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!
As with all my cakes 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.
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
- Prep Time: 15 mins
- Cook Time: 30 mins
- Total Time: 45 mins
- Yield: 10
Description
This richly flavored vegan key lime cake is ideal for a birthday or any special occasion. Light and fluffy key lime cake smothered in velvety key lime frosting.
Ingredients
- For the Key Lime Cake:
- 1 and 3/4 cups (220g) All Purpose Flour
- 1 cup (200g) Sugar
- 1 tsp Baking Soda
- 1 tsp Baking Powder
- 1/2 tsp Salt
- 1/3 cup (80ml) Key Lime Juice* (see notes)
- 2/3 cup (160ml) Soy Milk (or other non-dairy milk)
- 1/3 cup (80ml) Vegetable Oil (I used olive oil)
- 1 Tbsp White Vinegar (or Apple Cider Vinegar)
- 1 tsp Vanilla Extract
- 1 tsp Green Food Coloring (optional)
- For the Key Lime Frosting:
- 3 and a 3/4 cups (450g) Powdered (Confectioners) Sugar
- 1/2 cup (112g) Vegan Butter or Margarine
- 3 Tbsp Key Lime Juice* (see notes)
- 1/2 tsp Green Food Coloring (optional)
- For Decoration:
- Zest from 1 lime
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C).
- Sift the flour into a mixing bowl and add the sugar, baking soda, baking powder and salt and mix together.
- Then squeeze the lime juice and add it to the mixing bowl along with the soy milk, vegetable oil, vinegar, vanilla extract and green food coloring (if using).
- Whisk it with a hand whisk until it’s well mixed and all the lumps are removed.
- Grease two 7 inch round cake tins with coconut oil and cut out two circles of parchment paper for the bottoms of the tins.
- Pour out the batter evenly between the two tins and place into the oven to bake for 30 minutes.
- After 30 minutes, check if they are ready by inserting a toothpick into the center of the cakes. If the toothpick comes out clean, then your cake is ready.
- Transfer the cakes from the cake tins to a wire cooling rack and allow to cool completely before frosting.
- Prepare your frosting by adding all the frosting ingredients to an electric mixer and beginning on slow speed, gradually increase speed until your frosting is smooth and creamy.
- If your frosting is too thin, add more powdered sugar, if it’s too thick, add a little more lime juice. The consistency should be thick, but still spreadable.
- When your cakes are cooled, frost one layer and then add the other layer on top and frost the top and sides.
- Decorate with lime zest.
Notes
*If you can’t get key limes, you can use regular limes (which is what I used in this recipe).
*Nutritional Information is for 1 slice of 10 with a generous amount of frosting.
- Category: Dessert
- Cuisine: Vegan
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 Slice (of 10)
- Calories: 454
- Sugar: 64.7g
- Sodium: 374mg
- Fat: 12.9g
- Saturated Fat: 2g
- Carbohydrates: 83.5g
- Fiber: 0.7g
- Protein: 2.8g
I just came across this cake recipe because I am a vegan and I wanted a nice homemade cake. I enjoyed the cake thank you for sharing the recipe.
★★★★★
Somehow, I didn’t find the spot to click on stars until I already posted my review. Must add stars!
★★★★★
Thank you so much! 🙂
My adult daughter wanted a different birthday cake this year. Everybody was tired of the old recipes. I sent her options, including your lime cake. This was incredibly delicious and got rave reviews! Three of us had seconds, because it was just that tasty. The frosting was amazing! So sweet/tart (I used regular limes as you suggested.) I doubled the recipe into a 9×13″ cake pan, and frosted it in the pan for a homey look. I didn’t need a doubled recipe of frosting that way. (Since you asked for indispensable tools for baking – the following website is one of them for figuring out how to use other pans! https://food52.com/blog/13239-how-to-make-your-baking-recipe-fit-your-pan-size )
I did use whole wheat pastry flour, because we are accustomed to whole wheat cakes, dropped the baking powder (my daughter’s allergies…), and I replaced the vinegar with lemon juice. I used melted coconut oil for the oil.
I sent the leftovers home with my daughter, because I would have eaten the rest of it all myself here at my house! YUM! I would give extra stars if I could.
I can’t wait to try some of your other cake recipes.
Thanks so much for sharing! Yes that is a good article from Food52! So glad the cake was a success!
I just made this cake and while the cake part was good, the frosting was way too sweet for me. I may try just getting regular frosting and adding like flavor of I make this again.
★★★★
Thanks for sharing Rachel! 🙂
Hi – can I make this cake in advance? If so how would you recommend I store it? Fridge/ pantry/iced/not iced til serving. Thanks!!
Hi Amanda, it depends on how far in advance, if it’s just the day before then frost it and cover it and store in the fridge, it will be perfect the next day.
Hi You used Baking powder and Baking soda. Can I just use Baking powder or do I have to use both. Have will it come out if I only used Baking powder? Thanks.
Hi Mae, in this case if you left out the baking powder it wouldn’t be a big deal, but leaving out the baking soda would be. If you only use one it needs to be the baking soda.
This recipe sounds amazing and I want to try it, but do you think it’s okay for me to bake in a bundt cake pan or would modifying the recipe have to happen to use that particular cake pan.
Hi Kennedy, I think you could do it in a bundt pan it would just take a longer baking time. I’m not sure exactly how much longer, if I were to guess maybe 20 minutes or so longer cooking time.
Hi Alison, I have seen your other vegan cake recipes and you use flaxegg to replace the real eggs(chicken), however for this Lime cake you dont use it or any other, is it not necessary? Thank you.
Hi Larissa, I don’t always use it, it’s not needed in this cake. 🙂
All of my non-vegan friends LOVED this cake, moreso than all the other desserts at the party we were at. I’m curious as to how long you’d bake as cupcakes. I’m terrible at timing, and don’t want to over bake ?❤️
★★★★★
Hi Nicole! So happy it worked out great! Thanks for the awesome review! We have adapted this recipe for cupcakes, you can find it here: vegan key lime cupcakes. 🙂
This was yummy! I didn’t dye it, and I didn’t make the icing because, sadly, I was out of confectioners sugar. I had a bunch of limes to use up and came across your recipe. So, I used them for the cake. I must make this for my vegan parents! Very fluffy and perfectly sweet! Thank you for sharing!
★★★★★
Wonderful! So glad it worked out great, thanks so much for the great review! 🙂