Cinnamon and Date Cake

The festive baking continues and this time I have a really simple recipe that will be guaranteed to impress. If you are short on time, whizz up this cake and impress your guests. It's a very simple cake but it's full of flavour. The cinnamon is subtle but definitely present and the dates gives the cake a lovely, sweet stickiness and more importantly does not taste like dates!

I'm entering this to several blog challenges

One Ingredient Challenge hosted by Laura from How to Cook Good Food and co hosted by Nazima from Franglais Kitchen. The ingredient this month is dates.

The Spice Trail :Cooking with Cinnamon hosted by Vanesther from Bangers & Mash

Calendar Cakes hosted by Rachel from Dolly Bakes and co-hosted by Laura from Laura loves Cakes. The theme this month is Jingle Bell Rock.

Four Seasons Food hosted by Anneli from Delicieux and Louisa from Eat your Veg. The theme this month is Party Food. This would be really quick and easy to make and guaranteed to be a crowd pleaser.

Let's Cook Christmas Party Food hosted by Nayna from Simply Food.

Cooking with Herbs hosted by Karen from Lavender and Lovage. The theme this month is cooking with Herbs and Christmas spices so I think my cinnamon will qualify.

 Boil the dates in water 

 whizz in a food processor 

 I bought this cake tin from Ikea

 ready to go in the oven 

 It was a little burnt so I covered it with icing and festive sprinkles! 

 

Recipe adapted from about.com 

300g pitted dates

3 teaspoons ground cinnamon

170g butter

375g self raising flour

4 eggs

200g light brown sugar

1 teaspoon baking powder

• Preheat the oven to  180C.
• Place the dates in a medium sized saucepan and fill with enough water to cover the dates.
• Bring to the boil and remove from the heat.
• Drain the dates and whizz in a food processor until it has a paste like consistency.
• Add softened butter, eggs and sugar to the food processor and mix.
• Add in the flour and baking powder and continuing mixing until well mixed.
• Pour into a cake tin and bake for about 40 - 50 minutes (depends on the size of your tin). Do keep an eye on your cake as it browns quickly - I'd recommend checking after 20 minutes and then at 5-10 minute intervals as you may need to cover the cake with foil.
• Decorate with icing sugar and sprinkles or leave plain. 

Banana, date and walnut bread

Next in the banana series.  I decided to make a healthier version with dates and walnuts which complements the banana flavour very well. No oil or butter required.  The dates make the bread moist and the nuts add the extra crunch.

150g dates, chopped and pitted

200g brown sugar

250ml water

320g wholemeal self-raising flour

260g mashed ripe bananas

55g chopped walnuts

1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

• Preheat oven to 180C. Grease and line a 14x21cm loaf pan. 
• Combine dates, sugar and water in a saucepan over low heat.
• Cook, stirring for 2 minutes or until sugar dissolves. 
• Increase the heat and bring the mixture to a boil. 
• Remove from the heat. 
• Add flour, bananas, walnuts and bicarbonate of soda and stir until combined. 
• Bake in the preheated oven for 40 minutes. 

Sticky Toffee Cupcakes with Salted Caramel Buttercream

I've been dying to make these cupcakes ever since I saw them in Fiona Cairns book 'Bake & Decorate Tea Time Luxury'. One of my favourite bloggers, Heavenly Housewife wrote a post about this book recently and I knew I had to get a copy. As it happens the theme for this month's Iron Cupcake Challenge was fruit so I made these as my entry. I usually like to make a test run before the challenge in case it needs tweaking but didn't have time this time. Fortunately the cakes turned out fine. The icing however was a different story. I burnt the caramel the first time round and couldn't use it as it had a bitter after taste. I then had to go out to meet some friends and therefore started my second batch of caramel at 11pm (on a sunday night)! I watched it even more closely and probably could have left it a little longer but I didnt want to take any chances. I then had to wait for it to cool completely before making the buttercream. It tasted really good and I thought my troubles were over.

Apparently not as disaster strikes twice. Approximately 2 hours later, I was ready to pipe the buttercream on my cakes and unfortunately I had bits of caramel that had crystallised clogging up my piping tube. Had to use a different piping bag in the end which had a removable nozzle so I could easily clear the obstruction each time it occurred. It took much longer than I expected to frost all the cakes as I had to re-do quite a few of them. The silver lining though is that the pattern is really pretty - it looks like a rose, doesnt it? I've not used this nozzle before so was really pleased with the end result.
Would I make this again? YES! In fact I made another batch on Tuesday night as everyone got to look at it on Monday but couldn't eat it as it was for the challenge. Voted one of my best baking creations by my colleague who has sampled almost everything on here. The cake is really moist and light and the salted caramel buttercream is amazing. I'll confess, I had a small bowlful of buttercream for breakfast on Tuesday :) Thought I deserved it after all this effort!

date mixture

KitchenAid in action (Again? I know I can't help it, I just love it so much)

Burnt caramel! :(

Perhaps slightly underdone but great caramel

salted caramel buttercream

Cakes waiting to be frosted

Final result after hours of stress!

Recipe from Fiona Cairns. Makes 12

For the cakes

180g dates, pitted and chopped

1 tsp vanilla extract

180g self-raising flour

1 tsp bicarbonate of soda

80g unsalted butter, softened

150g light muscovado sugar

2 eggs, lightly beaten

For the buttercream

Caramel method

125g white caster sugar

80ml double cream

1/2 teaspoon salt (to taste)

1 tsp vanilla extract

Dulce de leche method

3-4 tbsp dulce de leche

1/2 tsp salt (to taste)

1 tsp vanilla extract

160g salted butter, softened

200g icing sugar, sifted

• Preheat the oven to 180C
• In a heatproof bowl, pour 180ml boiling water over the dates and leave to soak for 20 minutes.
• Then, with a fork, dently break up the dates and stir in the vanilla.
• Sift the flour and bicarbonate of soda into a bowl and set aside.
• Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
• Add the eggs gradually, beating between each addition and slipping in 1 tbsp flour about halfway through to prevent curdling.
• Lastly, fold in the remaining flour and then the date mixture.
• Spoon into cupcake cases and bake for 15-20 minutes.
• Remove and leave to cool.

• To make the caramel, dissolve the sugar and 60ml water in a small, solid-based pan over a gentle heat, then increase the heat to a boil.
• Wait a few minutes, leaving the pan undisturbed but watching it like a hawk and, as soon as it changes to a wonderful caramel colour (like strong tea) and is thicker, remove immediately from the heat.
• Stand well back and add the cream.
• Be very careful as it's searing hot and may splatter a little.
• it will reach or 'seize' and you may think it has gone wrong; it hasn't.
• Keep stirring, adding the salt and the vanilla.
• Leave until stone cold.
• If using dulce de leche, simply mix it with the salt and vanilla.

• For the buttercream icing, cream the butter and icing sugar for at least 5 minutes.
• Add the caramel or the dulce de leche.
• Pipe with a piping bag or spread with a palette knife.