Key Lime Cake

My baby girl asked for pink cake last year for her 2nd birthday.  So I made Very Strawberry Cupcakes.

Well, this year, my girl decided she wanted a green cake.

Perfect!  I had been wanting to make Trisha Yearwood's key lime cake, and I finally had an excuse.

It's green, you see.  And it's super moist.  Because here's the thing.  You make the cake, then you pour a lime juice syrup on top, then you ice it with cream cheese icing.

It's the most lime-y, tart, sweet, moist, delicious cake covered in cream cheese icing you'll ever put in your mouth.

I kept it in the fridge because I like cold cakes.  Is that weird?

The cake is super easy to mix up - you don't even need a mixer.

Just stir together the dry ingredients, add the wet ones, and then whisk until just combined.

I made this into a layer cake, but you could just as easily make it in a 9x13 dish.  Either way, you want to grease the pans, fit a piece of parchment paper in the bottom and then spray the parchment paper with nonstick cooking spray.

Measuring my pans for parchment paper.

Bottom line: this is a sticky, moist cake and it will stick to the pans if you don't spray them well!

Measure the batter into the pans: it took about 2 cups of batter in each 9" cake pan.

Here we go!

Mix up the glaze while the cakes bake.  Just stir together some lime juice and powdered sugar.

You'll pour the glaze over the cakes when they come out of the oven.  Have I mentioned that this cake is moist?

And now we should definitely slather all three layers with cream cheese icing.

I used the seeds of a vanilla bean in my icing, because I just love the way little black seeds look in my white icing.  But you could also use vanilla bean paste and achieve the same effect.

Now just frost away!

I love how green this cake is...contrasted with the white icing...it's just perfect.

Especially when you serve it on a Mickey Mouse plate.

Note: Next time I will make this only a 2-layer cake.  I thought the layers were a bit thin and there was not quite enough icing to generously ice three layers.  Two layers will work better.  

Key Lime Cake
Adapted from Trisha Yearwood

Cake:
2 cups flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 cups sugar
3 oz. package lime jello
1 cup canola oil
1 cup orange juice
Juice from 1 lime
5 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract

Glaze:
1/2 cup lime juice (from about 5-6 limes)
1/2 cup powdered sugar

Cream cheese icing:
1/2 stick (4 T) butter, softened
8 oz. cream cheese, softened
1 lb powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla bean paste (or vanilla extract)
3 T milk (enough to make it an easy spreading consistency but not runny)

In a large mixing bowl, stir together the flour, salt, baking powder and baking soda.  Add the sugar, jello, oil, orange juice, lime juice, eggs and vanilla extract.  Whisk until just combined.

Prepare three 9" cake pans - spray them with nonstick cooking spray, place a circle of parchment paper in the bottom, and spray the parchment with cooking spray.

Pour about 2 cups of batter in each cake pan.  Bake in a 350 degree oven for about 15 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean or with just a few crumbs sticking to it.

Cool the cakes for about 5 minutes in the pan.  Turn them out onto a cooling rack.  Whisk together the lime juice and powdered sugar and spoon the glaze evenly over the cakes.  Cool completely.

Use a mixer to beat together the icing ingredients.  Add the milk slowly until you reach the desired consistency - you want it to be thin enough to spread but not too thin that it's runny.

Place one cake layer on a cake plate and spread a layer of icing on top.  Continue layering and icing until the layers are iced and the sides are covered with icing.  Store in the fridge.