Lemon and Lime Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

If you are looking for a lime cake recipe from scratch, with basic ingredients, search no more! This lemon and lime cake with cream cheese frosting without powdered sugar is not only amazing, easy to make. You'll love this simple recipe too.

By Clara Gonzalez - Last revised Sep 30, 2025. Original Feb 13, 2015.

Why I ❤️ it Recipe Ingredients Preparation

Lemon and lime cake.

Why I ❤️ it

The combination of lime and lemon works very well in this cake. The chilled cream cheese frosting is so good that it makes all the difference, it is so good I can barely contain myself from eating it alone. The cake has the more kinder taste of lemons, and it was what took me so long to get right.

I experimented with butter-less cake batter, each time improving upon the previous one. I finally got one that works well, and since it does not have butter, it stays every bit as fluffy and airy after being chilled as it does at room temperature. The poppyseed is the perfect complement to the lemon and lime flavor and that delicious cream cheese frosting with lemon flavor is the best cream cheese frosting you'd ever try.

This free recipe contains Amazon affiliate links, and I receive a small commission when you purchase, at no cost to you. Thank you!

Utensils and tools

• Stand mixer or hand mixer
• Mixing bowl
• Spatula
• Piping bag and ½" [1.5 cm] piping tip (optional)
• 2 x 8-inch nonstick cake baking pan

Ingredients

For the lime cake batter

• Unsalted butter for greasing the pans
• 1 cup of all-purpose flour
• ½ teaspoon of baking soda
• ¼ teaspoon of salt
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1¼ tablespoon of poppyseed, (optional)
• 3 tablespoons of granulated white sugar
• 3 eggs (medium), at room temperature
• ⅓ cup of vegetable oil, (avocado or peanut)
• 2 tablespoons of lime juice, (or orange juice)
• 1½ tablespoon of lime zest, (or orange zest)
• 1 tablespoon of pure vanilla extract or ¼ teaspoon of vanilla paste
• ¾ cup of condensed milk

For the Vanilla cream cheese frosting

• 1 block of cream cheese (12 ounces [340 grams] full-fat cream cheese chilled)
• 1 cup of granulated white sugar
• ¼ cup of heavy cream
• 1 tablespoon of lemon zest
• 1 tablespoon of lemon juice

Preparation

Before starting, please make sure you have all the ingredients and utensils ready.

Step 1: Prepare

Grease with butter the two baking pans. Set aside.

Heat oven to 350ºF [150 ºC].

Step 2: Combine dry ingredients

In a large bowl, combine flour, baking soda, salt, baking powder, poppyseed, and sugar and set aside.

Step 3: Mixing wet ingredients

Whisk the eggs over high speed with the electric mixer using the wire whisk, until the eggs become lighter and foamy (about 3 minutes). Slowly pour in the oil and beat until it becomes a much lighter color and becomes even foamier (another 3 minutes).

Slowly pour in lime juice and beat for another minute, followed by the lemon zest, and the condensed milk - which should also be poured in very slowly. Once it's all mixed, turn off the mixer.

Step 4: Add dry ingredients

Slowly sift in the flour mix while carefully folding it into the batter using a spatula. It should be made slowly enough that there are no clumps of flour in the batter, and the mix does not lose the air.

Step 5: Bake

Carefully pour the batter into the prepared baking pans, making sure both contain the same amount of batter.

Bake in the preheated oven until the top turns golden brown, or a skewer comes out clean when you poke the cake (20-25 mins).

Remove from the oven and cool to room temperature prior to removing from the pan.

Step 6: Make frosting

To make the frosting, pour the cream cheese into the mixer bowl and add the sugar. Beat at low speed using the flat beater attachment until it turns into a smooth cream with no lumps.

Pour in the heavy cream and beat until it has incorporated uniformly into the cream cheese mix, and it turns into a fluffy frosting. Add the lemon zest, and slowly pour in the lemon juice by small amounts until it is well incorporated and has a creamy consistency.

Place the cream cheese spread in an airtight container and store it in the fridge for later use.

Step 7: Decorate

For best results, scoop the frosting into a decorating bag with the tip. Make concentric circles on top of one of the cakes to cover with frosting. Top with the other cake and repeat the same operation to cover with frosting. You can use a spatula to even out the frosting, but it should not be very thick.

The cream cheese frosting should be thoroughly chilled. You can also spread the frosting thinly around the cake using a decorating spatula; if you find the frosting too firm, let it warm just a bit outside the fridge, so the soft frosting is easier to spread.

Maintain the cake chilled till serving time.

Variations

If you want to cover the cake with a thicker layer of frosting, make a double batch by doubling the ingredients.

If you have any extra cream cheese frosting, you can pipe rosettes on the cake. The amounts in the recipe yields enough frosting to decorate as pictured.

If you love lemon desserts, you'll also love this lemon trifle and these lemon coolers.

Serving suggestions

Serve slightly chilled, it's perfect for many occasions: as a birthday cake, to serve as dessert, or to go with your afternoon tea or coffee.

Nutritional information

Calories: 458kcal - Carbohydrates: 50g - Protein: 10g - Fat: 25g - Saturated Fat: 9g - Polyunsaturated Fat: 4g - Monounsaturated Fat: 10g - Trans Fat: 1g - Cholesterol: 105mg - Sodium: 389mg - Potassium: 323mg - Fiber: 1g - Sugar: 36g - Vitamin A: 534IU - Vitamin C: 4mg - Calcium: 201mg - Iron: 1mg

More dessert recipes

More: dessert recipes

FAQs

Print card

This is just a printer-friendly summary, some useful details are found in the recipe above.