This recipe was taken from a website called preppykitchen.com. It’s a great recipe, easy and fantastic tasting. Lately, I have been making six inch cakes because my oven is small, and three small pans cook so much more evenly in that oven than three large pans. Plus, a six inch 3 layer cake is so pretty and so much easier to transport and gift. This cake is a little sweet and a little tart… if you like Key Lime pie, you will love this cake. Having said that, I could not find Key Limes in the grocery store so I used regular limes and they were delicious.

Ingredients

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Prepare 3 six or eight inch cake pans with a smear of Crisco in the bottom and on the sides, a round of wax paper on the bottom (and more Crisco on top of the wax paper) and then a light coating of flour in each pan. I used six inch pans because I have such a small oven so there was a little left over batter. A three layer eight inch cake would be equally beautiful. Make sure your butter and cream cheese are soft, and also be sure to sift your confectioner's sugar to remove lumps.

Step 1

FOR THE CAKE: Whisk together the sifted flour and baking powder, baking soda and salt. NOTE: I measured the flour by dumping flour straight from the bag into a large bowl. Then I "fluffed" the flour with a fork, and then I measured 2 1/2 cups and THEN I sifted that.

Step 2

In a stand mixer with paddle attachment, beat the sugar, sour cream and oil for about 2 minutes, until smooth. Scrape down the bowl. Add the eggs one at a time, beat sparingly until combined, and scrape down again. You want a creamy looking batter.

Step 3

Add the liquids to the batter, i.e., the lime juice, the zest and the vanilla. Combine.

Step 4

Add the flour to the batter and combine. Don't beat a lot, just combine.

Step 5

Pour the batter into the prepared pans and bake at 350 degrees for 22 to 25 minutes, until the cake is golden and just pulling away from the sides of the pans. COOL for a few minutes, then turn out the cakes on a rack and cool completely.

Step 6

MAKE THE FROSTING: Combine the softened butter and softened cream cheese in the bowl of the stand mixer. Beat until smooth. Add the sugar and the lime juice and the vanilla. Do this carefully so that sugar doesn't go everywhere!

Step 7

Assemble and spread frosting on the tops and sides of the cakes. Sprinkle some lime zest on top for decoration!