Date & Almond Loaf Cake

Collage

I wanted to use up the remaining almonds i add left sat in the fridge from when i made my bakewell tart and i'd also been wanting to use my new loaf pan so this cake is what i came up with.

loosely adapted from insing

Ingredients

Butter, unsalted & softened - 150 grams

Caster Sugar - 120 grams

Self-raising flour - 120 grams

Eggs, medium size - 3

Dates, dry/preserved, stoned and chopped - 80 grams

Rose water (Orange Blossom would work too) - 1 tablespoon

Water - 3 1/2 tablespoon

Vanilla, seeds only - 1 teaspoon

Almonds, ground - 45 grams

Almonds, flaked - 60 grams

Syrup of choice for soaking (optional), i used homemade vanilla rose syrup - 1 ladel

Equipment: 10 x 30cm loaf pan, stand mixer with paddle/beater attachment or equivalent i.e. bowl & wooden spoon, palette knife, tablespoon, teaspoon, greaseproof baking paper, selection of bowls.

Method

Pre-heat oven to 350F/180ْC/160C (fan)/Gas mark 4 and grease and line bottom of 10cm x 30cm loaf pan, set aside.

Weigh out & measure all ingredients, Cut dates and spoon rose water and water over them. Set aside covered for 10 minutes.

Remove seeds from vanilla pod, add to butter and sugar then beat together until light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time beating well in between each addition.

Fold in dry dates, ground almonds and flour.

Pour into greased loaf pan, scatter almond flakes (i missed this step and added them with all the other dry ingredients above....ooooops!)

Bake cake on middle shelf of oven for 30 minutes or until skewer inserted in the centre of cake comes out clean.

Remove from oven, Prick cake all over using skewer and whilst still hot drizzle over no more than 1 ladel of syrup if using, leave in pan to cool completely.

The cake if you choose to soak in syrup is best eaten the day after you make it, this gives the syrup chance to penetrate but in my house cake can't be left till the next day and don't be alarmed when the cake doesn't rise anywhere near the top of the loaf pan it's not supposed to....well at least i hope it's not because i really loved this rather dense loaf cake, alhamduillah.