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Key Lime Coconut Cake

Last Updated On: August 19, 2024 | Published: August 18, 2024 by Melissa Diamond | 5 Comments
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We're happy to share this flavorful, moist Key Lime Coconut Cake with you! Three soft and tender key lime cake layers are filled and frosted with whipped cream cheese frosting in this light and fruity cake. It is perfect for spring and summer!

Key lime coconut cake, sliced, on a pedestal.

Key Ingredients

Here's a quick rundown of our main ingredients. (Find the full listing in the recipe card)!

  • Cake flour: Makes for extra tender cake layers thanks to its low protein content. (We use Swans Down).
  • Granulated Sugar
  • Baking soda, Baking Powder, and Salt
  • Eggs (room temperature). If you are in a hurry, just place the eggs in a bowl of warm water for 5 minutes to warm them up a bit.
  • Key Lime Juice from Concentrate- We like Nellie and Joe's Brand. The fact that it is from concentrate gives more flavor than freshly squeezed lime juice would.
  • Zest of two Limes
  • Whipped Coconut Cream Cheese Frosting (flavored with coconut extract and key lime juice)
  • Flaked, sweetened coconut for the outside

How to Make Key Lime Coconut Cake

You can find the full, printable cake recipe at the bottom of this post. Here is a quick look at our steps!

  • Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F, grease and flour three 8×2 inch round pans.
  • In a medium bowl, whisk the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.
  • In another bowl, add the buttermilk, vegetable oil, lime zest and key lime juice.  Set aside.
  • In the bowl of your mixer, add the butter and mix at medium speed until smooth. Gradually add the sugar and continue to mix on medium speed for 3 to 5 minutes until lightened in color and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time mixing until the yellow of the yolk disappears.
  • With the mixer on low speed, alternately add the flour mixture and buttermilk mixture, beginning and ending with the dry ingredients (3 additions of dry ingredients and 2 of liquid). Mix just until combined.
Key Lime Coconut Cake Batter in a bowl.
  • Divide batter between three prepared 8 inch cake pans.
  • Bake at 350 degrees for 22-24 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean or with just few crumbs attached. Let cool 10 minutes and turn out.
Key Lime Coconut Cake Layers.

Assembling and Decorating

Once the cake layers had cooled, we filled and frosted them with a light and flavorful Coconut Whipped Cream Cheese Frosting! We added a bit of Key Lime Juice Concentrate to the frosting also as an optional step.

This creamy and delicious frosting is a stabilized whipped cream, made by combining a mixture of softened cream cheese, powdered sugar, and flavorings with whipped cream. After frosting the cake, we pressed sweetened flaked coconut around the sides and top. We topped with lime zest.

Key Lime Coconut Cake, Sliced, on a cake pedestal.

Recipe FAQs

We use cake flour in most of our cake recipes because of its lower protein content. This results in less gluten formation which makes for a softer, more tender crumb.

Yes, as with the majority of our cakes, from lemon cake to orange cake and more, the layers for the Key Lime Coconut Cake can be baked in advance, tightly wrapped, and frozen for up to three months!

To freeze the freshly baked cake layers, allow them to cool. (We often wrap while still a bit warm.) Wrap each individual cake layer tightly with plastic wrap followed by aluminum foil.

For more support, you can place each layer on a foil-wrapped cake board. (If you only plan to freeze the layers for a few days, double wrapping in plastic wrap is protection enough.)

To thaw, bring the wrapped coconut cake layers to the kitchen counter, still wrapped. Allow to sit for 30-45 minutes before unwrapping and thawing to desired amount for assembling the cake. (Some bakers like to assemble their cakes while they are partially frozen as they are less fragile.)

Buttermilk is often used in cake recipes not only for the boost of richness, but also because its acidity shortens the strands of gluten in the cake batter. This leads to a softer, more tender crumb.

Yes, because of the whipped cream cheese frosting in the recipe, this cake should be refrigerated (under a cake dome or in an airtight container). However, for the very best flavor and texture, remove the cake from the refrigerator a couple of hours before serving. This will allow plenty of time for the cake to warm and soften.

More Coconut Cakes

If you love coconut cakes, we have made many! Some of our favorites are Lemon Coconut Cake, Carrot Cake, Pina Colada Cake, and Coconut Cream Cake.

Thanks so much for stopping by today! We hope that you enjoy this cake. It makes a great birthday cake recipe, shower cake, holiday cake, and more!

Don't miss our full collection of cake recipes as well as our section of free cake decorating tutorials!

Have you made this? We would LOVE for you to leave a ⭐️ rating as well as a comment and photo below! We really appreciate your feedback!

Key Lime Coconut Cake, Sliced, on a cake pedestal.

Key Lime Coconut Cake

BY Melissa and Bebe
This flavorful Key Lime Coconut Cake is sure to please a crowd, with key lime cake layers and coconut cream cheese filling and frosting.
Prep Time: 20 minutes
Cook Time: 22 minutes
Course: Dessert
Servings: 15 servings
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Ingredients

  • 1 ½ sticks (170g) unsalted butter, softened (Holds its shape but easily dents when pressed.)
  • 2 cups (400g) sugar
  • 4 eggs, room temperature (If in a hurry, place the eggs in a bowl of warm water for 5 minutes)
  • 3 cups (342g) cake flour . (If not using a digital scale, lightly spoon flour into measuring scoop and level.)
  • 2 teaspoons (8g) baking powder
  • ½ teaspoon (3g) baking soda
  • ½ teaspoon (3g) salt
  • 1 cup buttermilk (235g)
  • ⅓ cup Key Lime Juice from Concentrate (We like Nellie and Joe's brand)
  • ¼ cup (54g) vegetable oil
  • Zest of two limes (regular or key limes)

For the Coconut Cream Cheese Frosting

  • 16 oz cream cheese, softened We use two 8 oz packages of full fat cream cheese (in blocks rather than the spread).
  • 2 cups powdered sugar, measure then sift (230g)
  • 3 cups heavy whipping cream (696g)
  • 1 tablespoon coconut extract (12g)
  • 2 teaspoons key lime juice concentrate (8g) optional

Decoration

  • 14 oz Bag of Sweetened Coconut (396g) (We Like Bakers Angel Flake Sweetened Coconut)

Instructions

  • Preheat the oven to 350 degrees, grease and flour three 8×2 inch round pans.(We also like to add circles of parchment to the bottom of the pans.)
  • In a medium bowl, whisk the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.
  • In another bowl, add the buttermilk, vegetable oil, lime zest and key lime juice.  Set aside.
  • In the bowl of your mixer, add the butter and mix at medium speed until smooth. Gradually add the sugar and continue to mix on medium speed for 3 to 5 minutes until lightened in color and fluffy.
  • Add the eggs one at a time mixing until the yellow of the yolk disappears.
  • With the mixer on low speed, alternately add the flour mixture and buttermilk mixture, beginning and ending with the dry ingredients (3 additions of dry ingredients and 2 of liquid). Mix just until combined (do not overmix).
  • Divide batter between three prepared 8 inch cake pans.
  • Bake at 350 degrees for 22-24 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean or with just few crumbs attached. Let cool 10 minutes and turn out.

For the Coconut Cream Cheese Frosting

  • Freeze your mixing bowl and beaters 15 minutes before whipping the cream (30 minutes if chilling in the refrigerator. 
  • Use the whisk attachment for a stand mixer, beaters on your hand mixer.  Beat the whipped cream until stiff peaks form. You are at the stiff peak stage when you lift the beater and the cream stands straight up forming a peak. Keep in the refrigerator while completing the next step.  
  • In another bowl combine the cream cheese, powdered sugar and coconut extract and key lime juice.  Beat until very smooth.  Fold the whipped cream into this mixture. Cover and refrigerate.  If you are piping this frosting and it becomes too soft, just refrigerate the filled piping bag for a short while.  

Notes

Recipe makes approximately 7 ½ cups batter.
*If making standard sized cupcakes with this recipe, bake at 350 for 18-20 .minutes or until toothpick comes out clean (or with a few crumbs attached).
5 from 1 vote

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5 Comments

  1. Looks awesome! I do love whipped cream and cream cheese frosting, so light and delish! I've used for years on/in cakes and cupcakes, heavenly :-) Wonderful as always! ;-)

    Reply

  3. Hi,
    Your recipes always look wonderful. Thank you for sharing so generously.
    When recipes call for juice from concentrate, do you mix the juice to make a liquid or just use the frozen concentrate undiluted? I find it confusing. For example: recipe says ‘juice from concentrate’; frosting only says ‘concentrate’. Please clarify.
    Thank you,
    Lillian

    Reply

    1. Hi Lillian- yes, I see how it is confusing. I used Nellie & Joe's Key West Lime Juice for both the cake and the frosting. The bottle labels it as "from concentrate"- here is a link so that you can see what it looks like- hope that you enjoy the recipe!
      https://keylimejuice.com/

      Reply