Shirley Cake

Remember Molly Cake? I believe I introduced you back in February. Here then is her sister, Shirley Cake.

They are definitely related, both having softened dates running through their crumb but Shirley is the slightly more sophisticated, decidedly more decadent of the two. I have known 'Shirley' since I was a child and lately I have found myself feeling very nostalgic for cakes as they used to be. Maybe I have just been in the wrong tea-rooms and cake shops lately and I know one doesn't turn to cake to  seek dietary, nutritional virtue, but it seems to me that  stylized presentation is placed above all other considerations. The cakes themselves are often little more than bland platforms for disproportionate amounts of filling and  elaborate, brightly coloured frosting. So here then is a cake where the crumb is distinctive and the frosting is simply 'the icing on the cake'.

Shirley Cake

Ingredients

For the Cake

• 70g stoned chopped dates
• 50g walnuts chopped (plus extra for decoration)
• 130g plain flour
• 125g butter
• 65g caster sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
• 1 tablespoon golden syrup

Preheat the oven to 180C,  170C for a fan assisted oven.
Lightly butter and line a cake tin. I used a square 20cm x 20cm tin.

You will need to: 

1. Mix the bicarbonate of soda with half a cup of warm water and add the chopped dates to soak.
2. Beat the butter and sugar together until creamed and then add the golden syrup.
3. Beat in the egg.
4. Mix in the date/soda mixture.
5. Sift together the flour and baking powder and stir into the mixture. 
6. Pour the mix into the tin, level it and bake for 45 minutes. Use the skewer test to see if it is cooked properly.
7. Allow to cool in the tin for 5 minutes before turning onto a cooling rack. When it is cool you can procede with the topping.

For the  topping.

Ingredients

• 125g dark brown Muscovado sugar
• 25g butter
• 2 tablespoons milk
•  1 teaspoon vanilla essence

You will need to:

1. Put the sugar, butter and milk into a saucepan and stir over low heat until the butter has melted and the sugar has dissolved.
2. Boil for 3 minutes.
3. Take it off the heat and add the vanilla essence. Let it cool for a minute.
4. Use a wooden spoon to beat the mixture until it begins to thicken. 
5. Spread over the cooled cake and decorate with walnut halves.

 Tip:
 If you want the glossy, soft topping just like Mother used to make - and why wouldn't you? - then don't get distracted at the boiling stage and leave it any longer. Over beating will also make it matt and grainy (and I should know).

So when the evenings start to draw in and afternoon tea in front of the fire seems a very welcome idea then this is the kind of cake that would go down very well. Not all dark brown cakes have to be chocolate or coffee - there is scope for a dark caramel flavour too. Isn't that a comforting thought?

Molly Cake

Is it too soon to be thinking about spring cleaning? I thought I might start with the larder as in preparing for Christmas I often buy  ingredients that I might not use up for sometime afterwards. It might because everyone has had their fill of the kinds of recipes that need them or else everyone is trying to uphold the virtue of restraint and are simply not interested in cakes, biscuits or snacks of any kind. There are handfuls of dried fruits, nuts and that extra pack of dates we thought we might need; little bits of this and that. This presents the ideal circumstances for making Molly Cake.

I first came upon this cake at a John Lewis food court. Waiting to order a cup of tea, I decided it wouldn't hurt to cast a casual eye over the display on the cake shelves. And there it sat, a slice of Molly Cake with its label declaring it to be free of added refined sugar and fat, it was as good as saying "Look if you are gazing at the display in this case you are probably planning to eat cake and this is likely to be the healthiest option." I had never heard of Molly Cake before and having tried it and liked it well enough to want to try baking one I searched the internet for a recipe. Several sites had recipes and all were quite similar so I thought the most appropriate choice would be the recipe on the Waitrose site.

Like Glad Tidings it uses softened dates to bind the other ingredients together so along with the ground almonds and dried fruit it is just the thing to use up those remnants of Christmas baking. It is good at other times of the year too and I have substituted a pack of chopped dried fruit salad for the fruit element. The flavours of the dried peaches, apricots and pears worked really well.  Either way it is well worth making.
Please don't remind me that although it has no added refined sugar, the dried fruit and dates have sugars of their own and that it is not a low calorie snack. The lack of added fat and the wholemeal flour have to count for something, right?