What we have been eating recently 4

For a start, some of us have been eating things we weren't supposed to:

I call this the 'well, it's your fault for leaving the chocolate spread jar on the side where I could reach it after dragging the stool across the kitchen and climbing up' expression. Harriet can add it to her croissant stealing expression, I suppose.  As for the rest of us, we've been enjoying a new cake recipe

that definitely deserves sharing.  Ladies and gentlemen, I present this:

though I'm not quite sure what to call it because it depends on how you vary the recipe.  The original recipe was called Delicious Date Loaf - and it was, but I find it impossible not to fiddle with a recipe so the incarnation above is actually pretty darn close to a McVities Jamaica Ginger cake.  Not that I can pop out and buy one in NZ to do a taste comparison, so I suppose I should say that it seems a lot like how I remember a McVities Jamaica Ginger cake to taste!  Anyway, I'll give you both versions.

Delicious date loaf

1 1/2 cups chopped dates

3/4 cup water

zest and juice 1 orange

1/2 cup milk

150g butter at room temperature

1 1/4 cups soft brown sugar

1 egg and 1 yolk

2 tsps vanilla essence

2 cups plain flour

2 tsps baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp mixed spice

1 tsp ground ginger

Recipe credit: adapted from Homemade Happiness by Chelsea Winter

Preheat the oven to 160C or 150C fan.

Find a loaf tin (approx. 23cm x 10cm) and line inside if not non-stick.

Put the dates, water and orange juice and zest in a small saucepan and simmer until the dates are soft and the liquid mostly evaporated. Add the milk (yes, it will look pretty yuck but don't worry) and leave to cool.

Cream the butter and sugar and beat in the egg and yolk.  Add the vanilla and the cooled date mixture, and then sift in the remaining ingredients. Fold in gently until all the ingredients are combined.

Put in the loaf tin and cook for approx. 1hr 20 min or until a skewer comes out clean.

Rather oddly, from my point of view anyway, the original recipe suggests serving sliced and buttered.  Really?  Maybe it's your patriotic duty as a Kiwi to consume as much butter as possible to support the national dairy industry?  Anyway, I decided it would work as a pudding and oh yes, I was right.  Served warm with a drizzle of caramel sauce and a dollop of ice cream, it made for a gorgeous sticky toffee pudding kind of experience.  Mmmmm, happy thoughts. 

For the alternative ginger version in the picture above, I omitted the cinnamon and mixed spice and boosted the ginger to 3 tsps. I also puréed the date and orange mixture before stirring it in.  Next time I make it, I think I'm going to stick to the original spices but use whole dates and add some walnuts.  Watch this space...

I've also come across some descriptions of people making their own Nutella, which is convenient now that Harriet's emptied our jar so I'm going to give that a go and will report back in due course!