Date & Walnut Cake

This is an old recipe copied from an old fashioned cook book.

View Instructions

Servings

many

Ready In:

40 min

Calories:

it’s a cake!

Good For:

me

 

About this Recipe

By: Sharyn

When I was a teenager my elderly neighbour made the best date slice I have ever eaten – I remember it hungrily. This is an old recipe I found in a beaten up housewives book. The book has had the original cover removed so I can’t tell when it was published, but one of the advertisements was by Bussell’s White Wings Mills, which ceased trading in 1952. I’m hoping for nostalgia.

Ingredients

    • 120 g plain flour
    • 120 g caster sugar
    • 60 g butter
    • 60 g stoned dates
    • 30 g shelled walnuts
    • 1 tspn baking powder
    • 2 eggs
    • 2 tblspn milk (40ml)

Optional extras:

  • 1 tspn cinnamon
  • 1 tspn vanilla

Walnut Crumble:

  • ½ cup walnuts
  • 2 tblsp brown sugar
  • 1 tsp ground cinnamon
  • 40g cold butter, cut into small cubes

I think the recipe predates greaseproof paper as the instructions say to “line a baking tin with buttered paper”, I think I’m going to skip the buttering and simply line with greaseproof paper. A little oil on the pan helps the paper stay in place.

I’ve included instructions for shelling walnuts and rehydrating dry dates. Some people think that walnut skin is bitter and papery when cooked, others don’t care – it’s up to you. If you have lovely fresh dates no need to rehydrate, but if they have crystals forming on the skin or have been withering in the fridge for a while, rehydrating them will ensure that you don’t end up with chewy lumps in your cake.

Well worth rehydrating dates, made them soft so they dispersed evenly through cake. The shelled walnuts were more trouble than they are worth! I’d blanch them for softness and to take away the bitter taste of the skin, but not bother with the peeling – fuss factor is too high.

Update:  The cake from the original recipe was soft, moist, sweet, but not particularly interesting. It needed something. You could serve it with a spread of butter and it would be lovely.   I made the cake a second time with the addition of a teaspoon of cinnamon and a teaspoon of vanilla. That was a definite improvement, but since I was on a roll I made yet another version with a walnut crumble on top. This changes the texture of the cake but adds a sweet crunch to the finish. 

 

 

 

Step by Step Instructions

Step 1

Do the prep jobs first:

  • Preheat the oven to 180°C conventional or 165°C fan forced. 
  • Line a 20 cm square baking tin with greaseproof paper.
Step 2

Rehydrate dry dates

  • Place dates in a bowl and cover with boiling water.
  • Leave for about 10 minutes, or until you’re satisfied that dates have softened.
  • Drain and throw out the liquid.
  • Cut dates into pieces. If you like chunks of date in your cake then don’t cut too small.
Step 3

Blanch walnuts – if skin not already removed

  • Bring a small saucepan of water to the boil.
  • Add the walnuts for about 10-12 seconds.
  • Remove with a slotted spoon and instantly plunge into ice-cold water.
  • Using a small knife, scrape away the brown skin (up to you but I don’t bother with this step – I simply rub blanched walnuts in a clean cloth).
  • Roughly chop the walnuts.
Step 4

For the crumble, put the walnuts, sugar, cinnamon and the cold butter into a food processor, pulse until the walnuts are coarsely chopped and mixture is like breadcrumbs. Tip it into a bowl and pop it in the fridge.

Step 4

Beat the butter and sugar to a soft cream, and then add the dates and walnuts.

Step 5

Whip the eggs well; beat them into the other ingredients alternately with the flour and baking powder, and lastly add the milk. 

Step 6

Put the mixture into the prepared tin and top with walnut crumble. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes

At 180°C conventional, it took 23 minutes in my oven.

Step 7

Cut into squares when cold.

Serve!