Date and Walnut Cake - Queen Mother's Recipe
This cake featured in my first cookbook "Kate's Puddings, the Cookbook of the Blog" (still available - £ 14.50 plus postage katespuddings@gmail.com) and is an enduring favourite. It was passed on with the proviso that, when you got the recipe, you made a donation to charity, so please be generous! It is unusual in that it contains no eggs, so is perfect not only if you’ve run out of eggs, but also for an egg-allergic friend of my son’s. It got Mat’s seal of approval, especially the fudge top! I’ve also made this as individual cupcakes. The fudge top is the perfect foil for the date and walnut below. To be honest, I've not tried it with gluten-free flour, or dairy-free as the fudge top wouldn't be the same....
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| Date and Walnut Cake with Fudge Icing |
Queen Mother’s Date and
Walnut Cake with Fudge Icing
4oz/110g
chopped dates
1
tsp bicarbonate of soda
6floz/170ml
boiling water
6oz/160g
plain flour
2oz/50g
butter at room temperature
6oz/160g
dark brown sugar
2oz/50g
chopped walnuts (you can omit these)
1
tsp baking powder
½
tsp salt
1
tsp vanilla
Preheat
the oven to 180 deg C and line an 8” cake tin with parchment. Pour the boiling water over the dates and
bicarbonate of soda and leave them to bubble while you mix the rest of the
cake. Beat the butter into the flour,
add the rest of the ingredients and mix well.
Finally add the dates, mix everything together and pour it into the tin.
Cook for about 25 minutes until a (warmed)
knife stuck into the cake comes out clean.
Cool completely before making the icing.
Icing:
5
tbsp soft brown sugar
2
tbsp butter
2
tbsp cream
In
a pan, melt the butter, sugar and cream together, stirring, then boil for 3
minutes. Allow it to cool slightly, then
beat it until it has thickened and pour over the cake. This is the interesting part – too soon and
it doesn’t set, too late and you get fudge! Decorate with walnuts.
"beat butter into flour" is this a typo? Should it be "beat butter into sugar"?
ReplyDeleteWhen I make this cake I put the butter into the bowl with the dates and water and bicarb, and then add all the dry ingredients and stir well. It has always turned out fine except once when I cooked the icing too long and it turned into toffee!
DeleteThe now ubiquitous sticky toffee pudding is actually very, very similar to the Queen Mother's favorite cake. You have to give some money to charity every time you pass on the recipe. Think how much money that would generate with sticky toffee pudding recipes
ReplyDeleteI agree, just that sticky toffee has eggs and coffee. I'm trying to work out how to make sticky toffee traybake with icing, and modelling it on this icing is probably the way forward.
ReplyDeleteJust made this, it looks to have sunk in the middle. What did I do wrong?
ReplyDeletePossibly cooked it too high so it was cooked on the top without being done all the way through. Having said that, I just reckon that it gives more space for icing.
Delete