Chris Rodgers

I made this cake (inspired by an internet recipe) this evening. It tastes delicious and is nice and moist inside so I thought I would share the recipe.

Banana, date & walnut cake (Chris’ variation)

Equipment

bowls, scales, electric mixer, microwave, oven, loaf tin

Ingredients

100g dried dates
50g dark rum
175g self raising flour
125 g butter
150g sugar
2 large eggs
4 small/2 large etc but about 300g without skin, VERY ripe bananas, mashed
60 g walnuts
1 tsp vanilla extract
23x13x7cm loaf (2lb) tin, buttered & floured (or it won’t come out!) or paper lined

Recipe

Chop dates into small chunks
Place dates in a small bowl and pour over the rum
Cover and microwave on full power for 1 minute
Remove the lid and let the alcohol boil off
Leave to soak until needed

Turn oven on and set to 180°C (I have a fan oven, adjust temperature to suit yours).

Weigh flour into a medium bowl

In a mixing bowl: soften butter and cream together with the sugar
Beat in eggs one at a time.
Add mashed banana, dates, walnuts and vanilla extract.
Add flour mix, 1/3 at a time, mixing well after each addition.

Pour/scrape into tin. Bake in middle of oven for 50–60 min, until a skewer comes out clean.
Leave in tin on wire rack to cool for 5 minutes before turning out.

Icing

150 g icing sugar
100 g low fat cream cheese
1 tsp cinnamon

Mix together until it has a smooth consistency. Top the cake with this mixture.

N.B. The current icing is too sweet and overpowers the cake a bit. Need to think how to tone it down. Perhaps by adding butter. Perhaps by adding banana to the icing, or lemon juice.