Key Lime Pound Cake

This worked grest for me. I have made all sorts of pound cakes in the past. My daughter requested a key lime one this year. I was a little hesitant about the shortening because I usually use all butter. I added a bit more key lime zest and key lime juice from what the recipe called for. Not gor sure how much more. The glaze was perfect and the cake you could taste the lime. Wasnt overpowering. I for sure will make this again and will messure the extra zest and juice used. Didnt have any problem with cake rising. It was magazine picture perfect. Daughter just loved it and packed it up to take it back to NC for she and friends to enjoy!!!

My family loves this pound cake.  The shortening gives it a very light texture as compared to a regular pound cake.  Great lime flavor that isn't overpowering if you have family members that aren't 'lime' fans.  You can always add a little zest to the glaze if you want to kick it up a notch.  I do not make any substitutions so my rating is based on this exact recipe.  (It always surprises me when people make multiple substitutions to a recipe and then rate it low....they are rating their recipe, not the one listed....rant over!)

You did not make the offered key lime pound cake, you made a differenct version. How can you rate a given recipe when you make so many adjustments? 

I have made this cake several times  with a little variation but it always come out great very moist. I sub buttermilk for milk and I do not use shortening I doubled the butter.Also I used I used one pk 3- ounce of JELO lime flavor gelatin to make up for the lime flavor.

This cake was easy and delicious with a soft, almost fluffy texture and great moisture.  I followed the recipe precisely with the exception of adding more salt than the recipe called for.  I bumped that up to closer to 3/4 teaspoon.  I was extremely happy with the outcome of this recipe.

Cake has potential.  Recipe needs refinement for a better product. A tad disappointed coming from Southern Living.  Generally head over heels with a recipe from SL.  Thank you Tim. 

Hello, 

did you use whole milk? I am starting to wonder if its the milk everyone is having problems with. We used sour cream and it turned out great... Don't give up... its a good recipe

I was so looing forward to taking this Key Lime Pound Cake to our family Easter Dinner.  Prepped all ingredients to room temperature and followed directions carefully.  Does the use of Splend have any effect on the volume of the cake?  The volume of theuncooked batter in the bundt pan was greater that the volume of the cooked cake.  Maybe it fell while cooling.   I found the lime flavor to be so mild that it was diificult to taste that lime was present.  Has anyone else had this problem.  I baked the pound cake in a 10 cup bundt pan in the oven at 325 degrees F for 1 hour and 15 minutes.  The tooth pick was clean.  After applying the glaze, I cut a piece.   The wide part of the cake was cooked with a very fine textued crumb.  But the small end which was the bottom of the cake while in the oven had gummy streaks that looked like it may not have been cooked enough.  I am disappointed that I will not be able to serve the cake at dinner.  Usually, I find that the recieps in Southern Living are very good.  Just my thoughts.....

After two attempts, I am amazed that this cake was awful both tries. Overflowed the pan and made a mess; what a waste of money for ingredients and my time. Zero stars if that were an option.

Dear lroberts49, Any chance you used baking soda instead of baking powder? I doubled the recipe (used 1/2 cup less flour) and baked in bundt pans. Both turned out great!

I have been baking and decorating cake s for over 25 years but this recipe is by far the best I had made in a long time..I do all my baking from scratch and I must say I will use this recipe for many years to come...Thank you so much!

I make this cake often. It is WONDERFUL!!!!!! Every time I make it I have lots of compliments. I have found that if I don't have key limes on hand regular limes work just fine. One of our favorites.

Someone please tell me what I'm doing wrong. I tried making three of these in the past four days and all fell in the pan after I removed them from oven and I threw them out. I have made pound cakes successfully for years but I've never had to throw out three in a row! I used all fresh ingredients making sure milk, eggs, butter and Crisco was room temp, beat with sugar until fluffy. I baked at 325 for 1 1/2 hours increased the baking time up to 1 hour 50 min. I used an oven temp gauge to make sure my oven was at 325 so what am I missing here. Please help!

was a big hit every time I made it...highly recommend!

I have made this cake about 5 times, and every time it has turned out DELICIOUS! I made my father-in-law one for his birthday, and now he requests it whenever I have to bring a dessert to family dinners! If you want it to have a "lime" look, I have added green food coloring to make the cake green.

I omitted the milk and added 8 ounces of Sour Creammm

Amazing cake! My family and friends love this cake. I receive requests for this cake often. When I take it for a gathering of family and friends it disappears as soon as it is cut! I use Nellie & Joe's Key West lime juice because I have not had very good luck finding Key limes. I use the zest from regular limes.

I've made this cake before and it wasn't moist enough, so I substituted buttermilk instead of milk and it hit the spot! We entered this cake in the county livestock show and took Grand Prize. We can't enter the cake with a glaze so imagine how it would taste with the glaze, wow! Everyone raved over the unique taste and moistness!

I bake from scratch all the time. However, I had never made a Key Lime cake & a co-worker asked me to bake him one. Looked on line and found this to be the best recipe to my liking out of all that I reviewed. I now have two more in the oven in addition to the one I baked for him! The only tweaking I did, used 3 sticks of butter, and no shortening, used 2 1/2 cups of sugar, 5 eggs & used carnation milk. Came out perfect. Also, instead of the glaze, I used a box of powdered sugar, a block of philly cream cheese, a stick of butter, 1/4 cup of lime juice and tsp of vanilla. Creamed all together, microwaved about 3/4 cup for 20 seconds so I could pour over my cake, and sprinkled a few pecan chips on top. P.S. pour some of the frosting in the middle of the cake for extra kick after cutting! Came out lovely and taste great!

Amazing!!!

Moist and delicious....can make the day before serving. Excellent with rainbow sherbet on the side-a perfect summer dessert. I add a little green gel paste color to the glaze to boost the presentation.

Loved this recipe! I didn't have any milk so I had to use the Kefir (fermented milk I make and keep in the fridge) instead. I don't know if that made any difference but it tasted rich and sweet and tart. I decided to make it late in the evening and used what I had so I used bottled lemon juice too. I will definitely try it with fresh limes next time and see how that goes.

Made this as my birthday cake and it was a hit. I used Nellie and Joes Key Lime juice as I couldn't get fresh, also eliminate the vanilla in the glaze as it made it a little brown. I just added some lime zest instead to the glaze for added flavor.

I made this cake yesterday and every bite is gone. It was delicious. I gave it 4 stars because I read the reviews and decided to decrease the sugar by 1/2 a cup. My cake baked in an hour and 15 minutes. The glaze was the perfect finish. I will definitely be baking this recipe again soon.

Definitely a very good, solid recipe ! One to try if you like pound cakes. I followed recipe as is and came out with a delicious version for a pound cake. The icing was great, but I'll double the recipe next time since I like the icing that hardens around the cake alot. I think Sharlynn you may have expected a "cake" texture. Pound cakes are more dense and "heavy bread" types - terrific for coffee or tall glass of milk. I will most definitely make again and this time take KristenKnake and msladygee's suggestions and either try more lime or lemon (my favorite). I love bundt pan pound cakes - I think I'll try cream cheese pound cake next :) Happy Baking !

nice one

This recipe won me first prize at my church picnic's bake off!! I followed the recipe exactly but I used lemons instead of limes 'cause that's what I had...the glaze really takes it over the top!!

This cake is absolutely fabulous - I have made it multiple times for a family treat, gifts and gatherings. Never a disappoint, follow all directions and it is always a hit!

I followed the recipe EXACTLY as printed. My cake came out very dry and very dense. I ended up throwing it out.

I agree with GrannyP that the cake is excellent -- but that I would enjoy it more with MORE LIME! I am going to try a key lime-soaked version, loosely based on this orange-soaked bundt cake. We'll see . . . I realize it could potentially be too much of a good thing. http://www.finecooking.com/recipes/orange-soaked_bundt_cake.aspx

Yummy!! I made it at home exactly what is above, and the dish is delightful, I also made it for my friends and they loved it, too.. Thanks for sharing.. Try these sites www.gourmandia.com and www.everythinglemon.com for more fantastic recipes.

I made this for a family gathering and everyone loved it. I thought the key lime glaze would keep the cake moist for several days, but the cake didn't last long enough to find out! I used 1% milk and key lime juice concentrate with zest from a regular lime. Other than that, I followed the recipe as it is written. I did not think it was too sweet. It was moist and tender. I plan to make it for another family gathering this weekend!

I loved this pound cake. I used cake flour as I do for all the cakes I bake as a personal preference. I used 1/4 t of salt insead of 1/8. Salt is very important in baking and I didn't think 1/8 was enough. I also used 1 more tsp of lime zest. Lastly, I used all butter because I didn't have any shortening. Besides, I love the flavor of butter in desserts. Now I realize I made quite a few changes, but all I can say is that this is one of my favorite pound cakes and regularly requested. Did I mention that I am a home baker? Oh and I doubled the icing too. I used regular limes because my grocery store does not sell key limes. I guess you can tell I recommend this cake.

I did not have Key Limes, so I had to settle for just Limes, but it turned out just fine. Now I want to try it with Key Lime. I did mix the butter and shortening for a bit, then slowly added my sugar and let it beat for awhile. I read Paula Dean to say that it takes a good 10-15 minutes to get butter and sugar to the correct light and fluffy stage most recipes call for. My cake did take longer than 1 hour and 20 minutes, but you just really never know what your oven cooks on. I would double the icing for the next time, just because I like a lot of icing, otherwise, why have cake? I did put zest in my icing and a little extra lime juice in my cake. I only had Skim milk and it worked prefect. I like it just fine with the 3 cups of sugar, but then I like my sweets SWEET!

I love anything with key limes, except this recipe. I was very disappointed as it turned out very, very dry. I followed the directions exactly as written and ended up throwing it out. So very disappointed.

My family loves this recipe! Made it the first time with fresh key limes and the second time with bottled key lime juice (store was out of fresh and no time to go elsewhere). Definitely better with the fresh key limes/fresh lime zest! Bottled was OK - those who had not tasted the first one still raved over it, but those who had tasted the first one all agreed it lacked the 'wow'. Thanks, Southern Living!

I've made this cake 3 times. It turned out fantastic all three times. My daughter and her fiance would like this as their wedding cake when they get married in Florida next year. Very moist; great texture.

This was the most delicious pound cake I've ever had or made! The flavor is a perfect blend of citrus, sweet, moist cake. If you're on the fence about making this, don't be. It was super easy. I followed the directions per the recipe. I needed to cook my cake for 1 hour & 25 minutes. I doubled the frosting recipe and just kept drizzling the frosting until it made a pretty ribbon effect on the cake. I'll be saving this recipe in my favorites book!

I like lime, but I love lemon. So, switched out all of the lime for the lemon and used 3 sticks of butter rather than 2 sticks and the shortening. SUPER!! A new family favorite to be made time and time again ....

WOW. I AM NOT A BAKER BUT MY DAUGHTER BROUGHT ME A BOTTLE OF KEY LIME JUICE FROM THE KEYS SO I GOT BRAVE AND FOUND THIS RECIPE WELL IT WAS SO EASY TO MAKE AND OMG SO GOOD. SO FROM A NEW PORT ORANGE BAKER TO THE PONCE INLET BAKER I THANK YOU FOR SHARING..

re: Jenny1958... I think that it is hard to judge some recipes based on taste alone- especially something with a lemon or lime citrus flavor- some folks like it tart and some like it sweet, taste can be subjective. Sugar in a cake recipe is there for more than just sweetening and cutting the sugar in the recipe by 1/3 may result in an inferior product. Sugar is hygroscopic and has a tenderizing effect on baked goods- when the sugar in a recipe is reduced too much, the gluten makeup of the cake can become so tough that the cake can form tunnels. The dimensions of the cake may even expand beyond the pan and the cake's texture can become tough instead of tender. There may be other ways to make this cake more tart to suit your tastes, such as using lime concentrate or lime oil, in addition to the zest and juice, to give it a stronger flavor.

I think the cake is delicious. I made it twice and both times it needed to bake 1 1/2 hours. The tart taste of the Key limes was fantastic.

I have made this cake twice, once for church and the other for my daughter-ini-law. Both were delicious. My daughter-in-law has requested that I make it every year for her birthday. I did not have any problems making it. It was so moist. Thumbs up to the lady that created it. I have passed the recipe to other family members. This will be one of my favorite cakes to make. I used the C&H Baker's sugar which beats smoothier.

I remembered another review as I was mixing the sugar in and reduced it to 2 1/2 cups. It yielded a perfect sweetness. The cake was done way before the recipe time. I took it out 20 minutes early and wish I had taken it out earlier as it was a bit dry. Overall it is a delicious cake and everyone loved it! I would make it again (reducing sugar to 2 1/2 cups and reducing baking time to 1 hour or a little less).

I tried the Key Lime Pound Cake and was very disappointed. It could have been something I did or didn't do correctly but I followed the directions exactly, I thought. After 1 hour and 20 minutes I removed it from the oven as directed and placed it on a wire rack for cooling 10 min., then removed it from the pan brushed on the glaze and allowed it to cool. I cut it later and found that it was evidently not done even though I had tested it with a wooden pick. Either the temp. was not high enough or it just needed to be baked longer. Maybe someone could suggest a something I could try if I bake it again. The part that was done was delicious.

I have rated this recipe two stars because it is supposed to call for TWO (2) CUPS OF SUGAR not 3!! I ruined the first recipe by making it far too sweet. Southern Living seems to mess recipes up quite a lot lately. It's not the magazine it once was.... at all!

Love this cake. Will make it many times again!

LOVE IT! Making my third one tomorrow! Very moist and tasty!

This cake was wonderful! It had a light texture and was very tasty! I will definitely keep this recipe to use again. It was easy to make. The glaze really makes this cake. I doubled the recipe and glazed the cake while it was hot then again when it cooled.

This cake was amazing!!! I love pound cake and Key Lime Pie and this combines both.

I made this cake for a ladie's brunch today. I baked it in a bundt pan which worked out perfectly, but took about 1 1/2 hours. I would say unless it ia all you're serving it definitely serves more than 12--more like 18-20. Eight ladies had a nice sized serving, with well more than half left over. My only complaint about this cake is that the lime taste barely came through, unless you had a bite with some of the glaze on it. Otherwise, it was excellent and I will make it again, but try to figure out a way to make it more "limey". (By the way, I also served spinach mushroom quiche, sausage wontons and fresh fruit compote. It turned out to be a wonderful combination, if you want a nice brunch menu!)

Key Lime Pound Cake is definitely a keeper. Bakes in 1 hr 15 minutes, light texture, smooth, moist, just delicious! Would recommend to anyone.

Loved this cake. Took to work and every one there said it was great! Will make again.

This was a deliscious cake! The icing gave it an extra kick that I loved. It was very moist. My neighbors loved it and I will definitely make it again.

Very moist and delicious cake. I'll definitely keep this one in my favorites file.

Decadent! Extremely moist. The key lime flavor adds a new dimension. I made this in a square tube pan, and it was beautiful. This will now be in my "Go to" favorite pound cake recipes!