Key Lime Poundcake

Name: Key Lime Poundcake
Total time: 1 h 45 min
Yield: 8 to 10 servings
Cuisine: southern
Ingredients: 1 cup/226 grams unsalted butter at room temperature, cut into pieces, plus more for greasing the pan; 2 cups/240 grams all-purpose flour, more for flouring the pan; 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder; 4 ounces/113 grams cream cheese at room temperature, cut into pieces; 1 1/2 cups/297 grams granulated white sugar; 4 eggs at room temperature, lightly beaten; 2 tablespoons lime zest; 1 tablespoon Key lime juice; 4 ounces/113 grams cream cheese at room temperature; 1/4 cup/57 grams unsalted butter at room temperature; 2 cups/227 grams confectioners' sugar; 1/4 cup/60 milliliters Key lime juice; 2 tablespoons lime zest

Recipe from Susan Levin Turner

Adapted by Kim Severson

Key Lime Poundcake — Lisa Nicklin for The New York Times

Total Time: 1 hour 45 minutes
Rating: 4(438)
Comments: Read comments

Susan Levin Turner has taught many Southerners, both professional chefs and home cooks, how to bake a proper cake. She has made cakes for politicians and celebrities, and turned out five when the chef Edna Lewis turned 76. “Cakes bring people together for celebrations and funerals and everything in between,” she said. Ms. Turner, who owns Food Glorious Food in Tallahassee, Fla., developed this recipe to combine Key limes, a flavor associated with South Florida, with poundcake, a staple in the more rural, agricultural parts of North Florida. She bakes hers in an old-fashioned large square poundcake pan, but the recipe has been adapted here for a loaf pan, which is a little easier to find and work with. She likes to coat the inside of the greased cake pan with sugar, which helps the cake slide from the pan and offers a little more crispness to the crust. This recipe uses flour instead for tenderness, but the sugar method offers a homey Southern touch. Or use a combination of both. —Kim Severson

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Ingredients

Yield:8 to 10 servings

For the Cake

1cup/226 grams unsalted butter at room temperature, cut into pieces, plus more for greasing the pan
2cups/240 grams all-purpose flour, more for flouring the pan
1½teaspoons baking powder
4ounces/113 grams cream cheese at room temperature, cut into pieces
1½cups/297 grams granulated white sugar
4eggs at room temperature, lightly beaten
2tablespoons lime zest
1tablespoon Key lime juice

For the Glaze

4ounces/113 grams cream cheese at room temperature
¼cup/57 grams unsalted butter at room temperature
2cups/227 grams confectioners' sugar
¼cup/60 milliliters Key lime juice
2tablespoons lime zest

Ingredient Substitution Guide

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Preparation

Step 1
Make the cake: Heat oven to 325 degrees. Generously butter and flour a 9-by-5-inch loaf pan. Sift the flour and baking powder and set aside.
Step 2
Mix butter and cream cheese in bowl of a stand mixer, or with a hand mixer on medium speed, until blended; gradually add sugar and beat on medium speed for 5 minutes until light in color and fluffy. Add the beaten eggs about a quarter at a time, fully incorporating before adding the next.
Step 3
Add lime zest and mix to incorporate. Add dry ingredients alternately with lime juice, beginning and ending with flour mixture and adding juice in two additions. Mix just enough to incorporate. Pour batter into pan until it is just ¾-inch from the top (you may have a little batter left over; do not use it or you risk overflow). Firmly tap the pan on the counter a few times to reduce air pockets.
Step 4
Bake for about 1 hour, or until just set in the middle. Check cake after 30 minutes; if top is browning too quickly, tent with foil. If the cake is not set in the middle after an hour, continue baking, checking middle at 5-minute intervals, until set.
Step 5
Cool in the pan for 20 minutes; loosen edges and turn out cake onto plate with raised edges to contain the glaze.
Step 6
Meanwhile, make the glaze: In a glass bowl, beat the cream cheese and butter until well blended and a little fluffy, about 2 minutes. With the mixer on slow speed, gradually add confectioners' sugar until fully incorporated, then beat for 20 to 30 seconds.
Step 7
Mix in the lime juice, then heat the mixture in a microwave oven for a minute or more until it is very warm and loose. Using a wooden skewer, poke several holes in the cake. Pour half the glaze over cake, let sit for 10 minutes, pour remaining glaze over cake and sprinkle with lime zest.

Tip

Recipe can be doubled to make 2 loaves or to fill a 10-by-4-inch tube pan. But a doubled recipe will overflow a smaller Bundt pan, and will almost overflow the bowl of a stand mixer. To mix a double recipe, cream the butter, cream cheese and sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer, add the eggs and lime zest and then transfer the batter to a larger bowl and use a hand mixer to combine the flour mixture and lime juice. The recipe for the glaze makes enough for 2 loaves or the round cake without being doubled.

Ratings

4 out of 5

438 user ratings

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Comments

Kay Chandler7 years ago

About the lime juice: is bottled lime juice ok? And zest from ordinary limes? Key limes are rarely seen in Wyoming

Susan Yessne7 years ago

Is the 1T of lime juice in the cake an accurate amount? Seems very odd to add a single tablespoon in 2 additions.

Melissa M. Johns7 years ago

As a side-note: If you are attempting to use "real" (freshly-squeezed) lime juice, it is helpful to zap the limes in the microwave for a few seconds first. It makes it easier to juice them, and you will be able to get more juice from your citrus fruit. (Works great for lemons, too, by the way.)

Stephen Block3 weeks ago

Agree with previous baker, the juice amounts are better transposed...1/4 cup to cake, and 2 Tbl to glaze. Also agree that there is no reason to make so much glaze as per recipe.

Tech Gal1 month ago

I just put the cake in the oven. Very thick batter. That wasn't mentioned in the directions, but it does say "pour". My batter wasn't exactly pourable.

Teresa Johnson3 months ago

Has the question regarding the amount of lime juice been successfully resolved? It does seem like 1 tbsp for the batter isn't enough. I want to make this for St. Patrick's Day.

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