Grenada Spice Cake

Directions

1. 1
   Sift the flour, baking powder and salt together onto a piece of wax paper and set aside. Cream together the butter, sugar, lime rind, nutmeg, cinnamon and allspice until silvery and light-no sugar grains should be discernible on the tongue when the mixture has been properly creamed. (This may take as long as 5 minutes at high mixer speed.) Beat the eggs in, one at a time. Now add the sifted dry ingredients alternately with the milk, beginning and ending with the dry. (I usually mix the flour in - in about five separate additions and the milk in - in three.).
2. 2
   Spoon the batter into a well buttered and floured 9 x 5 x 3-inch loaf pan, pushing the batter well to the corners and smoothing the surface as much as possible. Bake in a slow oven 300 F for 1 to 1 1/2 hours or until the cake begins to pull from the sides of the pan and leaves an imprint that vanishes slowly when you press the top with your fingers.
3. 3
   Remove the cake from the oven, stand the pan upright on a wire rack and allow the cake to cool in the pan for 10 minutes. Loosen the cake around the edges with a thin-blade spatula, turn out on a wire rack and cool to room temperature. To serve, slice just as you would pound cake.
4. 4
   Jean Anderson Cooks.