I looked everywhere for a recipe for key lime poke cake, but I couldn’t find anything I liked. I therefore made my own. Key lime cake that is extremely tasty, tangy, moist, and light.
| Prep Time: | 30 mins |
| Cook Time: | 40 mins |
| Additional Time: | 4 hrs 30 mins |
| Total Time: | 5 hrs 40 mins |
| Servings: | 12 |
| Yield: | 1 9×13-inch cake |
Ingredients
- 1 (15.25 ounce) package yellow cake mix (such as Duncan Hines®)
- 1 cup water
- 3 eggs
- ⅓ cup vegetable oil
- 1 (3 ounce) package lime-flavored gelatin mix (such as Jell-O®)
- 1 cup boiling water
- ¼ cup key lime juice, or more to taste
- 2 eggs
- 2 egg yolks
- 1 cup white sugar
- ¾ cup lime juice, or more to taste
- 4 teaspoons lime zest, or to taste
- ½ teaspoon cornstarch
- ¼ cup butter
- 2 drops green food coloring (Optional)
- 1 (8 ounce) container whipped topping (such as Cool Whip®)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease a 9×13-inch baking pan.
- Combine cake mix, water, eggs, and oil in a large bowl; beat with an electric mixer on low speed until moistened. Increase speed to medium and beat for 2 minutes. Pour batter into the prepared baking pan.
- Bake in the preheated oven until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, 24 to 29 minutes.
- Dissolve gelatin mix in boiling water. Add key lime juice and mix well.
- Use a fork to poke holes all over the cake. Spoon gelatin-key lime mixture all over cake. Refrigerate until completely cool and ready to use.
- Meanwhile, whisk eggs and egg yolks together in a large glass bowl. Combine sugar, lime juice, lime zest, and cornstarch in a smaller heat-proof bowl.
- Place bowl with the sugar mixture over a pot of simmering water. Stir frequently, scraping down the sides with a rubber spatula to avoid scorching, until mixture comes to boil, about 5 minutes.
- Slowly whisk hot sugar mixture, little by little, into the beaten eggs. Place bowl over the pot of simmering water and whisk until curd coats the back of a spoon, up to 10 minutes. Remove from heat; mix in butter until melted.
- Drop food coloring into the curd and mix to achieve your desired shade. Let cool to room temperature, at least 30 minutes. Cover surface directly in plastic wrap and refrigerate until completely cool, about 2 hours.
- Transfer 3/4 of the curd into another bowl. Add whipped topping and fold together until well combined. Spread frosting over the cake. Refrigerate until set, at least 2 hours more. Top with the plain curd.
- The directions for making the cake are based on the particular brand mentioned. Follow instructions on the box if using a different brand.
Nutrition Facts
| Calories | 433 kcal |
| Carbohydrate | 57 g |
| Cholesterol | 113 mg |
| Dietary Fiber | 1 g |
| Protein | 5 g |
| Saturated Fat | 9 g |
| Sodium | 329 mg |
| Sugars | 43 g |
| Fat | 21 g |
| Unsaturated Fat | 0 g |
Reviews
Flavor was delicious, especially on a hot day. I make lime curd yearly from our tree so I had lime curd in our freezer. Thawed slightly, whipped that with cool whip and frosted the cake. It was tart, but the cake, jello and curd are sweet so it was a refreshing balance. I used white cake mix vs yellow. Yummy!
It was kind of putsy , but easy. I dirtied every bowl in the house. . Made it for St Patrick’s day. Put the curd under the light and fluffy frosting. I also put vanilla pudding and an extra egg in the cake mix. Everyone raved about them. They were delicious. It made 15 cupcakes.
Use butter instead of vegetable oil in the cake mix
Wonderful fresh limey flavor! It is quite simple to make, almost. The curd stage (to make for the frosting) turned out to be time-consuming and tedious. I suspect a double boiler would have worked better, since I tried 3 different bowls over a boiling pot of water and couldn’t get the juice/sugar mix to boil. It got up to aboout 190 deg so I went to the next step, adding to the eggs. It came out fine, but next time I will probably use a different curd process (for instance see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zHg2XlakQGE) . Otherwise the recipe worked very well. It’s so worth it, a favorite.
The only change I may make is putting the curd on the cake before the whipped topping for better presentation. Would make it again.
This cake is very good. My husband says it is the best cake he’s ever eaten. I was a tad too tart for me. I followed the recipe except used fresh-squeezed regular lime juice. Key lime juice was not available. Next time I will cut down on the amount of lime zest. There was too much for me. The one thing I did add was I toasted some shredded coconut and sprinkled it on top of the cake. It added some sweetness and texture. The lime curd was very tart and the coconut helped to balance it out. I will definitely be making this cake again with those two minor changes. Oh, and next time instead of a yellow cake mix I am going to use a white cake mix.
I am a huge fan of Key Lime anything! so when I saw this recipe in my in box, I had to try. I didn’t change a thing! Its a delicious cake recipe. The frosting takes time to make, but so worth it!
Make it at my sister house and the family loved it
I made this for Memorial Day barbecue at a friends house. I honestly couldn’t wait to taste it. Well, it was fantastic desert!! Moist and so flavorful. A big hit at the party. I would definitely make it again!!!!!!!