Key Lime Bundt Cake

Every person I've talked to has bemoaned that this has been the most hectic summer in recent memory. Work, family, friends, life - it was all wanting equal parts of you without enough downtime to spare. "A" and I can group ourselves into that camp and complain. Yet what's the point? Now that we live in the Midwest, even though it takes some gas and time, we are able to drive to see both our families with a days notice and a weekend's time. While one family is a 4 hour drive to the west and another a 7 hour drive to the east, the fact that we can both see family more than one or two times a year is priceless.

Giving up the American tradition of barbecuing and relaxing with a day free of labor, "A" and I drove to Michigan for a Labor Day weekend filled with good food in Ann Arbor and an (age need not be mentioned) birthday for my beautiful Grandma, Betty! 

It's pretty much an unspoken rule that if I'm in attendance at a birthday party (family or not), I'll supply the cake. Even though I have a pretty good roster, my mother demanded that I make her mother a Key Lime cake. Not that new fancy chocolate cake recipe I've been waiting to try out. Not that caramel cake that most people would line up to try. Nope - a cake filled with Key Limes and not in pie form.

As I mentioned earlier, the weeks of summer have been filled to the brim and the temperature steadily rising, the thought of turning on an oven for even five minutes seemed to daunting. So instead I adapted a Key Lime cake recipe I have previously developed, threw it in a bundt pan and made it in my parents kitchen after my morning run. Oh yeah, did I mention I've been training for a running race? That's another story for another time.

Needless to say, the birthday girl was happy and I have yet another successful birthday cake in my storybook. 

Key Lime Bundt Cake

Ingredients:

• 2 ½ cups all purpose flour
• 2 cups granulated sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 1/2 tsp. baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3 large eggs
• 1 cup vegetable oil
• 1 cup fresh or bottled key lime juice
• 3/4 cup goat yougurt
• 2 tablespoons fresh lime zest

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease bundt pan with oil or melted butter and flour.
2. Sift flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt together into mixing bowl. 
3. Add eggs, oil and lime juice mix on medium speed of an electric mixer until creamy. 
4. Add goat yougurt and zest; mix until smooth. Pour cake batter into bundt pan and bake for 45 minutes, or until tester is inserted and comes out clean.
5. Cool in pans for 5 minutes and then turn the cake out onto cooling racks. Cool for 1 hour.
6. To decorate, make a glaze with key lime juice and powdered sugar and top with toasted unsweetened coconut.

Key Lime CAKE!

Remember those Key Lime Cupcakes I made a few weeks back? Well - I made them into a cake! If you wanted to make the cake, use the first key lime cupcake recipe , but double the recipe. I also used the same frosting recipe, but I used a little more powdered sugar so the frosting would be stiffer. The cake I made was 4 layers (it could/should have been five layers, but I didn't want to stay up any later baking), so I made a batch of "mini-muffin" cupcakes. Here are the pictures of the cake and the reaction from the birthday girl, my grandma! HAPPY BIRTHDAY GRANDMA!

Key Lime Cupcakes Times Two

I need to make Key Lime cake. I can't reveal why yet, but it is for someone and I needed to try out/work on some recipes to find out one that works the best so that when the day comes for me to actually make the cake, I will have the best recipe. When I was making these cupcakes, I halved the recipes so I wouldn't have key limes cupcakes overflowing my house. I had my family and co-workers at the Bivouac taste test the two different cupcakes - and I think the one's with the 'sword on top' (referencing the picture would be key right now) won. This cupcake (recipe #1) has a stronger key lime flavor and has a lot more zing to it. The second cupcake recipe has a stronger coconut flavor with a side note of key lime. I reommend you make them both and choose. But, if you did try both cupcakes at work today, please let me know which one you liked more!

Key Lime Cupcakes #1 (the one with the lime/sword)

• 2 ½ cups all purpose flour
• 2 cups granulated sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 1/2 tsp. baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3 large eggs
• 1 cup vegetable oil
• 1 cup fresh or bottled key lime juice
• 3/4 cup sour cream
• 2 tablespoons fresh lime zest
• Key Lime Cream Cheese Glaze:
• 8 oz cream cheese softened
• 8 tablespoons butter
• pinch of kosher salt
• 3 ¼ cups confectioners’ sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 tablespoon lime juice
• Garnish
• 1 cup shredded sweetened coconut, toasted

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Place liners in muffin tin.
2. Sift flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt together into mixing bowl. Add eggs, oil and lime juice mix on medium speed of an electric mixer until creamy. Add sour cream and zest; mix until smooth. Pour cake batter evenly into muffin tins. Bake for 22 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.
3. Cool in pans for 5 minutes and then turn cakes out onto cooling racks. Cool for 1 hour.
4. Drizzle frosting over cakes. Spread toasted coconut over top and down sides. I added a garnish of a lime and sword to differentiate between the two different cupcakes - but I like how it looked so I think I will do it again in the future.
5. Frosting:
6. In a mixer cream together cream cheese and butter. Add sugar and vanilla, then beat in the lime juice – beating and scraping sides of bowl all the while.
7. Toasted Coconut: Spread on baking sheet and bake in a pre-heated 375 for about 5-10 minutes. Stir often. Let cool. I like to cook mine until some of the coconut is lightly browned.

Key Lime Coconut Cupcakes #2 (with only toasted coconut on top)

Adapted from Gourmet, March 2009

• 1 cup sweetened flaked coconut
• 1 stick unsalted butter, softened
• 1 1/4 cups granulated sugar
• 1 tablespoon grated Key lime zest
• 2 large eggs
• 1 3/4 cups self-rising flour*
• 3/4 cup whole milk
• 1/4 cup fresh Key lime juice, divided

1. Preheat oven to 350°F with rack in middle. Generously butter an 8- by 8-inch square or 9- by 2-inch round cake pan and line bottom with a round of parchment paper.
2. Toast coconut in a small baking pan in oven, stirring once or twice, until golden, 8 to 12 minutes. Cool. Leave oven on.
3. Beat together butter, granulated sugar, and zest with an electric mixer until fluffy. Beat in eggs one at a time. Stir together flour and 1/2 cup coconut (reserve remainder for topping). Stir together milk and 2 tablespoons lime juice. At low speed, mix flour and milk mixtures into egg mixture alternately in batches, beginning and ending with flour.
4. Spoon batter into pan and smooth top. Bake until golden and a wooden pick inserted into center comes out clean, 22 minutes.
5. Use the same frosting as used in the Cupcake #1 recipe.

* Make your own: For every cup of flour, add a 1/2 teaspoon of salt and 1 teaspoon of baking powder, whisk together very well and sift the mixture. Measure your self-rising flour from there