Heavenly layers of fluffy angel food cake, lusciously tangy key lime cream filling, and golden toasty graham cracker crumble!

One of my favorite go-to desserts to serve at large gatherings is definitely the trifle. Not only is it an impressive-looking dessert with its dazzling display of layers, but people go wild for its blissful balance of moist cake and creamy filling.

So seeing as lime and key lime season are JUST around the corner, I decided to combine one of my favorite summer pies with this eloquent dessert…

GUYS. This Key Lime Pie Trifle has to be one of the most glorious trifles I’ve ever made. With fluffy cubes of angel food cake, tart and tangy key lime cream filling, and buttery bits of graham cracker crumble, every single spoonful is beyond heavenly. It’s basically key lime pie in trifle form…only MUCH better.

Why You’ll Go Crazy For This Trifle

Refreshingly Tart and Tangy: With 3/4 cup of key lime juice and a whole tablespoon of lime zest, this trifle is brimming with key lime flavor. It’s also not too overpoweringly tangy, thanks to the creamy sweetness of the filling.

Perfect Balance of Textures: Soft and pillowy cubes of angel food cake, smooth and dreamy key lime cream filling, crispy graham cracker crust crumbles…what more could you ask for?

Easy to Make: For a dessert that looks this stunning, it’s actually very easy to whip together. It’s also the perfect dessert to make ahead of time since it requires at least a few hours to chill in the refrigerator.

How to Make Key Lime Pie Trifle

Start with the Graham Cracker Crumble: One of my favorite elements of the key lime pie is its buttery graham cracker crust! That’s why simple broken graham crackers just would NOT do. Enter graham cracker crumble! Mmmmm….

To make the crumble, you’ll toss together some graham cracker crumbs (13 full grahams), a stick of melted butter, 6 Tablespoons of brown sugar, a teaspoon of cinnamon, and a pinch of salt. Once you’ve got an even mixture, dump it out onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Press it down with a spatula so that it’s about 1/4 inch thick. You’re essentially making a graham cracker crust, which will be broken up.

Bake the graham cracker “crust” in the oven for about 10 minutes, or until golden brown. Allow the crust to cool completely, then grab sections of it and break it up into small pieces.

Make the Key Lime Filling: Begin by whipping up 2 cups of heavy cream until stiff peaks form. Transfer the whipped cream to a separate bowl and keep cool in the refrigerator. To the same bowl you whipped the cream in, beat the cream cheese until light and creamy. Add about half of a can of sweetened condensed milk, then beat until mixture is completely smooth. Add the remaining sweetened condensed milk (one and a half cans), and beat until smooth. Rather than adding all of the sweetened condensed milk at once, adding it slowly prevents the filling from forming lumps.

Next, you’ll stir in the lime juice and zest. Make sure to start the mixer on low speed (or stir it in by hand), so that the juice doesn’t fly out. Once combined, add about a third of the whipped cream you made earlier, and stir until combined. Add the rest of the whipped cream, and use a spatula to gently fold it in.

Assemble the Trifle: Start by placing a layer of angel food cake cubes along the bottom of a trifle dish or a 4-quart glass bowl. You can either use store-bought angel food cake from the bakery, or you can go the semi-homemade route of making up a box of angel food cake mix. I used Betty Crocker’s angel food cake mix, which only requires you to add water. It’s super simple and less expensive than buying the cake from the store.

After you’ve placed an even layer of angel food cake into the bowl, spread half of the filling on top of the cake cubes. Next, sprinkle half of the graham cracker crumble evenly over the filling. Repeat the layering process with another layer of angel food cake, the rest of the filling, and a final layer of graham cracker crumble. For finishing touches, I added a large dollop of whipped cream in the center along with a slice of lime.

Can I use regular limes instead of key limes?

I know key limes aren’t quite in season just yet, so if you only have access to regular limes, that’s totally fine. I actually “cheated” a little by using bottled key lime juice since my grocery store didn’t have key limes yet. You can usually find key lime juice in a bottle next to the mixers in the alcoholic beverage aisle of the grocery store. The brand I use is Nellie and Joe’s Key West Lime Juice, and it’s such a lifesaver if you’d prefer not to squeeze tons of tiny key limes.

Make mini trifles with leftover ingredients that don’t fit.

As you can see, I made cute mini trifles along with this massive trifle. If you find that your trifle dish doesn’t hold everything, just make mini individual trifles with the leftover ingredients. You can either use various drinking glasses or pint-sized jars. Jars actually work great since you can simply screw on the lid, and freeze the mini trifle to enjoy later on.