Dates Tea Cake

You may notice that during the Ramandan, there's always alot of dates available in the supermarkets. I love these dates as they are usually very sweet, juicy and fresh, unlike those red dates that's sold all year round. Not too sure why, but i think it must be something to do with our muslim friends' diet as they will fast for a month.

I was on leave on Friday to visit some of the childcare centres open-house. By Friday morning, we were already done with the 'selection' and registration. Actually we have sort of made our mind on the childcare centre, since we have did some pre-homework. Time really flies, and my l'il baby is ready to be sent to school. By Jan 2009, he will be in school uniform and attending classes, playing with his peers, etc, and i hope he can really enjoy himself and grow up to be a fine man....wow am i thinking too far?

Anyway, i had the Friday afternoon and with the baby taking his nap, i started preparing for the bake. The dates were in the fridge for quite a while and I was thinking of how to bake with them. So when i flipped to one recipe that uses prune, i thought i could replace them with dates. This tea cake is not the cake that you have in the afternoon tea, which happyhomebaker mentioned, it is a real tea cake. However, my tea cake does not have any aroma of tea, possibly i used a rather mild one - chamomile. Anyone can suggest the type of tea to use to make a teacake? When i had the cake, it is still warm and i think it will definitely go very well with a cup of hot coffee or tea in a lazy afternoon. The texture is soft, and you could still taste the sweetness of the dates, and bites of walnuts. Nothing beats freshly baked cakes!

Ingredients/ Method:

(A)

3 eggs

80g sugar

(B)

100g dried dates (I used 130g)

1/2 tsp baking soda

80ml hot tea

(C)

150g plain flour

50g walnut, toasted

(D)

30g melted butter

1) Pit and chop dates. Pour in hot tea and baking soda. Soak for 2 hours. ( I soak mine in half an hour.)

2) Beat ingredients (A) for 10-15 mins until thicken.

3) Pour in tea with dates and mix well.

4) Fold in sifted flour into the prune mixture.

5) Pour in melted butter and roasted walnuts. Stir gently.

6) Bake in 7-inch cake tin at 170-180 deg C for 35-40 mins.