Walnut and Date Cake

-
Another case of using up something at its ' Use By' date; this time some chopped dates. Wanted to make an easy cake, so made my Mum's Date cake with walnuts.
It's a cake that keeps very well.

Oven 180C/gas4                            Grease and base line a 20cm square cake tin.

In a bowl put 210ml boiling water, 175g chopped dates and 3/4 level tspn bicarbonate of soda. Leave it for 5 mins.
Cream together 175g soft brown sugar and 50g soft margarine, then beat in 1 beaten egg and the water and dates.
Sieve 225g plain flour with 3/4 tspn baking powder and pinch salt, then fold into the date mixture. Add 40g of chopped walnuts and mix together.
Spoon into the tin and bake for about 45-50 mins.
Cool on a wire rack then remove the paper.


This is just part of the cake, as I gave the rest to my lovely Polish neighbour! I sprinkled some sugar on the top  - not really sure why!
It has a lovely flavour, almost caramel taste from the dates and a nice crunch from the walnuts. It has a nice moist texture, and is excellent with a cup of tea or coffee. A nice old fashioned tea treat.

Comments

Phil in the Kitchen said…
I don't know many people who use dates in baking these days, except when making sticky toffee pudding. As your cake proves, that's a shame. It sounds delicious. I'm in awe of your ability to spot when things are about to go out of date; this week I threw away 2 things with best befores in 2015.
26/9/17 2:27 pm
Snowy said…
I try to check my baking cupboard regularly, but it doesn't always work!
27/9/17 11:34 am
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Aberffraw cakes

-
Image
These were mentioned recently on the GBBO, so I thought I'd find out more about them. They're made on the Isle of Anglesey and are a traditional biscuit really, not a cake. They're served sprinkled with sugar and even with cream and jam, like a scone. The bit I liked was that a scallop shell is pressed into the top to give it a shell-like pattern. Nowadays, a lot of the Aberffraw cakes have the pattern put on with a knife. I have a bag of scallop shells, brought back from France so I used a genuine one to make my pattern. The recipe is a 3.2.1  - quite common for biscuits. This means 3 parts flour to 2 parts fat to 1 part sugar. 175g flour 110g butter 55g caster sugar a little milk more caster sugar for sprinkling over Preheat oven 190C/gas5. Grease a baking sheet. I used a processor to make my dough. Put flour and sugar in a bowl and rub in the butter. Bind together with a litle milk to make a soft dough. Roll out and cut out circles. I used a 7cm cutter an...
Read more

Carrot Cake Muffins

-
Image
 I’m a great muffin fan and have adapted my basic recipe, given to me by an American friend, many times. This is my latest idea. I made the muffins and was asked by a friend if I could make some for a party with the icing you usually get on a carrot cake.  280g plain flour, 1 tbsps baking powder, 1 tspn mixed spice, pinch salt, 115g soft dark brown sugar, 200g grated carrot, 50g chopped pecans or walnuts, 50g sultanas, 2 eggs, 175ml milk, 6 tbsps sunflower oil Optional: icing - 75g soft cream cheese, 49g butter and 35g icing sugar, sprigs of orange zest Preheat oven 200C/gas6. Grease a muffin tin or use muffin cases. Sift together the flour, baking powder and spice. Add carrots, sugar walnuts and sultanas and stir together. In a jug add the milk, oil and beaten eggs. Mix well. Make a well in flour mix and add milk mixture. Stir gently till just mixed. Don’t over mix or muffins will be heavy. Soon into the muffin tin - I use an ice cream scoop. Bake for 20 mins till risen. Cool...
Read more

Bakewell Pudding (or maybe not!)

-
Image
  I recently picked up a book in a local charity shop about 'Food of the British Isles'.It's a compilation of recipes from restaurants and cooks. I was especially interested in the Cake Section, as I've been wanting to try some of the more unusual British cake and pudding recipes for some time. This one isn't very unusual, but thought I'd try it as it's called a Bakewell Pudding and not a Tart. In the book, the writer says says that a Pudding is made with puff pastry and the Tart with shortcrust. Is it that simple? I bet a lot of local people would disagree with this definition! The writer made her puff pastry from scratch, but I bought mine, butter of course! For the Pudding you need : 500g butter puff pastry, 3 tbspn raspberry jam, 150g butter, 150g caster sugar, 3 eggs plus a yolk, beaten, 150g ground almonds, zest of a lemon,2 tspn almond extract, 1 tbspn flaked almonds and some icing sugar to dust the top. Preheat oven 190C/gas5        ...
Read more