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Hi, friends! I don’t know about you, but come Winter, I just love baking with citrus.
I depend on it for its lovely burst of brightness, and adore how a squeeze of juice here, or a dash of zest there, can really bring an old recipe new life. Also, my frugal (lazy) heart goes wild for how cheap and easily available citrus is in the dead cold months. I saw a package of organic blueberries at the store yesterday… asking price? $8.50. No way that’s ever happenin’ over here. Uh uh.
Luckily at the same store I found a GIANT bag of darling little key limes. The whole bag was 2 bucks! YEEEES.
On the bus ride home I did a quick mental sweep of what I already had at home, and decided that in addition to pie (I had to!), I’d also try my hand at zesting these petite sweeties into a quick bread featuring greek yogurt, chocolate chunks, and coconut oil.
Kinda… healthy… right?…!!!
The addition of chocolate chunks and coconut oil really make this cake pop and soar with flavor. I did a few trial runs using brown butter, regular butter, and even olive oil, and coconut oil beat them black and blue!
Also, if you’re tempted to add shredded coconut to the mix, I tried it and while it is good, the texture will be a big more craggy than without it. Totally up to you! But you do get a good amount of coconut flavor from the coconut oil alone. I buy mine from Trader Joe’s, and it’s pretty decent (and cheap!!!), if you’re in the market for a jar 😉
To wrap it up in one final description, this is a super soft greek yogurt pound cake that pops with beautiful coconut, chocolate, and lime flavor in every slice.
It also doesn’t mind getting dolled up with a dollop of whipped cream, if you’re naughty like that.
Dark Chocolate Chunk Coconut Key Lime Pound Cake – Baker by Nature
Makes 1 loaf
Ingredients:
1 2/3 cups all-purpose flour + 2 tablespoons; divided
1/2 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup plain whole-milk Greek yogurt, I use Fage
1 cup sugar
4 large eggs + 1 egg yolk
2 teaspoons grated lime or key lime zest (about 3 large lime or 4 small ones)
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/2 cup coconut oil, at room temperature (it should be liquified)
1 cup dark chocolate chunks
Instructions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees (F). Grease a large loaf pan, and line with parchment paper.
Stir together the 1 2/3 cups flour, baking powder, and salt into a medium-sized mixing bowl.
In a small bowl toss together chocolate chunks and remaining flour; set aside.
In another bowl, whisk together the yogurt, 1 cup sugar, eggs, egg yolk, lime zest, and vanilla.
Slowly whisk the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients. With a rubber spatula, fold the coconut oil into the batter, folding from the bottom and up, making sure it’s all incorporated. Fold in the flour coated chocolate chunks.
Pour the batter into prepared pan and bake for 50-55 minutes, or until a cake tester placed in the center of the loaf comes out clean.
Cool cake in pan for 10 minutes, then carefully transfer to a cooling wrack to cool completely.
All I need with this is a cup of coffee and I’m good!
I want some of this!! Nice work, Ashley – stay warm!!
$8.50 for blueberries?! Heck no! I love citrus in the winter months too. I’ve never tried baking with coconut oil, so I can’t wait to try this recipe and see how the coconut oil turns out!
Just put this on my list to “bake soon”! Thanks! =)
I LOVE this. I’m also a big fan of citrus this time of year, I feel like it kind of transports me back to warmer weather a little bit!
Citrus in the middle of the winter is my favorite! It adds a nice punch of sunshine into my day.
I love key limes but just hate dealing with the little suckers. Was zesting them a lesson in patience? Although this cake looks totally worth it!
It actually wasn’t bad at all, but you can totally use regular limes too 😉
I’m totally with you – lemons and limes and oranges make this time of year bearable! Love the sound of this cake, those tropical flavours are just perfect.
This sounds so delicious – I love chocolate and lime together.
This was one of the first pictures I saw on Instagram today. Had a great day. Just the picture is miraculous 🙂
I would love this with white chocolate chunks. Looks divine!!
Coconut, chocolate and lime?! Absolute perfection.
$8.50!! Are they insane! Who an earth would actually pay that. Crazy!
I love a good hit of citrus and limes are my favorite!! The addition on dark chocolate is genius!
ahhh…we can’t decide what should we comment on first…we are spell bound with this amazing combination of ingredients…lime fragrance wafting through the air…the rich taste of coconut in this utterly tender crumbed cake or the fact that it is loaded with chocolate chunks…beautiful,delicious and gorgeous looking cake,thanks 🙂
There is so much delish in this post that my brain can’t even handle it. I love cooking with citrus…especially when it involves chocolate and cake!
THIS LOOKS AMAZING. My jaw dropped when I saw this! It almost looks too pretty and perfect to eat (keyword almost). Can’t wait to try this out! 🙂
Oh my! I really shouldn’t be looking at stuff like this this early in the morning. Now I’m craving chocolate and coconut. Help!
Looks amazing girl!
This looks so awesome, I can’t even tell you! Want!!
I have to admit that I’m not a huge fan of key limes, but your pictures are SO gorgeous that I simply need this pound cake in my life. Seriously. You are a wonderful inspiration (and of course not to mention and an awesome baker)!
This looks soooo good and I love key lime and chocolate together. I’ll be making this soon. But the key limes in your photos are dreadfully unripe. Ripe key limes are yellow.
Hi Laura! The limes in the photos are actually not keys; I used all if those up testing recipes 😉 I just added some regular limes to the photos for some color. You’ve got a good eye!
oh man- i looooove dark chocolate, and coconut, and key limes. this pound cake sounds perfect!
So gorgeous, love the flecks of lime and chocolate chunks!
This looks divine! I love the flavors you used. Can NOT wait to try this out 🙂
Just lovely, Ashley! I love stirring citrus zest into batters. Makes my heart sing! Very creative flavor combo. Pinning! xo
I can always count on you to be awesome x 1,000,000!!!! xo
I love a slice of citrusy cake in the winter, the addition of chocolate only makes it all the better!
Your blueberry experience sounds like my recent trip to Whole Foods, where I spent $10 dollars on broccoli. It was horrific.
Anyway, this pound cake looks fabulous!!! It is seriously PERFECT. Must make it as soon as possible.
I just tried out this recipe yesterday, it turned out so well! I ended up making two ‘loaves’ using an 8×9 inch bread pan, although I think I could have filled the pan up more and made just one. Because of the smaller size I only needed to bake mine for about 35-40 minutes, so if anyone else decides to use a smaller pan size just keep that in mind. I also did not line my pan with parchment paper, just greased it with some Crisco.
I found out that for this recipe, and any others calling for coconut oil that is intended to carry the taste, you need to buy unrefined oil. Refined coconut oil doesn’t smell or taste like anything, but unrefined is HEAVENLY!
I also opted for a cup of dark chocolate chips instead of chunks, simply due to my own lazy baking! 😉 They taste great but the chunks would definitely have a better visual.
Overall the cake is simply divine. Very rich and moist, but the use of greek yogurt and coconut oil in the cake instead of pounds of butter makes me feel like this is a very reasonable treat, and SUPER easy to bake!
What can i sub the yogurt for? And how much to use of it? gonna make this as soon as you respond lol
I haven’t made this with any substitutions so I cannot recommend a replacement for the yogurt.