Publix Cheesecake and the Key Lime Pie That Costs Half as Much
$23.99 buys any decorated Publix cheesecake at the Southgate Shopping Center store in Lakeland, Florida (#1270). All nine are built around a whole New York-style cheesecake, and Publix says each one serves 6 to 8.
Key lime pie costs less than half that. The Original Key Lime Pie is $10.99 for 8, and the Mini Key Lime Pie for 3 is $6.49.
Worked out by the slice, key lime pie runs $1.37 to $2.16 and the decorated cheesecakes $3.00 to $4.00. Both need a day’s notice when you order ahead.
Nine decorated cheesecakes at one price
Publix’s order-ahead menu for the Lakeland store lists nine decorated cheesecakes, every one at $23.99. Prices vary by store, and the table shows what Publix adds to each.
| Cheesecake | What Publix adds |
|---|---|
| Mixed Berry | Vanilla whipped icing, fresh berries |
| Banana Cream | Vanilla cake, banana Bavarian icing, vanilla wafers |
| Red Velvet | Red velvet cake, fudge icing, ganache rosettes |
| Brownie Crunch | Chocolate cake, fudge icing, brownie pieces |
| Chocolate Sundae | Chocolate cake, whipped topping, cherries, sprinkles |
| S’mores | Chocolate cake, marshmallow mousse, graham crumbs |
| Carrot Cake | Carrot cake, cream cheese rosettes, pecans |
| Chocolate Tuxedo | Chocolate cheesecake, chocolate cake, ganache |
| Berry Chocolate | Chocolate cheesecake, strawberry filling, berries |
Mixed Berry is the only one without a layer of cake, which makes it our pick when the cheesecake is the point. The Chocolate Tuxedo and Berry Chocolate swap in a chocolate New York-style cheesecake.
Seven of the nine pages give the cheesecake’s size, 6 inches. Serving counts wander more. The S’mores page says about 6 in its description, 6 to 8 on the line below and about 8 on its menu card.
Publix posts no calorie counts online for these nine. The Carrot Cake Cheesecake also lists pecans and walnuts among its allergens.
Key lime pie in two sizes
Publix makes its key lime pie to order in two sizes. The Original Key Lime Pie is $10.99 at the Lakeland store and serves 8 to 9, and the Mini Key Lime Pie is $6.49 for 3.
Both are Key lime filling in a graham cracker shell with whipped topping and toasted almonds, and the large one adds a white chocolate garnish. Both list milk, wheat, almonds and soy as allergens.
Publix’s delivery site lists the large pie at 34 ounces. On publix.com, its nutrition panel puts an eighth at 480 calories, and a third of the mini comes to 450.
Publix’s newsroom says the recipe hasn’t changed since the pie debuted at the opening of its first Danish Bakery in 1957. The filling is sweetened condensed milk and lime juice, and the current label lists the juice as Key lime and lime juice concentrates.
Both sizes, and a large Mango Key Lime Pie, won blue ribbons at the 2025 American Pie Council championships in Orlando, WKMG News 6 reported. The Lakeland store lists the mango only as a 12-ounce mini on the bakery shelf, with no price online.
Cost per slice for a crowd
A slice of the Original Key Lime Pie works out to about $1.37, less than half the cheapest decorated cheesecake slice.
Each figure is the price divided by the servings Publix lists, so the large pie is $10.99 over 8 and a cheesecake $23.99 over 6 to 8.
Two minis cost $12.98 for 6 slices, $1.99 more than one large pie for 8, so they only make sense when you want two separate pies.
For 12 or more people, we’d order two Original Key Lime Pies before one cheesecake. That’s 16 slices for $21.98, against 6 to 8 for $23.99.
Cut in 8, a cheesecake costs no more a slice than an 8-inch decorated round, which is also $23.99 and serves 8 to 10. Searching publix.com for cheesecake also brings up one of those rounds, the Everyday Red Velvet Cream Cheese Cake, which is red velvet cake with cream cheese icing rather than a cheesecake.
Cheesecakes on the bakery shelf
The bakery also stocks cheesecakes you can take home without ordering. Publix.com lists these for the Lakeland store with an Add to list button and no price.
- New York-Style Plain Cheesecake, 23 ounces
- New York-Style Choc Plain Cheesecake, the chocolate one, 23 ounces
- New York-Style Strawberry Cheesecake, 32 ounces
- Large Variety Cheesecake Wheel, 36 ounces, with turtle, marble, strawberry and New York-style cheesecakes in its ingredient list
- Berry Fusion and Cookie Dough Pumpkin twin packs, two slices in 7 ounces
- Mini Mango Key Lime Pie, 12 ounces
Publix’s delivery site, run by Instacart, does show prices. For a Lakeland zip code on November 1, it listed the 23-ounce plain cheesecake at $14.69, the strawberry at $19.89, the variety wheel at $24.39 and the mango mini at $7.19.
Those run above the store. The key lime pies and a decorated cheesecake, the three items we could price both ways, cost 10.8 to 12.5 percent more online, in line with our check of Publix delivery prices. By that math, the plain cheesecake would cost about $13 in the store, our estimate rather than a Publix price.
By Publix’s labels, a 132-gram eighth of the Original Key Lime Pie has 480 calories, more than the 450 in a 136-gram fifth of the plain cheesecake.
That plain cheesecake’s page also gives sixths at 370 calories in its label text. Publix counts both slices of a twin pack as one serving, 690 calories for Berry Fusion.
Chowhound put the New York-style cheesecake in its top three of nine store-bought cheesecakes in August 2025 for a crust closer to a sugar cookie than graham crackers. Costco’s and The Cheesecake Factory’s ranked higher, and the plastic clamshell didn’t impress.
Seasonal cheesecakes for fall and Christmas
The Peppermint Cocoa Cheesecake was the one Publix promoted for Christmas. On November 1 its Christmas ordering page described a peppermint-infused chocolate cake under a 6-inch New York-style cheesecake, with chocolate whipped topping, peppermint bark, ganache and cocoa.
By November 12 the page no longer mentioned it, and it still had no product page or price for the Lakeland store. The Red Velvet Cheesecake now leads the page’s holiday desserts, at $23.99 regular for about 8.
Fall brings slices. Supermarket News reported in September on the new Cookie Dough Pumpkin Twin Cheesecake Slices, pumpkin cheesecake with cookie dough pieces, and a limited-edition pumpkin monster cheesecake slice. Publix’s delivery site also lists a Monster Cheesecake Slice With Strawberries for $7.19 in Lakeland.
The Berry Fusion twin pack is marked Limited Edition. On the order-ahead menu, Publix pitches the Mixed Berry as an alternative to holiday pies, and those pies are in our guide to everything the Publix bakery bakes.
Ordering a day ahead
Order a decorated cheesecake or the Original Key Lime Pie on publix.com for in-store pickup, or at the bakery counter. Each needs 24 hours’ notice, and Publix says to call your store if you need one sooner.
- Set your store on publix.com first, since prices and the lineup change by store.
- Choose a pickup time at least a day out.
- Call the store at the number in your confirmation to change the order. Publix’s pickup FAQ lets you cancel a cake up to 24 hours before pickup, and our page on how Publix handles returns covers one that disappoints.
- Keep it refrigerated at home, as most of the labels ask.
Publix stores close on Thanksgiving and Christmas Day, so a holiday dessert has to be picked up the day before. Publix’s holiday closings and early hours show when that day ends.
For Thanksgiving, we’d treat November 23, Publix’s order-by date for its holiday dinners, as the deadline for a cheesecake or key lime pie too.
