Key Lime Cake

The first half of June is celebration-heavy in my family, with my sister's birthday, my mom's birthday, and Father's Day all within 2 weeks of each other. We headed to my parents for a BBQ to celebrate all of the above, and I volunteered to bring dessert: cake and cookies. The cookies were a back-up option because I wanted to try a non-traditional cake - Key Lime cake. I had seen key lime recipes popping up lately, and I wanted a twist on the traditional pie.

This cake was DENSE. I have no idea if it was supposed to be this way or not. The recipe does call for a box of pudding, so that could be the cause. The taste was also quite powerful - the cake and buttercream were very tart. It wasn't bad per se, but it also didn't quite satisfy a craving for birthday cake. If I were to make this again, I would play around with the recipe a bit (half the pudding mix?), and probably leave the key lime juice out of the frosting. Or, I would use this buttercream on a different cake - maybe raspberry?
Key Lime Cake with Key Lime Buttercream
recipe from cakecentral.com

Key Lime Cake:
1 (18.25oz.) lemon or yellow cake mix
1 3.5oz. box instant lemon pudding mix (dry)
4 large eggs
1/2 cup key lime juice (bottled or fresh squeezed)
1 cup vegetable oil (I subbed 1/2 with applesauce)
1/2 cup water

Key Lime Buttercream: (I cut this in half, and had plenty of frosting)
1 cup unsalted butter
1 cup Crisco
2 teaspoons real vanilla
1/4 teaspoon salt
8 cups powdered sugar
6 tablespoons key lime juice (more if desired for consistency and flavor)

DIRECTIONS:
1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
2. Combine above ingredients and beat with electric mixer for 2-3 minutes
3. Pour into prepared pans (2 8" or 9" rounds) and bake for 45 min. or until done (mine did not take this long - check at 35 min). Cool for 10 minutes and turn out from pans.

4. For the buttercream, beat butter and shortening together for about 5 minutes. Beat in vanilla and salt. Add powdered sugar 1 cup at a time alternating with the key lime juice. Decorate cake as desired.

REVIEW:
As I said before, this was ok. It was definitely more tart than sweet, and I can't help but think I messed something up given how dense the cake was. Oh well, it was a new recipe for me and I'll never learn if I don't try new things! It was also an excuse to practice some cake decorating - obviously I still need to work on my printing....