With snow forecast this week I felt the only way to ease myself into the cold, winter weather was with a slab of cake packed with juicy sultanas, raisins and sticky dates.
This is basically a boiled tea loaf recipe (or Smiddy cake if you're Scottish), but condensed milk is used in place of sugar to add a lovely caramel flavour to the cake. I'm one of those people who enjoys drinking condensed milk straight from the tin so it saddened me that the recipe used a whole tin. There wasn't much left for my sweet tooth to scrape!
Interestingly there are no eggs in this recipe, so there wasn't much
rise, but the cake has plenty of moisture and a very soft texture.
My Dad in particular absolutely loved this cake. I think we all liked
how deep each slice was, a bit like scaling a cliff face! Stupidly I
thought this cake would last us a while due to its size, but it
barely lasted three days.
As
it's such an old fashioned, homely cake I thought I'd photograph it with Mum's 1970s
Denby which we picked up from a charity shop for a couple of pounds last
month. I suppose like a boiled fruit cake it's something you'll either love
or loathe. Personally I rather like the brown, retro charm.
Sticky date cake
Recipe found on pg26 of "Vintage Cakes" by Jane Brocket. Published 2012 Jacqui Small
275g medjool dates, halved and chopped into sixths
175g raisins
225g sultanas
250g butter
275ml water
1 x 397g tin condensed milk
300g plain flour
1 level tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 tbsp orange marmalade
Gently heat the dried fruit, butter, water and condensed milk in a large heavy based saucepan until the butter has melted. Do not over stir as you don't want to break up the dates. Bring the pan to the boil and continue to boil over a medium heat for 3 minutes until the mixture has turned a darker colour and smells of caramel. Stir the mixture occasionally to stop it from sticking. Leave the mixture to cool.
Preheat the oven to gas mark 3/160C and grease and line a 20cm round tin with baking parchment. Once the mixture is cool/lukewarm, sift in the flour and bicarbonate of soda and stir on the marmalade. Mix everything together until well combined and spoon into the prepared tin, levelling the surface. This mixture almost fills the tin but don't worry as it doesn't rise much.
Bake on the middle shelf of the oven for 2- 2 1/2 hours (mine took 2hrs 5 mins, and my oven is usually on the slow side). Check the cake after 1 hour to check the top isn't browning too quickly. If it is (mine was) lay a double thickness of tinfoil over the top of the tin and continue baking. Your cake will be fully baked when a metal skewer/knife inserted into the centre comes out clean. Leave your cake to cool in the tin.
275g medjool dates, halved and chopped into sixths
175g raisins
225g sultanas
250g butter
275ml water
1 x 397g tin condensed milk
300g plain flour
1 level tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 tbsp orange marmalade
Gently heat the dried fruit, butter, water and condensed milk in a large heavy based saucepan until the butter has melted. Do not over stir as you don't want to break up the dates. Bring the pan to the boil and continue to boil over a medium heat for 3 minutes until the mixture has turned a darker colour and smells of caramel. Stir the mixture occasionally to stop it from sticking. Leave the mixture to cool.
Preheat the oven to gas mark 3/160C and grease and line a 20cm round tin with baking parchment. Once the mixture is cool/lukewarm, sift in the flour and bicarbonate of soda and stir on the marmalade. Mix everything together until well combined and spoon into the prepared tin, levelling the surface. This mixture almost fills the tin but don't worry as it doesn't rise much.
Bake on the middle shelf of the oven for 2- 2 1/2 hours (mine took 2hrs 5 mins, and my oven is usually on the slow side). Check the cake after 1 hour to check the top isn't browning too quickly. If it is (mine was) lay a double thickness of tinfoil over the top of the tin and continue baking. Your cake will be fully baked when a metal skewer/knife inserted into the centre comes out clean. Leave your cake to cool in the tin.
