Christmas Recipes: Cakes & Tarts. No.4 of 7 - Date & Ginger Cake
By Paul Curran

Christmas recipe makes: 16 slices
calories per serving: 210
preparation time: 20 minutes
cooking time: 60 minutes
suitable for freezing

Christmas recipe ingredients:

• oil
  
• dates, stoned 125 g (4 oz)
  
• stem ginger, in syrup 50 g (2 oz)
  
• bicarbonate of soda, 2.5 ml (half tsp)
  
• milk, 50 ml (2 fl oz)
  
• butter, 125 g (4 oz)
  
• sugar, soft brown 125 g (4 oz)
  
• eggs, 2
  
• syrup, golden 150 g (5 oz)
  
• treacle, black 150 g (5 oz)
  
• flour, plain 225 g (8 oz)
  
• ginger, ground 7.5 ml (1.5 tsp)
  
• salt

Christmas recipe instructions:

1. Take a square 9 inch cake tin, grease and line with non-stick baking paper. Mix the bicarbonate of soda with the milk and chop the stem ginger and dates into rough pieces.
   
   
2. Blend together the sugar and butter, then add the beaten eggs. Stir in the stem ginger, dates, milk, treacle and syrup.
   
   
3. Blend in a pinch of salt the ground ginger and the sifted flour. Place into the cake tin and bake at gas mark 2 (150 degrees centigrade, 300 F) for about 60 minutes. Another test is to put a skewer into the mixture and it should come out clean. After baking leave the cake in the tin for 1 hour, then remove from the tin and place on a wire rack.
   
   
4. Wrap in greaseproof paper when cool.