Erin Mann is baking a new cake every week for a year from the "All Cakes Considered" cookbook and shares her adventures here on Ann Arbor.com. Read past columns here.

I'm only one month into my year long cake project, and already I've learned so much. The Key Lime Cake was particularly educational. Or should I say, edu-cake-tional? Allow me to share five things I've learned during my Key Lime Cake experience:

1. Key limes are special & difficult to find 'round deez parts.

In All Cakes Considered, my baking bible for the next year, author Melissa Gray tells a little about the Key lime: "...named after the Florida Keys, where Ernest Hemingway hung out with his six-toed cats, is also known as Mexican lime, West Indian lime or bartender's lime. It's smaller, seedier, more acidic, and more aromatic than the more common Persian lime. It also has a thinner rind."

I anticipated some difficulty finding Key limes at neighborhood produce locales. In fact, I couldn't remember ever noticing them in a grocery store. I spread the word to friends to be on the lookout for Key limes during their next shopping excursion. Key limes at Plum Market? Nope. How about Sunshine Market? Nada. Maybe Sparrow? No dice. I finally encountered the little citrus gems at Meijer! One bag contained about two dozen limes.

2. My boyfriend will do anything for cake - er, I mean - me.

Rex and I decided to spend the afternoon together because we both had the day off work. Feeling like a third wheel in the kitchen, he waited patiently as I mixed the cake. While creaming the first two ingredients with my hand mixer, I noticed something didn't feel quite right. I turned off the mixer momentarily to crack an egg into the bowl. I put the mixer back in the bowl and set it to medium speed. Then something awful happened. One of the beaters broke! The beaters for my hand mixer are made of two parts - the rod that fits into the mixer and the whisk shaped part which was now lying in a creamy bed of butter and sugar at the bottom of the mixing bowl.

I started to panic a little and thought, "Oh god, this is my first official cake-tastrophe!"

Observing my turmoil, Rex tells me he's going to bike home to pick up another mixer and that he'll be back shortly. I relax a little. Luckily, only butter, sugar and an egg had made it into the mixing bowl. I hadn't added flour or leaveners yet so I wasn't too concerned with the possibility of ruined batter. While I waited for Rex to return, I searched the Internet for replacement beaters. He soon returned with borrowed mixer in hand. Cake crisis averted.

3. Two cakes are better than one.

The recipe is written for one 8-inch round cake. The author also suggested doubling the recipe and baking it in a 10-inch tube pan. I thought my tube pan had enough of a workout over the last few weeks so I opted for the 8-inch round. But what about two 8-inch rounds? Mmm, yes. The phrase "the more the merrier" definitely applies to cake.

4. Never underestimate the importance of preparedness whilst baking.

My baking time-management skills have drastically improved since I started the cake project. (Notice I said "baking." We need not talk about my time management in other aspects of my life!) Each week I get better about preparing the ingredients before I start mixing. If the cake has nuts, I'm sure to chop those first and measure the exact amount I need and set aside in a prep bowl. Sugars, extracts, etc. are measured ahead of time. If the cake has frosting, I'll make it while the cake is baking.

A lime glaze is what makes this cake so wonderful. The glaze gets drizzled over the cake and soaks into it, infusing the spongy yellow cake with lime flavor. To make the glaze, the recipe calls for 1/2 cup fresh Key lime juice (about 4 limes) and 1 cup confectioners' sugar. I planned to double the glaze recipe because I baked two cakes.

As my cakes cooled, I was supposed to poke many tiny holes in the tops with a toothpick and pour the glaze over the cakes while they're still warm. No problem, right? Umm, wrong!

I didn't account for Key limes being a royal pain in the patootie to squeeze! Not to mention each one only yields a very small amount of juice. Oh, and remember the part where I said they are seedier than regular limes?

It was a race against the clock to juice these limes and make the glaze before the cakes had cooled too much. I rolled the lime on the countertop with my palm, cut it into quarters and squeezed each section into a bowl with a mesh strainer set inside to catch the seeds and pulp. Roll, cut, squeeze. Repeat. Twenty times. Yes, there was a significant discrepancy in the number of limes suggested in the recipe and the actual number of limes needed. It seems I didn't have the juiciest limes on the block. However, I managed to successfully glaze the cakes before they'd cooled completely.

Cake makes people happy.

Rex was the first to try my Key Lime Cake. And I quote: "You should forget all the other cakes and just make this one every Monday for the next year."

Tuesday morning, I packed up the second cake in my trusted Wilton cake carrier to take to the AnnArbor.com office. As I was crossing William at Fifth, traffic was stopped and a young woman driver glanced at the cake, glanced at me and flashed me a big smile. I soon arrived at the office to deliver the cake. Later, I received a kind email from AnnArbor.com staffer Elizabeth Palmer saying how much she and others in the office enjoyed the cake.

After baking each cake, I send out an email to folks on my cake project mailing list. Megan replied, "Yummm!!! I love Key lime stuff! Any chance you have a slice or two leftover?" She also told me the cake reminded her of her recent honeymoon in Key West. I've known Megan and her husband Evan since my early college days at EMU. They married in Ann Arbor at Weber's Inn this past November. Congrats, newlyweds. This cake's for you - I wish you many happy, healthy years together!

Erin Mann is a contributor for AnnArbor.com. She is baking a new cake every week for a year from the "All Cakes Considered" cookbook. Email her at SheGotTheBeat@gmail.com or follow her on Twitter.