out nice and golden. Let cool in pan , then turned out onto place and the cake fell apart. Some of the inside was still raw. Don’t know what happened. Apparently it didn’t bake long enough. Maybe it should have baked at 350. Any ideas.
Barbara Schieving
Hi Wendy – different ovens and different pans cook at different rates. If in doubt, you can use an Instant Read Thermometer to check the internal temperature. It should be 210 degrees F. Other signs that the cake are done is it’s pulling away for the sides of the pan and it bounces back when pressed lightly.
Carolyn
Never mind, I saw it after asking the question
Carolyn
How long should I bake if using one large tube pan?
Kathy
what are you using for the 1/2 cup of shortening? And would you recommend the King Arthur Flour for this recipe?
Barbara Schieving
Hi Kathy – I use Crisco butter flavored shortening in this recipe. I haven’t tried it with King Arthur Flour, but I’m a big fan of their products.
Marianne
I live at 9000 feet above sea level. Any suggestions for baking modifications?
Valerie Zack
Call your county extension services office. They have always been a wealth of information. Good luck with your cake.
Heather
Delicious sounding recipe! I tried it out and my cake turned black on the bottom just 20 minutes into baking! ? No idea what happened. Any ideas?
Barbara Schieving
Hi Heather – sorry you had troubles with the recipe. Sounds like perhaps your heat was inadvertently set too high.
Heather
Disregard previous comment. Turned out my oven decided to go rogue and never turn off preheat (even though it dinged to let me know it was at temperature! Scraped off the burnt bottom and took it to my in laws to finish cooking. Turned out great considering what it went through. I’d like to try it again without the crazy oven part
Barbara Schieving
So glad there was a happy ending. Thanks for the update.