Key Lime Pound Cake

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I just flew in from Miami and, boy, are my arms tired.  Did I just say that?  Apparently, my husband’s old man humor is rubbing off on me.  I did just get back from a blogging conference in Miami, BlogHer Food ’14.  While I was there, we had the opportunity to experience several local cuisines and recipes, many of which I plan on recreating.

We originally planned to go to Key West after the conference, but the timing didn’t work out.  That didn’t stop me from singing “Cheeseburgers In Paradise” all weekend.  (As well as Will Smith’s “Miami.”  How can you not hum that song while bopping your head around and doing the White-Man-Overbite?  Bievenido a Miami, baby!)  Since I wasn’t able to devour a slice of key lime heaven in the Keys, I decided to make up for it when I got home.  Except not in pie form (I’ll leave that up to the local experts);  I wanted the key lime flavors in a cake.

This is what you need:

First, preheat your oven to 325°.

Then, dump some flour and baking soda into a bowl…

along with some salt.  

Notice my adorable little measuring spoons.  My mother-in-law got those for me.  They’re so cute and summery!

Whisk all of this together to get everyone all friendly-like and set the bowl aside.

Now we’re going to get our exercise for the day.  We’re going to zest some limes… we need 3 teaspoons of the good stuff.  Your hands may fall off by the time you’re finished with this, but it’ll totally be worth it.  Besides, you don’t need no stinkin’ hands to eat cake!

Set the zest to the side.

Next, we need to juice the limes.  If you can’t find key limes, you can use the bottled stuff.  But if you have the option, go for the fresh juice.

We’re going to use ½ cup total.  Set that aside for a few minutes.

Plop the softened butter into the bowl of a stand mixer and with the beater attachment, beat until the butter is creamy.

Then gradually add the sugar…

And let ‘er rip!  You’re going to mix this for a few minutes until it’s creamy and fluffy.

Now, add the eggs, one at a time, mixing after each egg until just blended.

This is what it’ll look like…

Go grab your flour mixture and pour ⅓ of it into the butter, sugar and eggs.  Mix until just incorporated.

Then pour in ½ of the sweetened condensed milk and mix just until this is combined.

Repeat the flour and condensed milk steps one more time and end with the last ⅓ of the flour, mixing after each addition.

After you’ve mixed in all the flour and condensed milk, toss in 2 teaspoons of lime zest.  We’ll use the last teaspoon in a bit, so hold your horses and don’t go throwing it all in right now.

Add some vanilla…

and half of the lime juice.

Let ‘er rip one more time.  

This is what it should look like.

Pour the batter into a well greased bundt pan.  Even if your pan is non-stick, go ahead and lube it up.  

Bake at 325° for 1 hour and 15 minutes up to an hour and 30 minutes.  Test the doneness with long wooden skewers.  Toothpicks are too short here and they could get lost in your cake if you’re not careful.  That would be a VERY unpleasant surprise.

Ohhh, the sweet, yummy limey-ness that’s wafting through my kitchen.  

Once the cake is done, let it cool, right-side up, on a wire rack for 15-20 minutes. 

While the cake is cooling, we’re going to make the glaze.   Dump some powdered sugar into a mixing bowl…

along with the rest of the lime juice and some vanilla.

Whisk them together until it’s smooth.  The glaze should be thin enough to drizzle off the whisk.  If it’s too thick, add a little more lime juice.  If you feel like it’s too thin, add a little more powdered sugar.

Now add in the last teaspoon of lime zest and whisk it again.

Does anyone have a straw?

After the cake has chilled out for 15-20 minutes in the pan, it’s time to break her free.  You may have to run a knife along the edge of the pan to loosen it; if so, do it gently.  And don’t worry if you have a few minor cosmetic boo-boos.  We’re going to cover them up and no one will notice.

Place the cake on a wire rack that’s on top of some parchment or wax paper.  This next step is gonna get messy.

You can spoon the glaze on top of the cake and let it run down the edges…

Or if you’re like me and want every square inch of surface area to be covered in the limey liquid crack, you can baste it on.

Let the glaze set before cutting it to it.

How pretty!  (I don’t know how I had the patience to slice and sugar all those limes.  We got cake to eat, dangit!)

Now that’s a slice of key lime heaven.

I may or may not still be doing the White-Man-Overbite.