Lime Cake from Scratch
You are going to love this bright and flavorful Lime Cake from Scratch! I love all sorts of cakes year round, but when summer arrives, I'm in the mood for something a little fruity!
Bring me strawberry cake, lemon cake, coconut cake, Piña Colada Cake, and now, lime cake! (By the way, don't miss our post of 100+ Cakes with Fruit!!)
In the past week, we have tried at least six versions of lime cake, along with various combinations of frostings and fillings. This was the clear winner!
Table of Contents
Lime Extract vs. Lime Simple Syrup
One thing that we discovered in our experimenting is that it is difficult to achieve a strong lime flavored cake from lime juice and zest alone.
We found the same for our favorite lemon cake recipe but we had lemon extract to bump up the flavor.
However, lime extracts are a bit more difficult to find at the grocery store.
In the end, brushing our lime cake layers with lime syrup and lime curd was the key to giving us a delicious lime cake!
**This recipe would taste great with buttercream also, but we decided to use cream cheese frosting which was divine ;0)
Reverse Creaming Method of Mixing
** This recipe calls for the Reverse Creaming Method of Mixing. This refers to the order that the ingredients are mixed, and the result is a cake with a tighter crumb and velvety texture.
If you have never made a cake with the Reverse Creaming Method, you may want to watch our free video tutorial: Reverse Creaming Method of Mixing-Video Tutorial.
We frosted our cake with a delicious Cream Cheese Frosting. Find the recipe here!: Cream Cheese Frosting
Enjoy these other cakes with Lime
We've made lots of lime cakes over the years! Here are just a few of our favorites:
- Lime Cupcakes with Coconut Frosting
- Coconut Lime Layer Cake
- Margarita Cake From Scratch
- Margarita Cake from Cake Mix
- Key Lime Cake- Doctored Cake Mix
Lime Cake from Scratch
Ingredients
FOR THE CAKE
- 2 ½ cups cake flour (285g)
- 1 ½ cups granulated sugar (300g)
- ½ teaspoon salt (3g)
- 2 ½ teaspoons baking powder (12g)
- 1 ½ sticks unsalted butter, softened (169g) unsalted butter, softened slightly, still cold to the touch (do not soften in the microwave) you can cut into ½ inch slices onto waxed paper to soften more quickly.
- 4 large eggs, room temperature (If in a hurry, place eggs in a bowl of warm water for 5 minutes.)
- 1 cup milk (242g)
- 2 Tablespoons vegetable oil (18g)
- ¼ cup lime juice (We used Nellie & Joe's bottled Key Lime Juice.) (59g)
- zest of 2 limes - best done with a microplane (just the green layer of the peel)
FOR THE LIME SIMPLE SYRUP:
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 cup water
- 2 Tablespoons lime juice
FOR THE LIME CURD:
- ¾ cup granulated sugar (150g)
- ¼ cup cornstarch (30g)
- 1 cup water (236g)
- 2 egg yolks slightly beaten
- 2 Tablespoons unsalted butter (28g)
- 1 Tablespoon grated lime zest
- 4 Tablespoons lime juice (55g)
Instructions
FOR THE CAKE:
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour two 8 x 2 inch round pans. I split the layers for four layers to assemble the cake, your could also bake in three 8 x 2 pans. This will give you more lime curd per slice. I used the reverse creaming method for this recipe.
- In the bowl of your mixer combine the cake flour, sugar, salt, baking powder, and lime zest.
- In a separate bowl combine eggs, milk, vegetable oil, and lime juice. Blend with a fork.
- Whisk the dry ingredients for 30 seconds to combine. Begin with your mixer on low speed, gradually increasing to medium speed as you add the slices of butter a few pieces at a time. Beat until the dry ingredients are crumbly and moistened by the butter. The look & texture will be similar to coarse sand. Scrape the bottom and sides of the bowl to make sure there is no dry flour.
- Slowly add approximately ½ of the egg mixture to the dry ingredients and beat at medium speed for 1 ½ minutes, the batter will become thick and fluffy. Scrape the bowl and add the remaining egg mixture in 2 additions, beating for 20 seconds after each addition.
- Bake at 350 degrees for 30 to 35 minutes (25 to 30 minutes if you bake in 3 pans) or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Let cakes cool 10 minutes then turn out. Makes 6 ½ cups of batter, works well for cupcakes.
For the Lime Simple Syrup
- In a saucepan over medium heat bring the water and sugar to a boil. Turn the heat to low and stir constantly until the sugar dissolves and the mixture is clear.
- Remove from heat and stir in the lime juice. Cool. If you want the mixture to be a thicker consistency, cook longer over low heat.
- Brush a small amount of the syrup onto your cake layers before you begin assembling your cake. Apply sparingly so that the cake does not become soggy. We apply while the cakes are still warm but you could also do this at room temp just before assembling. We prefer to use a pastry brush. With lime juice added to the mixture it will last 3 to 4 days in the refrigerator.
For the Lime Curd
- Combine sugar and cornstarch in a saucepan, pour in water. Over medium heat, stir the mixture constantly until it thickens and comes to a boil. Boil for 1 minute, remove the pan from the heat.
- Spoon about ½ cup of the hot mixture into a small bowl containing the egg yolks and stir quickly until combined.
- Pour the egg mixture back into the saucepan. Return pan to medium heat and cook, stirring constantly, approximately 1 min. The mixture will thicken slightly.
- Remove from heat and stir in the butter, lime juice and lime zest. Cool before using.
To Assemble the Cake
- After lightly brushing our layers with lime syrup, we filled with the lime curd, and then crumb coated and frosted the cake with our Cream Cheese Frosting recipe (linked above the recipe).
Looks and sounds delicious!
Thanks Ellen!!?
Sounds delicious! Printing it out to try in my own way :)
Yummy!
I made this cake tonight into cupcakes. I brushed them with the simple syrup and filled them with the lime curd. The balance of lime was perfect and the cake was very moist. I used the fluffy vanilla cream frosting from this site. My family loved them, perfect for summer.
@Heather- I'm so happy to hear it! Thanks for your feedback! xoxo
Sounds great, wondering if I could substitute buttermilk for the milk?
I made this cake for my daughter's birthday last weekend. I was concerned about the lime flavor coming through, so I took about a cup of lime juice and cooked it over a very low heat until it was the required 1/4 cup. The lime flavor was amazing! I didn't even do the syrup glaze. I paired it with a coconut cream cheese filling. Thanks for the great recipe!
HI Trisha, Great tip on heating and reducing the lime juice, I'm going to try that the next time I make this cake. It sounds divine paired with coconut cream cheese filling!
Can I use all purpose flour instead of cake flour?
Hi Cynthia, If you do not have cake flour, this is a substitute you can use. For each cup of flour, measure out (lightly spoon and level) one cup of all purpose flour. Remove 2 Tablespoons from the cup and replace it with 2 Tablespoons cornstarch. Whisk to blend. For this recipe you would measure out 2 1/2 cups all purpose flour, remove 1/4 cup plus 1 Tablespoons of the all purpose flour and replace it with 1/4 cup plus 1 Tablespoons cornstarch and whisk to blend.
Hi Melissa! Can I cover this cake with fondant? Thanks