It’s my dear friend’s Alex’s birthday today! So for this occasion I have baked Spiced Date Brownie Cake from Abel&Cole book “Veg Box Companion”. It went a treat! Apparently this recipe originated from “Tartelettes” cakerie – nice! I especially love Vicki’s idea to make the “pretend” candles that are made out of toothpicks stuck with picture of little lights. Cute! Here is the recipe:
SPICED DATE BROWNIE CAKE
- 300g stoned dates, finely chopped
- 2 lemons, zest only
- 500ml freshly brewed strong black coffee
- Crushed seeds from 12 cardamom pods
- 2 tsp cinnamon
- 2 tsp mixed spice
- 4 tbsp honey
- 4 tbsp black treacle or more honey
- 250g dark brown sugar
- 150g unsalted butter
- 3 eggs
- 150g mixed nuts
- 4 tbsp sesame, pumpkin and sunflower seeds
- 400g plain wholemeal or spelt flour
- 1 tbsp baking powder
- 4 tbsp apricot jam (optional)
- Line a large rectangular baking dish (approx 30 X24 cm) with baking paper
- In large saucepan, add the dates, lemon zest, coffee, spices, honey, black treacle, sugar and butter. Simmer and stir till combined. Let cool fully.
- Preheat your oven to 180C .
- Beat the eggs in large bowl. Add flour, baking powder and cooled date/coffee mix. Chop half the nuts and add them to the mix. Stir everything together.
- Pour into the lined dish. Scatter the seeds and remaining nuts evenly over the top.
- bake for an hour , or till a skewer poked comes out with just a few tiny moist crumbs stuck to it. Cover with a large layer of baking paper or foil after 30min, to stop the nuts from burning.
- To give it a stunning gloss, warm 4 tbsp of apricot jam till syrupy. Brush over the top.
I must admit that I used black current jam as I did not have any apricot one. This made the cake look odd as black current jam coloured everything purple so I had to scatter few more fresh nuts and sesame seeds to “fix” it. So use apricot jam or nothing at all! But other than that it was really delicious :b
Rasa :)
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