I use DH cake mix and thoroughly doctor it... today, for the first time, I substituted 1/2 cup of the water for lime juice, and it turned my cake into this *weird*...thing. I can't figure out what happened. It's short and heavy, I feels foamy when I do the poke test on top. I made a small cupcake too so I could taste it, and it tastes ok, but the texture is REALLY different! Not like my cake usually turns out. Has anyone else had a strange outcome with fruit juice? I made another cake at the same time without juice, and it turned out fine. Weird. Ideas?
Its either natural sugars or enzimes in the juice. I notice it when i sub too much lemon juice for the water in a mix, it gets really heavy and dense, almost brick like. OJ will do the same thing but not as bad as the lemon juice. Never used lime but its as close to lemon as you probably can get.
I made cupcakes a few months ago using key lime juice and they were also weird. They didn't rise and the cake was dense. They did taste good, but did not make for a very pretty cupcake.
I never thought of the acid factor. Crud. What would you use to get a really limey taste? I could just use 1/4 cup juice and a LorAnn flavoring 2 dram bottle. I bet that would work. Hmmm... if anyone has experience making lime cake, let me know! I would be VERY appreciative!
You are going straight to heck for THAT bad one!! 
I cobbled together the following recipe the other day:
1 DH yellow cake mix
1 small package lemon instant pudding
3/4 cup lemonade (I made it from frozen concentrate)
1/2 cup vegetable oil
4 eggs
zest of 1 lemon
I juiced the lemon and used that for part of the lemonade
The texture of the cake was a little coarser than I'm used to, and I was really worried about that because it was a wedding cake. However, it was delicious! I filled it with a raspberry mousse-type filling after spreading the layers with seedless raspberry jam first.
Maybe you could try making your recipe with limeade instead of lime juice?
have you tried lime jello?
I was thinking about that, since they don't make lime pudding. (Jerks! Hehehe) Would you add that along with a pudding mix, or instead of? Anyone tried that?
Holly, that looks like a yummy recipe, I'll have to try that. Thanks for sharing!
[quote="Melvira"]
have you tried lime jello?
Would you add that along with a pudding mix, or instead of?
I recently made the key lime cake in the recipes here. Wasn't great, not limey enuf for me! I added it in addition to my other doctoring( egg and pudding). It calls for lemon cake mix, maybe it just overpowered the lime??
You'd add the lime jello instead of a pudding mix. I think you'd get something really funky if you added both. And not the good kind of funky. 
The jello adds moisture and structure like the pudding does.
I've made lemon cake with lemon jello before and it was really good. More tart than cake made with lemon pudding.
I couldn't use that recipe on Saturday for the wedding cake because the bride is a vegetarian (and therefore doesn't eat gelatin), hence my coming up with the pudding recipe.
I agree with indydebi that it's a chemistry issue and probably has to do with the leavening.
I think it might be better to make a plain white or yellow cake and put a lime curd or lime buttercream or both as a filling. I did that with a white choc cake and it was quite awesome.
At the least, find a good recipe with lemon in the cake and substitute lime. I bet that would already have the kinks worked out.
Good luck on your quest!
for my lemon cake, i follow the receipe on the back of the box. in addition to that i do the following:
replace all of water with thawed lemon concentrate
add 1 box of lemon pudding
and 2 extra eggs
best lemon cake I have ever eaten. without the 2 extra eggs, the cake was very dense.
not lime, I know, sorry, but, i bet you could add vanilla pudding and not know the difference if you are using lime concentrate since it is soo strong???
Here's a recipe that uses lemon cake mix and lime gelatin. I haven't tried it, but it sounds like it might work.
http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Tropical-Lime-Cake/Detail.aspx
Otherwise, I would probably just use a lot of lime zest in the cake and make a syrup with the juice to pour/brush over the layers.
I made a strawberry cake from this site that called for strawberry Jell-o. I added the pudding (part of my normal enhancement) and it made the cake really, really dense. Definitely had a gelatin-like consistency to the cake. Even had a little wiggle to it. It rose really high, but sunk as soon as it came of out the oven, and had a really bad hour glass shape to each layer. Would not recommend this. It was for a practice cake, so nothing lost...but definitely a lesson gained.
this is recipe I use and it's really good. I usually do it as a bundt cake but it would work in layers.
1 box of lemon cake mix
1 3oz package of instant lemon pudding
3/4 cup of water
1/2 cup oil
4 eggs
5 tablespoons of key lime juice
Bake the same as box calls for.
It has a lot of lemon but it really does taste like lime.
try taking the Promise's Better-than-scratch lemon cake recipe and sub in the lime. That cake is a really good cake and i am sure lime will be just as good. Maybe use a yellow cake mix instead of lemon but it should still be good. I made the lemone one this weekend and got nothing but raves.
I agree that it is the acidity of the lime juice. The foaming would be the reaction between the acid and bicarbonate of soda (baking soda). (Ever mixed vinegar with baking soda to make a volcano--oh the joys that come to mothers of boys...)
I wonder if you could add Torani lime syrup instead of some of the liquid? The only thing I'd be careful of is not to use milk instead of water. Some of the Torani syrups do really funky things in milk, involving curdled milk and strings of syrup. My son learned that when he tried to make a steamer (hot milk with syrup mixed in). My dh reprised the performance when he accidentally used peach syrup instead of vanilla bean in my latte. Yummy, dear...I always wanted to chew my coffee!
I made this at the bride's request for her bridal shower:
1 box lemon supreme cake mis
1 pkg. lime jello
1/2 cup orange juice
1 1/2 cup veg oil
5 eggs
Beat 2-3 minutes and bake 25 min at 350. While the cake is in the pans, mix 4T confect sugar and 1/2 cup key lime juice and pour onto the layers.
I usually freeze my cakes right out of the oven but I didn't with these.
They were a little different. and you have to be careful filling the pans. I had problems with them cooking over
I iced with cream cheese icing. Her colors were lime green and pink so I used pink fondant circles also.
HTH
Diane
I made this at the bride's request for her bridal shower:
1 box lemon supreme cake mis
1 pkg. lime jello
1/2 cup orange juice
1 1/2 cup veg oil
5 eggs
Beat 2-3 minutes and bake 25 min at 350. While the cake is in the pans, mix 4T confect sugar and 1/2 cup key lime juice and pour onto the layers.
I usually freeze my cakes right out of the oven but I didn't with these.
They were a little different. and you have to be careful filling the pans. I had problems with them cooking over
I iced with cream cheese icing. Her colors were lime green and pink so I used pink fondant circles also.
HTH
Diane
You could also try Koolaid lime flavor, I would only use the sugarless one though so it doesn't throw off you batter.
I use a small amount of lemon juice a couple tbsp of microplaned zest and the rest is white grape juice - delish
The lime zest was really good advice. The down side is that it will give you specks, but unless you are doing a white wedding cake then it adds a neat visual to the cake. You should be able to safely add some lime juice to your batter. Try reducing the amount a bit. Also, when are you adding in the juice? That might have something to do with it as well.
I do a yummy lime-raspberry cake that uses a scratch butter cake with lime zest, raspberry jam, homemade lime filling (made by mixing 2 parts homemade lime curd with one part buttercream), and raspberry buttercream icing. It is to die for!
Bec
I recently made Ina Garten's (Barefoot Contessa) recipe for lemon cake and everyone loved it! I know it's not a box mix, but it really was worth it! The recipe calls for both lemon juice and lemon zest.
I used Wilton BC and added lemon extract.
For filling I used a lemon/cream cheese recipe. It really turned out great. I totally recommend her recipe.
I never thought of the acid factor. Crud. What would you use to get a really limey taste? I could just use 1/4 cup juice and a LorAnn flavoring 2 dram bottle. I bet that would work. Hmmm... if anyone has experience making lime cake, let me know! I would be VERY appreciative!
Hey Melvira!
Me and Limes get along really well together. And yes - the extra acidity in the juice is messing up the leavening in the DH mix.
I would add the finely grated zest of 2 limes per box, and if you can find lime extract (you can make it too, recipe follows) add 1 tsp of that also. You can adjust it up if you want.
Homemade Lime extract:
6 limes (or 12 key limes)
1/4 cup Everclear alcohol
2 tablespoons Everclear alcohol
1. Using a microplane, remove the zest from the limes.
2. Using a funnel, add the lime zest and 1/4 cup Everclear to a small sealable glass bottle.
3. Allow the alcohol to extract the flavor from the zest, about an hour is adequate (you will see the liquid turning a beautiful emerald green color).
4. Strain the liquid from the zest into another bottle.
5. Add the remaining 2 Tb Everclear to the zest and mix well, then strain the rinse into the previous liquid.
6. Discard the exhausted zest.
7. Cut 4 inches from a clean nylon stocking and pack tightly into the bottom of a small funnel to act as a filter.
8. Pour the extract into the funnel, with the nozzle in a clean sealable bottle (this is the final bottle to be used for storing the extract).
9. The packed nylon will filter the cloudy particulates from the extract, it will be slow but you need not be present for the extract to filter-you should see about 2 drops per second.
10. Keep the funnel covered until the extract has passed through it to minimize evaporation.
11. Seal the bottle and store in a refrigerator or other cool, dark place.
Oh man, I knew you all would come through for me! Awesome recipes, and I LOVE the idea of making my own extract! Thanks for that recipe!!! Well, I'd better get playing around and figure out which one I am going to use! The cake is due Saturday! 
Thanks again you guys!
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