Date and Walnut Cake in a Nut Roll Tin
Recipe adapted from the Australians Women’s Weekly “Cooking for Friends”.
Ingredients:
- 225g soft brown sugar
- 175g of seeded dried dates, coarsely chopped
- 50g butter
- 2 tablespoons of golden syrup
- 6fl oz water
- 300g self-raising powder
- 1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate soda
- 1 teaspoon ground ginger
- 2 teaspoon finely grated fresh finger
- 1 egg
- 25g walnuts, roughly chopped
How to make: Preheat the oven to 360°F/180ºC/160ºC Fan/Gas 4. Grease the insides and lids of two 8cm x 17cm nut roll tins. Line the insides of the tin with some non stick baking parchment. If using a biscuit tin line the base with a disc of non stick baking parchment. Place the bottom lid on each nut roll tin.
Add the brown sugar, dates, butter, golden syrup and water into a medium saucepan. Over low heat stir the mixture until the sugar dissolves, bring to a boil. Remove from heat and let the mixture cool. Sieve the flour, bicarbonate of soda and ground ginger into the cooled mixture; add the fresh ginger, egg and walnuts and stir everything together until combined.
With the help of two spoons, spoon the mixture evenly into both tins. Place the top lids on both tins. Stand tins on an oven tray and bake upright in the oven and for about 40 to 45 minutes. Remove tins from the oven and leave the loaves to cool (without removing the lids) for about 15 minutes to firm up before trying to remove the cakes. Cool the cakes on a wire cooling rack.
Tip: When the baking time is almost finished and you need to check if the cake is done, remove the cake tin from the oven and remove the top lid. Test the cake with a skewer, if further baking is required, place the lid back on and bake for a further few minutes.