Carlota de limón, a popular dessert in Mexico and the Americas, is not only easy to make, but uses only 4 ingredients. What’s not to love!?
Now, because it is made in so many different places, this dessert goes by many different names including “carlota de limon,” “pie de limon,” and “postre de limon.” For English speakers, we’ll just call it Lime Maria Icebox Cake.
I’ve included it in my post 10 Around-the-World Desserts You Can Make at Home if you want to learn about other delicious dessert recipes from across the globe.
Only 4 ingredients, you say?
Yes, that’s right: Maria cookies, sweetened condensed milk, evaporated milk, and fresh lime juice. That’s it!
Now, a beautiful thing happens when we add acid to dairy: it coagulates, creating a beautiful, thick, custard-like cream. This cream becomes not only the base, but the individual layers of this dessert. So, as the Maria biscuits will be the bricks for our construction, the cream will be the mortar.
You construct the whole cake, or pie, in layers, then leave it overnight in the fridge to set up. When you take it out, you’ll have creating a beautiful, delicious layered dessert. And no baking invloved!
I adapted my recipe from Goya. Let me know in the comments what you think!
Lime Maria Icebox Cake
Equipment
- juicer
- blender
- baking tray or aluminum brownie pan
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup lime juice about 4 good-sized limes
- 1 can sweetened, condensed milk 14 oz
- 1 can evaporated milk 12 oz
- 1 pkg Maria cookies
Instructions
Filling
- With a citrus juicer, squeeze 4 or so limes until you have 1/2 cup of lime juice. Set aside.
- In a blender, add one can of sweetened, condensed milk and one can of evaporated milk.
- Blend until combined.
- With blender on, slowly add lime juice. Blend until the cream reaches a pudding-like consistency.
Constructing the Cake
- On a 7 inch aluminum brownie pan (or comparable) put down a layer of Maria cookies. (I fit 9 cookies on the bottom of my pan.)
- Spread a generous layer of your cream mixture on the cookies.
- Keep alternating layers of biscuits and cream, reserving about a half a cup of cream for the top.
- Garnish with lime zest and a thin, twisted slice of lime.
- Place in the refrigerator overnight (or at least 8 hours) to allow it to set up before serving.
I just made this for the second time and it is absolutely delicious. It’s so easy and my kids love it!
I’m glad to hear it. 🙂
This recipe is delicious and just as easy as described. I used the concept to make something similar to ‘tiramisu’ by using cheesecake-flavored sugar-free pudding (mixed with half unsweetened almond milk and half 2% milk) with some various extracts (almond, cheescake, vanilla) and layering with the Maria biscuits. Topped with some whipped topping and a bit of cocoa and it was ready to eat in an hour (ish). Kept well for days.
Made this yesterday for a party — omigosh, parties, remember those?! — and everyone LOVED it. It was so easy and so delicious. One of my friends was so impressed with all the layers, like a mille feuille; he said, “it’s like key lime that decided to get its Ph.D.” 😊
BTW I doubled the recipe as I was using a fair deep rectangular container that perfectly held 2×4 of the biscuits, and made 2 batches of green. I used 5 limes (not 4) limes in each batch, as well as the zest of a couple of limes. I also used the zest of 2 limes in each batch.
Hooray for parties! I’m so glad you and your friends enjoyed it. 🙂
Attempted to make this recipe using the cans of evaporated milk, sweetened condensed milk, and the juice of 4 fresh limes. in my blender. The limes equaled more than 1/2 cup of juice. The custard never thickened; it was very liquid. Did I put too much juice into it? Did I not blend it enough? Thanks for your help!
I’m going to try this for Thanksgiving! I don’t have a blender – will using a hand mixer be ok?
SO EASY!
I’m a Brit, so did the conversions of 1 tin condensed milk and 2 small tins of evap.
Amazing at how it coagulates before your eyes!!
I used custard creams instead of Maria biscuits (they make good subs for nilla wafers too!)
Thanks Emmy!
I have heard and read that a tin or aluminum pan when using acidic fruits like lemon or limes will leave a metallic taste in cream mixture … I have a very long glass casserole dish or a shorter square one and yet for. The amount of people I’m serving 9×13 is ideal.. I have loads of aluminum pans that’s size… I’m a bit concerned using one for this ( I have made it before just not this amount so pan size important).. help!
You may be aright about this, but I didn’t notice any metallic taste in mine. I would err on the side of caution and go with the glass if you are worried about it. In terms of pan size, you’ll probably have to see if the biscuits fit evenly. Hope that helps!