Saint Patrick’s Day brings on all the green food!
Vegan Lemon Lime Cake is a perfect way to celebrate the green!
Layers of dense lemon pound cake and fluffy key lime cake
With key lime custard and lemon cream cheese icing!
This is one giant building on recipes project but it is totally worth it!
Mossy cake crumbs and royal icing mushrooms and don’t forget the pot of gold!
Of course Lemon Lime Cake is not just for Saint Patrick’s Day
Since this cake (minus all the decor) turns into a simple but luscious Lemon Lime Crunch Cake!
Yep I’m obsessed with crunch cakes and this one made from the extra lemon cake layer is total perfection!
Notes for Success:
You do not have to make both cake recipes if you want to keep it simple just opt for one of the recipes of your choosing
New lemon cake recipe linked below in the recipe section is my improved and updated “easy lemon cake recipe” that I would recommend
The original lemon cake recipe is a bit finicky and can be tricky if you do not have a high speed whip attachment and a stand mixer
Cornstarch is a very difficult ingredient to measure consistently with a volume/spoons measure
So while I list both measures for the custard recipe below I cannot stress enough how the grams measure with a scale is going to give you the best results.
Many times people have complained that their custard is like rubber and they don’t know why!
Lemon Lime Cake
Ingredients
For the Key Lime Custard
- 22 ounces Sweetened Condensed Coconut Milk 660g
- 12 Tbs Plant Milk 180ml
- 1 cup Key Lime Juice 240ml
- 8 Tbs Water 118ml
- 2 Tbs Vegan Butter 28g
- 7 Tbs Cornstarch 56g
for the decorations
Instructions
- If you are making the mushrooms decor you must prepare the royal icing decor at least 3 days in advance so they have time to dry properly so you can brush them with color & chocolate
- First prepare your cake recipes linked above & bake the batter into 7" cake pans that have been greased & parchment lined (3 layers each recipe)
- You can prepare the cake recipes up to 2 days in advance & keep them refrigerated wrapped well until you are ready to build the cake
- You will take one of the lemon cake layers & crumble it up to large crumbs, add food color & toast it to crunchy coating in the oven at 350°F for approximately 20 minutes
- Prepare the 2-2-2 Cream Cheese icing as per the instructions on that recipe post
- Once your cakes & the cream cheese Icing is prepared you can make the key lime custard & start to build the cake with the cake ring build method as shown in the video
- For the custard combine the water with the cornstarch & whisk smooth
- Next combine all the ingredients including the cornstarch slurry, (but not the vegan butter) together in a medium sauce pot & bring to a boil while whisking constantly
- Once the custard bubbles & is visibly getting thicker, add the vegan butter & whisk smooth, cool slightly before adding as the filling to your cake or you will melt your buttercream rim!
Video
Notes
Hi Gretchen, just to let you know, it’s not possible to watch the YouTube video for the 2 ingredient mushrooms, as the video is set to private.
The cake looks absolutely stunning!
Hi Thanks!
Here is the link for the mushrooms video! https://youtu.be/CRnYoFakOuE
I realize your recipes are vegan; but I love the looks of your cakes. My question is can I use real butter, oil or Crisco in this recipe? I could never duplicate your beautiful cake. but would love to try the9x13 pan. Thank you.
Gretchen, i love all your cakes since Day 1, can you please make a butterbeer cake? It is almost impossible to find a good vegan recipe for harry potter themed, but i was wondering if you had any ideas on how to make one. Thank you!!!
Hi there! Excited to give this a go! Where can I find a recipe for the crunchy moss part?
Hey sorry I did not include that! I may have talked about it in the video though!
It’s essentially just the trimmings from the lime cake with added food color to give it a forest green color~ I toast my cakes trimmings so they are crunchy
So technically any vanilla cake would be fine & add color to make it the color green you like