Cook With Us Week 30 - Free for all - Fresh Date & Orange Coconut Cake
I've loved baking since I was a little girl standing on my Granny's kitchen chair asking for the 'Decipe'. I could not even read but Granny obliged and patiently opened up the recipe book in front of me and taught me a trick or two.
My mother's first love was cooking and she had an amazing talent of creating fabulous meals out of nothing! Mom would give me free reign in the kitchen at times when I was in high school and I would experiment with cooking the main meal, sometimes successfully and others not so. My dear gentle Dad would finish his whole plate of food, even when the food tasted awful and thank me for a delicious meal! My Mom and brothers did not say a word about those failures, but used to tuck into homemade bread afterwards, and I would tell myself that next time it will taste better! I'm still not sure how they managed to make their full plates disappear without me seeing it :)
So I love both baking and cooking, but as the Cook with Us team, @chefsteve, @pandamama and @offoodandart have given us carte blanche with the Theme Free for all, I've gone with my first love, and that is baking.
A huge thank you to them for this wonderful opportunity and the weekly challenges, and of course this could not happen without sponsorship, so a big thank you to @curie and @sneaky-ninja for making Season Three possible. Not forgetting the other sponsors and people working behind the scenes either!
As we're currently able to buy the most luscious fresh Medjool Dates from Namibia, our neighbor on the north-western boundary, I've made a light and fluffy Fresh Date & Orange Coconut Cake with a flaked Almonds base and a delicious Coconut topping.
My cousin first introduced me to this cake when she was visiting from New Zealand and I simply had to have this recipe, it's absolutely divine and really easy as well! She called it Gareth's Mom's Date Cake, so a big thank you to Gareth's Mom, but I hope she does not mind me changing her recipe a little by adding Orange rind & juice and giving the sponge a flaked Almond base :)
Fresh Date & Orange Coconut Cake
Sponge
- 250ml Dates, chopped
- 125ml boiling Water
- 5ml Baking Soda
- 125ml Orange juice
- 125 gram Butter, at room temperature
- 250ml Sugar
- 5ml Vanilla Essence
- 2ml Salt
- 1 Egg
- Orange Rind, finely grated
- 375ml Cake Flour
- 5ml Baking Powder
- 100ml flaked Almonds
Topping
- 50 gram Butter
- 30ml Milk
- 250ml Brown Sugar
- 250ml Coarse Coconut
Method
1. Pour boiling water over dates, add baking soda and stir till it froths up, add orange juice and mix, leave to cool a little
2. Cream butter, sugar, essence, salt, egg & orange rind
3. Sift in flour & baking powder alternately with date mixture & mix
4. Line cake pan with baking paper, spray with cooking spray & arrange flaked almonds on base
5. Spoon batter into cake pan
6. Bake at 150C fan oven (160C regular) for about 40 min, test with wooden skewer
7. Carefully remove from pan and place on cake rack
8. Topping - melt all ingredients together
9. Spread onto warm cake & decorate with halved dates, orange rind and flaked almonds
The Orange rind and flaked Almond base really gave this cake extra oomph, was absolutely scrumptious!
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Absolutely luscious @lizelle! I love recipes which are passed down from friends and families. Your story about learning from your grandmother made me think about how I did the same. Such fond memories of cookinig with my grandmother, definitely the start of my love of baking! Beautiful entry! Well done and good luck my friend :)
Ah so glad you also have fond memories of baking with your Gran, thanks for your lovely comments:)
Ahhhh Lizelle. That looks so good.
Except for the dates. I'm not a very big fan. In fact, I have a self pollinating medijool date palm in my front yard. I leave them for the birdies and the lizards to feast on.
It is a truly lovely presentation, and I'm thinking I'd eat a slice if I were right nearby, it looks so good.
Thank you @bigtom13, I'm sure you would enjoy this one, dates and all! Lucky birds and lizards :)
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Once again my favourite ingredients and with my sweet tooth - this sounds too delicious for words.
Cute story too. Love your supportive family
Ah thank you @pandamama, I'm blessed with my family! Could not resist all the available fresh dates ;)
Amazing cake @lizelle! It is wonderful that you were able to learn from your granny. Your family were such great sports for letting you practice your new skill of cooking on them! That is so nice. I just love coconut and I know that I would love a slice of this cake! Thanks for sharing with us!
Ah thank you @chefsteve, I'm really blessed to have wonderful family! I also love anything with coconut ;)
Wow! Lady Lizelle please post a slice or two via courier to the Western Cape Province. Hahaha. Looks absolutely delicious and your talents should be employed in a 5 star hotel. Blessings!
Wish I could post a whole cake down ;)
Oh boy, I would have to go for a cordon Bleu cookery class then, but thank you @papilloncharity ;);)
Lovely delicious layers! I love the ingredients especially the dates. The orange-flavored cake layer looks moist and dense while the top coconut layer provides a wonderful texture. I’d love to have a slice and am sure it would be something I can truly enjoy. Great job asking the recipe from your cousin and thanks for sharing it @lizelle!
Thank you so much for your valued feedback @offoodandart, I'm so thankful for the opportunity of being able to store recipes here on the blockchain through #cookwithus :)
And many will benefit from your recipes ...
Love those family cooking traditions! And this cake looks fantastic. I adore dates, and I am sure they are even better with that orange included. A truly delicious entry, with a wonderful story to go with. :)
You're right @plantstoplanks, it's a great combo. Thank you for your lovely feedback :)
Looks good, must taste great with some healthy additions into the bake @lizelle thanks for sharing.
Thank you @joanstewart, the fresh dates are so gorgeous at the moment, could not resist making this ;)