I’ve made this tasty, moist and crumbly cake a few times now.
My grandmother used to make a Date and Walnut loaf in the upright round tins. Dense and sliceable to spread with butter, yum. Sadly, I’m not sure what happened to her recipe and the tins I had wore out years ago. The recipe in my ‘Cookery the Australian Way’ isn’t how I remember it. All the other recipes I found used way too much bicarb soda, and I am not a fan of the taste. So an experiment was in order. It was an experiment that worked, and fortunately I’d noted the ingredients and amounts as I went, I often forget to do this!.
The result is somewhere between the plain and medium foundation recipe for creaming method, with the banana and nut loaf flavourings. A little bicarb soda softens the dates without adding too much of the bicarb taste.
Soak:
- 1 cup dates (diced into 6)
- ⅓ cup milk
- ½ teaspoon bicarb soda
Cream, in large bowl:
- 150 gram butter
- 120 grams brown sugar
Mix in:
- 2 large eggs
- 2-3 ripe bananas
- ⅓ cup nuts (I usually use almond or walnuts)
- date mixture
Sieve in:
- 1 ½ cups flour
- 3 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon nutmeg
- ½ teaspoon mixed spice
Mix well.
Bake:
- Loaf tin (I use a strip of baking paper to make it easier to lift the cake out)
- 180 degrees celsius, preheated
- 60 minutes
Elizabeth Sorić 