High Altitude Key Lime Pie Sheet Cake
This cool and creamy dessert starts with a fluffy vanilla cake baked on top of a graham cracker crust. The cake is lightly soaked with milk, then topped with homemade lime pudding and fresh whipped cream.
All recipes on Curly Girl Kitchen are developed for high altitude at 5,280 feet. See FAQs for adjusting to higher or lower elevations.
Equipment
- 9x13 Baking Dish
- Stand Mixer with Paddle and Whisk Attachments
Ingredients
Graham Cracker Crust
- 1 ½ cups finely crushed graham crackers
- 2 tbsp granulated sugar
- ½ tsp coarse Kosher salt (if using table salt, use half the amount)
- ½ cup unsalted butter, melted
Vanilla Cake
- 1 recipe Vanilla Sheet Cake
- ½ cup whole milk (reserved for brushing over the baked cake)
Lime Pudding
- ¾ cup granulated sugar
- 1 tbsp freshly grated lime zest
- 3 tbsp corn starch
- ½ cup fresh or bottled lime juice or key lime juice (from 5-6 regular limes)
- 3 large egg yolks
- 1 cup whole milk
- 1 cup heavy whipping cream
Whipped Cream
- 4 oz cold block style cream cheese
- 6 tbsp powdered sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 ¼ cups cold heavy whipping cream
Instructions
Graham Cracker Crust
- Preheat the oven to 350 F and position a rack in the center of the oven. Lightly spray a 9x13 inch baking dish with non-stick baking spray.
- In a bowl, combine the crushed graham crackers, sugar and salt. Add the melted butter, and stir until moistened and crumbly. Press the crumbs evenly and firmly against the bottom of the prepared baking dish.
- Bake the crust for 5 minutes, just to lightly toast the crumbs and seal the crust, so that the cake batter doesn't displace the crumbs when you pour it into the pan. Set aside to cool the crust slightly while you make the cake batter.
Vanilla Cake
- Make the batter for the Vanilla Sheet Cake as instructed. Carefully pour the batter over the cooled graham cracker crust.
- Bake the cake for about 38-45 minutes, until the top springs back when gently touched, and a cake tester or sharp knife inserted in the center comes out clean.
- Let the cake cool for 30 minutes. With both the graham cracker crust and the cake layers, the 9x13 pan will be very full, so I recommend using a knife or the sharp edge of an offset metal icing spatula to carefully cut/scrape off the top 1/4 - 1/2 inch of cake. If you don't do this, your pan may overflow when you pour the pudding on top, or you just won't be able to use all the pudding.
- Next, pour the reserved 1/2 cup of milk over the cake. This will help to keep it moist and soft, since this is a refrigerated cake.
- While the cake is baking, you should be cooking the lime pudding, so that it's ready to pour over the cake at this point.
Lime Pudding
- Measure the sugar into a bowl, then zest the limes over the sugar. Use your fingers to rub the lime zest into the sugar.
- Cut the limes and juice them into a glass measuring cup to get 1/2 cup of juice, or just use bottled lime juice.
- In a medium sized saucepan, whisk together the lime sugar with the corn starch. Whisk in the lime juice until smooth, then whisk in the egg yolks.
- Add the milk and the cream, and whisk until combined.
- Place the saucepan over medium to medium low heat. Use a silicone spatula to stir the mixture constantly, while gently cooking the pudding. Cook until the pudding starts to thicken enough to coat the spatula, and is just beginning to bubble, but do not let the pudding start boiling hard. This should take about 15 minutes of cooking for the pudding to thicken. Remove from the heat.
- Set a mesh strainer over a bowl, and press the pudding through the strainer to remove the zest.
- Place a piece of plastic wrap over the bowl, with the plastic resting right against the surface of the pudding to prevent a skin from forming. Let cool at room temperature for 30 minutes.
- At this point, the cake should have cooled for 30 minutes, and you've already poured the reserved 1/2 cup of milk over the cake.
- Pour the warm pudding over the cake, and spread it out into an even layer.
- Set the cake in the refrigerator to chill for 1 1/2 - 2 hours, until the cake is cool and the pudding is set.
Whipped Cream
- In the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment (or using a hand-held electric mixer), beat the cold cream cheese with the powdered sugar for about 1 minute on medium speed, until smooth.
- Scrape the bowl down, then add the vanilla and about 1/4 cup of the cream. Beat on medium speed for 30-60 seconds to smooth out any lumps of cream cheese.
- Add the remainder of the cream, and switch to the whisk attachment. (You can also continue to use the paddle attachment, but it will take a few minutes longer).
- Whip the cream on medium high speed for several minutes, stopping to scrape the bowl down once or twice, until thick fluffy peaks form that hold their shape.
- Spread or pipe the whipped cream over the lime pudding. I used tip 1M, to pipe pretty drop flowers all over the cake. If you like, decorate with fresh lime slices and crumbled graham crackers.
Notes
Store the leftover cake in the refrigerator, with the pan covered with plastic wrap, or individual pieces stored in an airtight container, for up to 3 days.
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