Key Lime Pie Cake is SO yummy! The cake itself is a graham cracker cake and it’s topped and filled with the most delicious key lime buttercream frosting. This sweet cake recipe is awesome for birthdays, parties or just treating yourself!
Homemade Key Lime Desserts
No one in my family will eat lime flavored desserts.
Or lemon.
BUT they will eat lemon AND lime candy.
ANNNND they will eat raw limes and lemons.
But if there is the faintest hint or citrus in a baked good they will take a small bite and say, “yeah, no”.
Not annoying at all.
Me, on the other hand would eat lemon/lime desserts all the live-long day. From here until eternity. Key Lime pie forevahhhh.
So when I decided that I wanted to make this cake, I was under no false illusions that anyone in my house would eat it.
Mwhahahahaa….
A whole cake for me!
Not my fault they don’t like Key Lime anything.
But unfortunately, I have an annoying friend who can smell Key Lime from across the development and just come knocking on my door if they think I might be using the green citrus.
Ok, that’s not what happened.
I texted her. And then she came.
Because we all know, I may talk a big game, but a whole cake I cannot eat.
Plus, I am trying to make all my friends fat, so I look skinny.
Easy Key Lime Pie Cake Recipe With Buttercream Frosting
The idea for this cake was to make it a graham cracker cake, to mimic the graham cracker crust on a Key Lime Pie.
Well..after 2 attempts at making a cake using Graham Crackers and having them fail fail fail, I turned to Better Homes and Gardens for the base cake recipe.
How to Make Key Lime Pie Cake:
Crush up some graham crackers first. You could use your food processor too. You want them to be crushed VERY finely.
I DO have a fantastic graham cake recipe using graham flour that I developed last year. I will share that with you guys another day.
Whisk the crumbs with your other ingredients.
Once you have the batter made, divide it into 2, 8″ cake pans…
And bake it.
Let it cool in the pan for a few minutes before getting it out. Be VERY careful with this cake. It’s super delicate.
(Also make sure you grease your pan heavily AND use parchment rounds on the bottom of the cake pans to help with the release.
When the cake is cooling whip up your frosting. It’s Key Lime Buttercream and it’s fantastic!
Add some zest and key lime juice. I couldn’t find Key Limes at my supermarket, so I used the bottled juice and the zest is from a regular lime. Sorry.
Spread the frosting on the bottom layer…
And then top it with the other layer and frost more!
You could cover the cake with the frosting too, I just loaded the filling HEAVILY with frosting and ran out.
Also I kind of like the look of it all rustic…
The cake is so tender and the graham cracker flavors really come through!
Love this!
Click HERE for more of my KEY LIME treats!
Print
Key Lime Pie Cake
- Prep Time: 20 min
- Cook Time: 20 min
- Total Time: 50 min
- Yield: Serves 10 1x
- Category: Dessert
- Method: Oven
- Cuisine: American
Description
Key Lime Pie Cake is SO yummy! The cake itself is a graham cracker cake and it’s topped and filled with the most delicious key lime buttercream frosting. This sweet cake recipe is awesome for birthdays, parties or just treating yourself!
Ingredients
Graham Cake
- 1 2/3 cups graham cracker crumbs (about 24 squares)
- 1/2 cup flour
- 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp salt
- 1/2 cup vegetable shortening (Crisco)
- 1 cup sugar
- 3 egg yolks
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 3/4 cup milk
Key Lime Buttercream
- 1/2 cup butter, room temperature
- 1 1/2 teaspoons lime zest
- 4 cups powdered sugar
- 3 Tbsp Key lime juice
- 2 Tbsp milk
Instructions
Graham Cake
- Preheat oven to 350°
- Spray two 8″ cake pans with baking spray. Line the bottoms with parchment rounds and then spray again. Make sure to grease the pan carefully, as this cake has a tendency to stick. Set pans aside.
- Whisk first 4 ingredients in a bowl to combine. Set aside.
- IN bowl of stand mixer beat shortening and sugar until smooth. Add in egg yolks and vanilla and continue beating until incorporated, scraping sides as necessary.
- Alternate adding the reserved dry ingredients and the milk in thirds, starting and finishing with the dry.
- Divide batter between two prepared pans and bake for 20 minutes until set. Allow to cool for 10 minutes in pan. Run a knife along the edges to loosen cake from pans and invert pans onto a wire rack to continue cooling. Do this part carefully, as to not break the cake.
- Once cooled frost the cake.
Key Lime Buttercream
- Mix butter and zest in mixer until combined and smooth. Beat in powdered sugar and Key lime juice. Mix until combined. Add in milk and beat until fluffy.
- Fill and frost cake with frosting.
Notes
Graham Cake recipe lightly adapted from BHG
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 slice
- Calories: 454
- Sugar: 62.8 g
- Sodium: 167.9 mg
- Fat: 16.8 g
- Carbohydrates: 75.1 g
- Protein: 2.9 g
- Cholesterol: 55.8 mg
Hey Shelly! I was a bit confused too. Maybe there is a little disconnect between the post and the recipe. In the post, it says “Well..after 2 attempts at making a cake using Graham Crackers and having them fail fail fail, I turned to Betty Crocker for the base cake recipe.” And then “I DO have a fantastic graham cake recipe using graham flour that I developed last year. I will share that with you guys another day.” However, the recipe looks like it is your Graham Cake recipe. I was just going to follow the recipe instead of what it said in the blog, as the pictures don’t appear to have a cake mix anywhere. I can’t wait to make this for my hubby; it looks fabulous!
Ahh, I mean to write Better Homes and Gardens…that is the recipe that I used for the cake! I changed the wording in the post! Hope it makes more sense now!!
looks so good, I just had to try it! I made a slight changes: made it in a 9×13 pan which took a little longer to cook and also added another tbsp. of lime juice and milk. Turned out awesome! Thanks for sharing!
Hi, so I’m going to make this cake tomorrow for my mom’s birthday! I’m confused though..Am I suppose to follow the Betty Crocker instructions and then add the graham crackers for the cake? or use the ingredients you have listed for the cake? or both??
I am not quite sure what Betty Crocker instructions you are referring to… do you mean on the back of a cake mix box? This recipe doesn’t call for a cake mix, if that’s the question 🙂
Can I sub butter for shortening in the cake?
I have never tried in this recipe, as the batter is so different than a usual cake. I would ‘imagine’ that it would work, but can’t guarantee the same results as I got. If you try it I would love to hear your results!
You had me at KEY LIME. My ultimate favorite desert. Can not wait to try this recipe. Thank you, thank you, thank you….
Shelly, this looks amazing. Do you think this could be made into cupcakes filled with the frosting too? If so, how would you adjust the baking time?
Thanks!!!
Trudi
I don’t know how well this cake would do in a cupcake liner.. It’s very very sticky and might stick heavily to your liners. You could try a foil liner and that might work well!
GAAAAWWWWSSSSHHH – this cake!!!!!
So are you taking volunteers for the position of friends-who-look-fat- so-you-look-skinny? Cos if you are I want to volunteer! For a slice or two of this – I am so in! This looks fantastic and so moist!
I could eat lemon and lime until the sun don’t shine 🙂
I die for key lime and for lemon bars…killin me! I want GRAHAM CAKE! I wish I was your neighbor…I’d come running the second you texted me!
Ooooo, this is sooooo calling my name…..and I’m on a program for the next 6 weeks. Great! Lol! Looks amazing 🙂
oh my gosh me too! Damn the next 6 weeks!! haha!
What an awesome cake! Love it! 🙂