I am one of the most unobservant people when it comes to my surroundings.
I’m probably too observant when it comes to what people are thinking and feeling around me (I’m like a sponge for that stuff!) but when it comes to the actual landscape around me it’s like I walk around with blinkers on.
For example I needed to get some fresh raw nuts for a raw dessert and Jaye told me I could get them at this supermarket that I go to ALL the time. And I told him that no, there was no fresh nuts section, I could only get pre-packaged nuts there.
And he laughed at me because he said of course there was a fresh nuts section! And he tried to explain to me where it was, but here’s another thing I’m not good at – direction! I simply have no sense of direction. So I had no idea what he was talking about.
So we went there together and he pointed out the massive section of the shop with the fresh nuts and dried fruits counter. I had literally NEVER seen it until that moment.
Well, the other day something similar happened. While browsing another supermarket I go to very regularly I suddenly happened upon a section I had never seen before. A baking section! I was gobsmacked that I had never seen this section of the store until that moment!
They have every manner of awesome baking tool I could imagine, and many I had not even imagined existed!
Oh my – I was in awe of all this cool stuff! Things like specially curved spatulas for frosting cakes!
Do you know I’ve been frosting my cakes with a butter knife? Well maybe you did know that, they’re not exactly perfectly frosted specimens!
Sadly, I had already made and photographed this delicious vegan key lime cake by the time of this discovery, so it doesn’t have any impact on today’s recipe, but on future recipes, I think an impact will be made!
And what’s this I hear about a cake turntable to assist you in frosting? Well, well, there’s a whole world of cool baking gadgets out there! If you have any that you can’t do without – help a girl out! Let me know so I can get them! 
This key lime cake was heaps of fun to make. I made it for my sisters birthday. And everyone loved it.
The thing with being a food blogger is if someone is having a birthday you don’t just go making something you’ve made before, it has to be a new thing!
So when my sisters birthday was coming around I went looking for new cake ideas and landed on the idea of a key lime cake.
It doesn’t actually need to be green. The flavor comes about from the actual lime juice in the cake, not the green coloring added to it.
But I thought it would be really fun to make everything bright neon green! And it was!
But if you don’t like using food coloring, you can just omit the color completely. All the flavor will still be there. There is so little food color used that omitting it won’t affect how the recipe turns out.
I basically just adapted my vegan vanilla cake recipe to make this. I switched out some of the plant based milk for lime juice.
Now here’s the thing. I could not actually get key limes here in Dubai. But I was quite convinced by researching it online that using regular limes in their place would end up the exact same way. Usually the risk of using limes instead of key limes is that limes are sweeter.
Well maybe some limes are sweeter but the limes I got were likely the most tart limes in the history of limes.
But apparently (I have not tried this) if your limes are quite sweet you can go for half lime juice, half lemon juice. That way you’re more closely approximating key limes.
Of course if you CAN get key limes then just use those!
For this cake I used my super cute 7 inch cake tins! So this is a small cake.
If your cake tins are larger you could try making this into a single layer cake, but I have not tried it this way. I’m wary these days of increasing recipes to double them as for some reason (no idea why!) this often does not work out.
If your cake tins are smaller (6 inch) then go for it, you may just have to bake a couple of minutes longer, or make it as a three layer 6-inch cake.
The frosting is deliciously lime flavored as well and the cake is topped with lime zest.
The result is a richly flavored fabulously colorful lime cake!
I hope you’ll love this key lime cake as much as we did! It’s:
- Fabulously green
- Richly flavored
- Light and fluffy
- Deliciously shareable
It makes an ideal birthday cake or special occasion cake.
It’s best when fresh but will last up to a week if you keep it covered in the fridge.
Any comments or questions? Fire away in the comment section below!
If you make this recipe – pop back and let us know how it turned out!
Any pics – tag them #lovingitvegan on instagram so we get to see them too!
And don’t forget – if you have any indispensable baking tools you can’t do without, let me know what they are!
Thanks a ton!
Vegan Key Lime Cake
Ingredients
For the Key Lime Cake:
- 1 and ¾ cups All Purpose Flour (220g)
- 1 cup White Granulated Sugar (200g)
- 1 tsp Baking Soda
- 1 tsp Baking Powder
- ½ tsp Salt
- ⅓ cup Key Lime Juice (80ml)
- ⅔ cup Soy Milk (160ml) or other non-dairy milk
- ⅓ cup Vegetable Oil (80ml)
- 1 Tbsp Distilled White Vinegar or Apple Cider Vinegar
- 1 tsp Vanilla Extract
- 1 tsp Green Food Coloring optional
For the Key Lime Frosting:
- ½ cup Vegan Butter (112g)
- 3 and ¾ cups Powdered Sugar (450g)
- ½ tsp Green Food Coloring optional
- 2-3 Tbsp Key Lime Juice
For Decoration:
- Lime Zest from 1 small lime
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C). Spray two 7 inch round cake pans* with non-stick spray and cut out circles of parchment paper for the bottoms of the pans.
- Sift the flour into a mixing bowl and add the sugar, baking soda, baking powder and salt and mix together.
- Add lime juice, soy milk, oil, vinegar, vanilla extract and green food coloring (if using) and mix into a batter. Don't overmix.
- Divide the batter evenly between the two cake pans and place into the oven to bake for 25 minutes.
- Check for doneness by inserting a toothpick into the center of one of the cakes. If the toothpick comes out clean, it's ready.
- Transfer the cakes from the cake pans to a wire cooling rack and allow to cool completely before frosting.
- Prepare your frosting by adding the vegan butter, powdered sugar, food coloring (if using) and 2 tablespoons of lime juice to the bowl of your stand mixer and beginning on low speed, gradually increase speed until your frosting is smooth and creamy. If it's too thick, add the remaining tablespoon of lime juice slowly until you reach the right consistency.
- Frost the cakes and decorate with lime zest.
Notes
- Key limes. If you can't get key limes, you can use regular limes.
- 6-inch. This cake can also be made as a three layer 6-inch cake. Bake for 20 minutes.
- Nutritional information is for 1 slice of 10 with a generous amount of frosting.
Hi, I live in the UK .. could I use just lime juice for key lime juice, or does this give a slightly different flavour?
Can you help with this query
😊 Christine
Lime juice is fine.
Thank you
I made this today for my birthday! Not sure if my food colouring is different to what you use, but I added the recommended amount, the batter was super green, but the baked cake wasn’t green at all, just a normal plain sponge colour!
Every cake I bake ends up sinking a bit in the middle, any idea what I’m doing wrong? This tasted super nice, just the inverse to a normal cake shape lol.
I really liked the lime flavour, would deffo recommend this cake!
So glad the flavor was good! Usually the main reasons for the cake sinking is if the oven door is opened before the cake has properly set up, OR if the batter sits too long before baking. Once it’s mixed it should bake right away. When it comes to the color, some brands of food coloring just work better than others, some work well for frostings but don’t bake well.
Hi Alison,
I made this cake sans frosting and baked it in the Nordic Ware heart pan so it’s not super tall. 35 minutes did it. Cooled and then hit with powdered sugar as per your suggestion. WOW! It was terrific. My husband went crazy on the limey flavor and texture was perfect. This is a keeper recipe. Easy, flavorful…only negative point….it didn’t last more than 3 days with the two of us…ha! Actually, in my college days I could have eaten the whole thing throughout the day. I know you don’t think it’s a good idea, but I may double it and try a different bundt pan. Will keep you posted.
Wonderful to hear it was such a success! Thanks so much for sharing Deb!
One more question. Sorry to bother. Can I also bake this cake in a bundt pan and if so, how long should it take at the same oven temp you said to bake it. Thanks again. Love your blog already!
Hi Deb, I haven’t made this in a bundt pan but I think you could, it would need a longer bake time though, probably in the region of 50 minutes or longer.
Hi Alison!
Is this cake good without the frosting? And what size pan should I use if I want this to be a sheet cake?
Just snagged a bunch of limes from a neighbor. Want to use them! Your cake looks terrific.
Hi Deb, yes you can leave off the frosting! Maybe just add a sprinkle of powdered sugar on top for looks purposes. For a 9×13 cake, bake for 15 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. For a 9×9 square cake, bake for 20 minutes or until it passes the toothpick test.
Can I use this as a cupcakes recipe?
Hi Eden, check out our key lime cupcakes! 🙂
Hi there! I was wondering what 7″ pans you were using because when I search there’s 7x 3 or 7 x 4..so I’m not sure which ones to get. Also do you think these will hold up nicely under fondant??
Even a 7 x 2 would work fine. You can also use three 6-inch cake pans if that will work better for you.
Hi Alison, thanks so much for sharing the recipe. I’ve made this couple of time for friends an family. Some time I did not use the food coloring but I did play around with the frosting decor and it turned out to be a white beautiful cake. All my friends and family love this cake very much.
Questions ; can I use Gluten Free Flour for this cake?
So glad you like the cake! I think gluten free would work, but it has to be a gluten-free all purpose blend.
I followed the recipe but my cake didn’t rise… I haven’t tried it yet but it smells yummy.
Hi Emily, sorry to hear that! Hope it still tasted good. There are a few reasons cakes don’t rise, sometimes the leavening agent (baking powder/baking soda) may be expired, but other reasons can be overmixing the batter or leaving the batter too long before baking. Hope this helps!