After the "fiesta" for Cath and Trone, we had A LOT of limes left over. And I had cut them all up. Don't ask my why I thought we needed so many lime slices for Corona and margaritas. Anyway, I wanted to find something to do with them so we didn't have to throw them all away, and I found this recipe for Key Lime Cream Cheese Pound Cake. This was a great recipe as long as you don't make it harder than it has to be... Sliced limes are much harder to zest and juice than whole limes. If you find your self in a situation with sliced limes, I say toss them and splurge on the whole limes at 44 cents each! Also, when I started to make the cake, I realized that I forgot to set out the butter and cream cheese. So, I had the genius idea to put them in the warming drawer to speed up the process. This was a genius idea until I left it in for too long and had a pool of butter to clean up. At least not all of it melted so I just guessed and added a couple more tablespoons. Needless to say, the measurements weren't completely accurate, but it still turned out great!
It had a great texture and was not too dense (a problem I tend to have trouble with when baking pound cakes). The cake itself has a hint of lime, but it is not overwhelming, and the glaze provides a great sweet and tart flavor to complement the cake. I definitely recommend not skipping the glaze. I made a couple minor changes to the original and used fresh juice rather than bottled and reduced fat cream cheese. Also, I think my pan must have been smaller because I reduced the cooking time by 15 minutes. So, once it has been in for an hour, I would start checking it for "doneness." The recipe as I made it is below:
Ingredients:
For the Pound Cake:
3 1/4 cups cake flour
1/4 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
2 1/4 sticks
8 oz. reduced fat cream cheese
3 cups granulated sugar
6 large eggs
1 tsp. pure vanilla extract
3 tbsp. lime juice
2 tsp. very finely grated lime zest
Confectioners' sugar for garnish
For the Glaze:
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup Key Lime Juice
Instructions:
Have all ingredients at room temperature. Position oven rack in lower third of oven and preheat to 325 degrees F. Grease and flour a 9 or 10-inch bundt pan.
Sift together flour, baking soda and salt, set aside.
With an electric mixer, fitted with a flat beater, beat butter and cream cheese at medium speed until creamy and smooth, about 30-40 seconds. Add 3 cups of the sugar and beat until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes, stop mixer and scrape bowl occasionally. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in vanilla and 3 tbsp. lime juice. Reduce speed to low. Fold in flour, baking soda, and salt mixture in 3 additions, blending each addition just until smooth, stop mixer and scrape bowl occasionally. Fold in lime zest.
Spoon batter into prepared pan. Bake until cake is golden, and a toothpick inserted into center comes out clean, about 1 1/2 hours. Cool upright in pan on rack for 10 minutes. Invert cake onto cooling rack with waxed or parchment paper placed underneath rack, and glaze. Place cake on serving plate, and dust with powdered sugar.
Makes 12-16 servings.
Key Lime Glaze:
In a small bowl, whisk 1/4 cup key lime juice and 3/4 cup sugar until blended. Set rack over a sheet of waxed paper, invert cake onto rack. Generously brush cake with glaze. After glaze has set; approximately 10 minutes, lightly sprinkle cake with powdered sugar.
