Bunminola Bakes

Date, apricot and walnut loaf cake

So I made another cake because the apricots and dates have been sitting in the fridge for far too long. I bought them at the beginning of the lockdown, on one of my trips to Aldi and the international supermarket. I found this recipe online on Wednesday morning, I got up early because I could not sleep, work is not very nice at the moment, researching recipes was a soothing early morning activity.

The actual cake that I made differs slightly becasue I did not have apple juice or an orange. Instead I used orange juice and lemon zest. The cake itself, is OK, just OK. By 40 minutes it was quite cooked and very brown. It is a little dry in texture but then there are chunks of apriocot that provide little bursts of sweetness and moistness.

Ingredients

180g unsalted butter, melted & cooled

170g dried unsulphered apricots
8 fresh medjool dates, pitted & roughly chopped
100ml cloudy apple juice
3 tbsp water
60g light brown soft sugar

zest of one orange
1 large free range egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
200g wholemeal spelt flour
1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp ground cinnamon
pinch ground allspice
scraping nutmeg
pinch salt
50g walnut halves, roughly chopped

2 tbsp pumpkin seeds, plus extra for sprinkling
2 tbsp sunflower seeds
1 tbsp sesame seeds

Instructions

In a medium saucepan, combine the apricots, dates, juice and water. Bring to the boil then reduce to a simmer for 10 – 15 minutes, stirring occasionally, until you have a thick, almost pureed consistency. Set aside to cool.

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C/160 C fan. Butter two 500g loaf tins and line with baking parchment.

Whisk the butter into the fruit puree, along with the sugar, orange zest, egg and vanilla extract. In a separate bowl, stir together the flour, baking powder, spices, salt, walnuts, pumpkin and sunflower seeds. Stir the wet mixture into the dry and stir until just combined.

Scrape into the prepared tins and bake for 50 – 60 minutes or until a skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean. Leave to cool in the tins for 10 minutes then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.