Lime Pound Cake

Sometimes when you mess up royally, things still turn out all right. After the success of the toaster oven for baking zucchini bread, I decided to try a loaf of lime pound cake. Stupidly, I did not notice the oven was set to "broil" until about fifty minutes into the sixy minute bake time. The top was pretty badly scorched and I had to add about ten minutes of real baking time, but actually the flavor of the cake did not suffer at all (after I sliced off the burnt top). It's been two days now, and I think the flavor is actually improving as the cake sits in the fridge.

For one 9x5" loaf pan:

• 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 3/4 teaspoon kosher salt
• 2 sticks unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 5 large eggs, at room temperature
• Finely grated zest of 2 medium limes
• juice of one lime

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees and grease and flour your pan. Cream the butter for four minutes on medium, or until light and fluffy. Add the sugar, cream until light and fluffy again. Add the eggs one at a time. My mix curdled, but I added the juice of one lime at this point any way and plodded ahead.

Whisk together the dry ingredients, then turn your stand mixer to low and add the flour to the butter mixture in two additions. Don't overmix, just leave the mixer long enough to combine everything. Take the bowl out of the mixer, stir in the lime zest, and pour the batter into a pan. Smooth it evenly, or you'll get a cake that rises more on one side than the other.

Bake the cake for 60-70 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Cool on a rack for ten minutes, then poke the cake all over with a toothpick and pour the remaining lime juice evenly over the top. Cool the cake completely, wrap well, and store in the refrigerator overnight.

Eat while reading books. Quick book review: After Dark is a very strange book, alternatingly surreal and entirely realistic. But though some parts are implausible or remain a mystery even after I've finished reading, Murakami's skill as a writer kept me interested the entire two hundred pages.