Lime Pound Cake with Easy Lime Glaze

This lime pound cake with easy lime glaze is another one of my pound cakes collection – I have the basic old school pound cake recipe, lemon pound cake, banana pound cake and now the lime pound cake.

This lime pound cake is based on my basic pound cake recipe. It makes an 8 inches by 4 inches loaf cake. You can always bake it in a round cake tin if you wish. The best tin size would be a seven inches round tin. Reduce the baking temperature by 10 minutes when baking in a round cake tin as the cake will be thinner and is spread wider.

Everyone in my family loves pound cakes. They are soft and fluffy and moist and are great to be eaten plain. You can give pound cakes a simple dredge of icing sugar or a light drizzle of glaze icing too, to make it fancier.

You can also use this cake for decorating. It’s sturdy enough for stacking, so you can easily double the recipe, bake it in two 7-inches round cake tins, and fill and frost the layers with a simple buttercream or cream cheese frosting for a lovely lime-flavored birthday cake.

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How to Make Lime Pound Cake

Ingredients

As in all pound cakes, the main ingredients for this cake are pretty basic – butter, sugar, flour and eggs. For this lime pound cake, I have added both lime zest and lime juice. Here is the full list of the ingredients that go into this sweet and tangy lime pound cake:

• Butter
• Sugar
• Self-raising flour + baking powder + salt
• Eggs
• Lime juice + zest
• Milk

And these are the ingredients for the lime glaze:

• Icing sugar
• Lime juice
• Warm water

Mixing the lime pound cake batter

This cake made using the creaming method. This means the butter and sugar are creamed as the first step, before adding the eggs, flour and the lime. Here’s how to mix the cake batter:

1. Add sugar and butter into a medium-sized bowl. Beat until light and fluffy for a good 2 minutes. Scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl at a one-minute interval to ensure the butter and sugar are thoroughly beaten.
2. Next, add the eggs. Do this one at a time. And each time, beat the egg well until you don’t see any traces of egg in the batter before adding the next one.
3. Sift the flour, baking powder and salt into the creamed mixture in 3 batches and alternate it with the milk and the lime juice. Start the process with flour and end it with flour as well.
4. And finally, stir in the grated lime zest and mix it well.
5. Pour the lime pound cake batter into a well-greased and floured loaf tin and bake for 40 to 45 minutes at 175 degrees Celsius. Test the cake at 35 minutes by inserting a skewer in the center of the cake. If there is no wet batter sticking to the cake, it is done and can be removed from the oven.
6. Remove the cake from the oven and let it cool down in the tin for 5 minutes before turning it out onto a wire rack to cool further. Wrap the cake with cling wrap once it cools down to a warm temperature and chill it overnight. Bring the cake to room temperature before serving. Leftovers can be kept at room temperature for a good 4 to 5 days.

Making the lime sugar glaze

1. Measure and sift the icing sugar into a small bowl.
2. Add the lemon juice and water and mix until the glaze icing is smooth.
3. Transfer the lime glaze icing into a piping bag.
4. Make a small snip at the tip and drizzle the glaze in a diagonal pattern on the cake. The glaze will be quite liquid. If you want it to be stiffer, add more icing sugar or reduce the amount of water used.

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Notes

What is the difference between a lime and key lime?

• Lime and key lime are different variants of the lime family. Limes are larger, with much thicker skin. Key limes, are round, much smaller, and with thin skin.
• Key limes are green when unripe and turn yellow as they ripen. The juice from a green, unripened fruit is sourer than when it is ripe and yellow.

Can you substitute lime with key lime or lemon?

• Yes you certainly can. Use the same quantity when substituting.

Can this cake be baked in round cake tins?

• Yes, it can. If you wish to bake this cake in a round cake tin, use a 7 inches round tin. This recipe would make a 7 inch round cake with a height of about 1.5 to 2 inches. Reduce the baking time to 35 minutes.

Why is it important to cream the butter and sugar well

• Creaming the butter and sugar is the first step in making this lime pound cake. Well creamed butter and sugar will make soft and fluffy pound cakes.
• For this recipe, it is best that both the ingredients are beaten for at least 2 minutes. Scrape the sides of the bowl at the one-minute interval. This will ensure the butter and sugar are thoroughly mixed.

What is the best frosting for this lime pound cake?

• This cake can be served plain. You can also use a simple icing sugar dredge or even a simple lime glaze. I chose to top mine with a thin lime sugar glaze. The consistency of the glaze is rather thin and liquid.
• Having said that, this lime pound cake is also very good with lemon buttercream or lemon cream cheese frosting.

Why does the cake batter curdle and how to avoid it?

• Sometimes, this cake batter curdles after the addition of eggs. This normally happens when the butter and eggs are of a different temperature.
• Ideally, both the butter and eggs should be at room temperature. If one of them is cold, the cake batter tends to curdle.
• To avoid this, make sure all your ingredients are at room temperature.
• If the curdling still happens, fold in some flour. Do not add the milk or lime juice until the batter is no longer curdled. Once it is smooth (after adding the flour), continue with the liquids and the zest.

Can you increase or decrease the lime zest and juice?

• You certainly can. I have used 2 tablespoons of lime zest and 2 tablespoons of lime juice in this cake. The resulting cake is mildly lime flavored. To match it, I made the lime glaze with a stronger lime taste. This complemented the cake well.
• If you wish to have a more intense lime flavor in the cake itself, you can increase the amount of zest you add to the cake batter. You can also increase the amount of lime juice in the cake batter. Reduce the milk accordingly such that the amount of liquid added to the cake batter remains the same.

Tips for a moist pound cake

• The first tip is to not overbake the cake. Overbaked cakes tend to be dry. Check the cake for doneness at least 5 to 10 minutes before the baking time is up. Insert a skewer in the center of the cake. If it comes out without any wet cake batter, the cake is done and can be removed from the oven.
• The other trick for moist cakes lies in how you cool the cakes down after baking and how you store them afterward.
• When cooling the cake on a wire rack, keep it covered with a kitchen towel on it. That way, the cake does not dry up. This is particularly so in dry environments.
• Also, if you do not intend to serve the cake on the same day it is baked, wrap it in cling wrap while it is still warm and refrigerate it. This way, the moisture in the cake remains in the cake. Simply bring it to room temperature before serving.

Storing the cake

• This lime pound cake lasts at room temperature for a good 4 to 5 days, provided it is handled without any contact with moisture. It is best refrigerated if intended to be kept longer. Always keep the cake covered to avoid it from drying up.

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Lime Pound Cake Recipe

Here’s the full printable version of my lime pound cake recipe.

And that’s pretty much my lime pound cake recipe for you.

Here are my other recipes you might want to check out:

• Old School Butter Pound Cake with Buttercream Frosting
• Old Fashioned Lemon Pound Cake
• Marble Pound Cake

Happy Baking 🙂