Fergal’s First Birthday Cake aka Supermoist Caramel Cake

Fergal’s First Birthday Cake
aka Supermoist Caramel Cake

From Stonesoup
Sorry. Video is not available for this recipe.

This cake was inspired by the classic dessert sticky date pudding. Here we’re using the dates as our only source of sugar so I guess we could call it ‘processed sugar-free’.

Enough for 6-8 adults
250g (9oz) pitted dates
200g (7oz) boiling water
250g (9oz) unsalted butter, at room temp, chopped
2 eggs
250g (9oz) almond meal
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1. Preheat your oven to 160C (325F) fan assisted.

2. Place dates in a heat proof bowl and cover with boiling water. Stand for a few minutes while you line a loaf pan with baking paper.

3. Transfer date mixture to your food processor and whizz until you have a smooth puree. Add butter and whizz.

4. Add eggs, almond meal, baking powder and vanilla and whizz again until smooth.

5. Transfer mixture to the prepared tin. Bake for 1 hour to 1 hour 10 minutes or until cake is golden, feels springy when you touch it and a skewer inserted comes out clean.

6. Cool in the tin.

VARIATIONS
nut-free – replace almond meal with regular all purpose (plain) flour and expect the cooking time to reduce to 45 minutes or so. Also expect the texture to be less moist.

dairy-free – replace butter with coconut oil or a neutral flavoured oil.

egg-free – replace eggs with 1 large mashed banana. I haven’t tried it but expect you shouldn’t have any problems.

vegan – combine the egg-free and dairy-free variations.

round cake – should fit into a 20cm (8in) round cake pan.