Key Lime Cake

Unfortunately, we missed seeing our Aunt Marilyn at Vicke's party, but she was sure there in spirit. She emailed me and my sister Jackie a recipe for key lime cake, saying, "This would be great for Vicke's birthday since it is a beautiful green cake." She was right. Jackie made it, and it was a hit. Steve said that it reminded him of eating lime push-up pops. I agree! While most of the recipes for the food served at the party are already in our family cookbook, this is a new one.

Marilyn writes, "I first saw and tasted this beautiful and delicious cake on Palm Sunday at our covered dish dinner at LaFayette First Baptist Church. I later found out that Mary Howard had brought it. I called her, and she willingly shared the recipe with me. She has been making this cake for many years, and she got the recipe from an old Farm Bureau cookbook."

Thanks, Marilyn, for suggesting it . . . and thanks, Jackie, for making it! Mmmmmmm

Key Lime Cake

Ingredients:

• 1 box lemon cake mix (Mary uses lemon supreme)
• 1 (3 oz) box lime jello
• 4 eggs
• 1-1/3 cups oil
• 3/4 cup fresh orange juice
• 3 limes
• 6 tablespoons confectioner's sugar
• 8 oz cream cheese
• 1 box confectioner's sugar
• 1 stick butter (Mary uses only about 1/2 stick or a little more)

Directions:
Combine the dry jello with the cake mix. Add eggs, oil, and orange juice. Mix well. (Add a few drops of green food coloring to the batter if you want a darker shade of green.) Pour batter into 3 cake pans that have been sprayed with Baker's Joy. Bake at 350 degrees until the center of the cake is done, or approximately 25-30 minutes.

Next, mix the juice of 3 limes and 6 tablespoons of confectioner's sugar. Spoon this mixture over the warm layers when you take them out of the oven. (If you mix this up before starting the cake, you will need to keep stirring while the cakes are baking to keep it from getting hard.)

Lastly, mix together the last three ingredients to make cream cheese icing. (Optional: You may want to double the cream cheese icing recipe. You can also add a few drops of green food coloring if you wish.) Spread over the top and sides of cooled cake.

Note: Jackie added the lime juice to the cake batter and eliminated the confectioner's sugar. Then, she iced the layers with lime curd.