This week, Roy had a big bag of dates in the cupboard, and was wondering what to do with them. Then he remembered that a few weeks ago he made a sultana cake (click here for the recipe), which has been very popular with his friends, and they were interested to see what other recipes were made in a similar way. He has an old recipe for Date Loaf, which he thinks comes from The Great Depression as it contains no eggs. It is made in a similar way to his sultana cake and makes two delicious loaf cakes. So this week, Roy Creates Date Loaf.
Notes: This cake is better if you let it rest for a day before cutting it. They also freeze very well, so you can put one aside for later.
You Will Need:
- 500 grams of pitted dates
- 240 grams of butter or margarine
- 2 cups of water
- 2cups of brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon of cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon of mixed spice
- 1 heaped teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda
- 4 cups of plain flour
- A pinch of salt
Method:
- Grease and line 2 loaf tins
- Preheat the oven to 170 degrees celcius
- Combine the butter, dates, sugar, spices and water in a large saucepan and bring to the boil. Reduce the heat and simmer for 5 minutes. Set aside to cool slightly.
- In the meantime, sift together the flour, bicarbonate of soda and salt.
- Add the flour mix to the still warm date mix and stir together. The mix will start to fizz and rise slightly. Make sure you mix in all the flour, getting any remaining off the bottom of the saucepan.
- Pour the mix into the prepared tins and use a set of scales to ensure they are about the same weight.
- Bake for 1 hour or until a skewer inserted into the centre of each comes out clean.
- Enjoy with or without a little butter!
