Dessert: Key Lime Meringue Cake

Recipe by Alexis Touchet In the winter months, there's nothing like the bewitching, slightly exotic flavor of Key limes or the larger regular limes (a.k.a. Persian) to transport you mentally to some warm tropical spot, preferably an island with an endles

Ingredients

2 3/4 cups sifted cake flour (not self-rising; sift before measuring) plus more for pans
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 sticks (1 cup) unsalted butter, softened, plus more for pans
1 1/2 cups sugar
4 large eggs, warmed in shell in a bowl of warm water 5 minutes
1 tablespoon grated Key lime or lime zest
1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1 cup whole milk

Instructions

Heat oven to 350 °F. with rack in middle. Butter cake pans, then line bottoms with rounds of parchment. Dust pans with additional flour, knocking out excess.
Sift flour, baking powder, and salt together into a bowl.
Beat together butter and sugar in a large bowl with an electric mixer (or a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment) at medium-high speed until pale and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Beat in eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in zest and vanilla and continue beating until light and fluffy, 3 to 5 minutes more. At low speed, add flour mixture in 3 batches alternately with milk, beginning and ending with the flour mixture and mixing until batter is just smooth.
Divide batter between cake pans, spreading it evenly. Bake until a wooden toothpick inserted in the center of each cake comes out clean and cakes begin to pull away from sides of pans, 20 to 25 minutes.
Cool for 15 minutes in pans on racks. Run a thin knife around sides of pans, invert cake layers onto racks, and cool completely.