A delicious cake from ” Towpath:Recipes and Stories” by Lori de Mori and Laura Jackson.
Ingredients
- 16 dates pitted
- 200 ml hot coffee
- 180 g muscovado sugar
- 200 g caster sugar
- 140 g plain flour
- 140 g self raising flour
- 120 g unsalted butter cold and diced
- 330 ml full fat milk
- 1 whole egg plus 1 yolk, whisked together
- 1½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
- ¾ tsp ground cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon grated nutmeg
- 50 g walnuts toasted
Servings:
Instructions
- Heat the oven to 160C (140C fan)/325F/gas 3. Soak the dates in the coffee and leave for at least an hour – if you can do this 24 hours in advance, the dates will really take on the flavour of the coffee.
- Line a 23cm square cake tin. Drain the dates in a colander and set aside.
- Put the sugars, flours and butter in a bowl and rub with your fingertips to form fine breadcrumbs. Take 250g of this mix and press lightly into the base of the tin.
- To the rest of the crumbs, add the milk, whisked egg, bicarb, cinnamon and nutmeg and mix until smooth.
- Arrange the dates over the crumb layer in four rows of four. Pour the batter mix over the top and scatter with the walnuts.
- Bake for an hour, then test with a skewer: you want the mixture to cling to the skewer in a fudgey rather than a runny way. Leave to cool for 15 minutes and serve with a generous blob of creme fraiche.
- This cake is also delicious served cooled – and even better with a strong coffee.
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