It feels like it would not be inappropriate to squeeze in one last wintry recipe before I hit you with the full on springy-ness of my spring kitchen. That's not to say there won't be cake in spring. Hellz no, there will be mucho cake, but it will be all pastel frosting, fluffy chicks, ballet shoes and such.
Why ballet shoes you ask?
You should know better than that by now.
Why ballet shoes you ask?
You should know better than that by now.
Continue over the page for some notes and the recipe. You won't be sorry.
A couple of things to note:
This is an excellent gifting cake as it travels well, keeps well, and everyone always loves it. Using the recipe below you can produce two 7" cakes, one for you and one for your mum, or someone else that you love.
The muscovado sugar gives it a toffee-like finish due to the molasses, you can of course use regular brown sugar.
Traditionally walnuts are used in cakes like this - I've replaced these with pecans because I find the flavour and texture nicer, walnuts can be bitter if not really fresh. Either work well, as do hazelnuts and almonds.
The cake is so easy to make, I've used volume quantities rather than by weight, so just take your measuring cup and just fling things into the relevant piles - in fact you can use any cup or mug, just stick with the ratios given.
The cake can be buttered, or not. Yeah, good luck with that.
This is an excellent gifting cake as it travels well, keeps well, and everyone always loves it. Using the recipe below you can produce two 7" cakes, one for you and one for your mum, or someone else that you love.
The muscovado sugar gives it a toffee-like finish due to the molasses, you can of course use regular brown sugar.
Traditionally walnuts are used in cakes like this - I've replaced these with pecans because I find the flavour and texture nicer, walnuts can be bitter if not really fresh. Either work well, as do hazelnuts and almonds.
The cake is so easy to make, I've used volume quantities rather than by weight, so just take your measuring cup and just fling things into the relevant piles - in fact you can use any cup or mug, just stick with the ratios given.
The cake can be buttered, or not. Yeah, good luck with that.
Ingredients:
1½ cups self-raising flour
Pinch of bicarbonate of soda
1 scant teaspoon mixed spice
1 cup pecan halves, roughly chopped
100g unsalted butter
3/4 cup brown muscovado sugar
1/2 cup water
1½ cups dates, roughly chopped
1 egg, lightly beaten
Method
Preheat oven to 180°C and line a loaf tin or 2 x 7” cake tins with parchment.
Place dry ingredients in a bowl, including the chopped pecans.
Combine butter, sugar, water and dates in saucepan and stir over a medium heat until sugar has dissolved and butter has melted, take off the heat and leave to cool slightly.
Add the wet mixture to the dry mixture, stir well, then stir in the beaten egg.
Spoon into your tin(s) and bake until done; for 2 small tins this will take aprox 35mins, if you’re making one large cake this will be more like 50mins.
1½ cups self-raising flour
Pinch of bicarbonate of soda
1 scant teaspoon mixed spice
1 cup pecan halves, roughly chopped
100g unsalted butter
3/4 cup brown muscovado sugar
1/2 cup water
1½ cups dates, roughly chopped
1 egg, lightly beaten
Method
Preheat oven to 180°C and line a loaf tin or 2 x 7” cake tins with parchment.
Place dry ingredients in a bowl, including the chopped pecans.
Combine butter, sugar, water and dates in saucepan and stir over a medium heat until sugar has dissolved and butter has melted, take off the heat and leave to cool slightly.
Add the wet mixture to the dry mixture, stir well, then stir in the beaten egg.
Spoon into your tin(s) and bake until done; for 2 small tins this will take aprox 35mins, if you’re making one large cake this will be more like 50mins.
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