I'm always intrigued with the use of sticky date in cake baking. With its natural sweetness and thick gluey texture, the addition of butter and sugar in most basic sticky loaves can be pretty minimal and can be even NONE in this No-Added-Fat-or-Sugar Date Banana and Rum loaf that I have baked previously. To further emphasize how much I like to use dried date in my baking, I like to bake a sticky date cake again and this time, I like to bake this simple and classic recipe with the most old fashioned way.
This classic sticky date loaf recipe originates from the book, ABC delicious, Bake by Valli Little. Like the previous book, ABC delicious, Sizzle that I have previously reviewed at here and here, this book is one of the latest bite-sized series that is curated from the successful cookbook collection by the best selling Australian author Valli Little and the team behind Australia's ABC delicious magazine.
There are a total of 60 recipes in this book. Although it is a "bake" book, not all of its recipes are sweets. Among the savoury bakes, I'm deeply attracted to the stylish and salivating photos of chicken and taleggio jalousie, pumpkin and leek tart with pan-fried mushroom and salmon, egg and dill pie. Love to bake these too!!!
Among the bakes in this book, I have noticed many variations of recipes. Some are timeless tea-time classics like this sticky loaf that I have baked, carrot cake with cream cheese frosting, berry yogurt muffins, blueberry and lemon scones, triple chocolate fudge cookies. Some are modern and elegant like rose and raspberry meringue tarts, lavender friands and peach tartes fines with pink pepper ice cream. Some are easy and yet can create many wow factors like the party lamingtons, black forest cake, simple apricot tart and lazy lemon tart. Some are challenging like chocolate silk tart with chocolate glace oranges and monkey bun. There is one particular recipe that I find it really interesting and artistic and it is the still-life tart!
I wish that I can tell as much as I can see in this book. So, allow me to start by showing you how I baked this simple and classic sticky date loaf first...
Always my favorite old fashioned classic - Sticky Date Loaf
This recipe is from the book, ABC delicious, Bake by Valli Little
This is the photo of the loaf in this book... Pretty stylish, huh?
Remember I said that I like to bake my sticky date loaf with the most old fashioned way... and I'm baking it this old fashioned cylinder loaf tin.When I was little like maybe 5 or 6, my grandmother and I used to have this strange weakness for bread and cakes that are sold in one particular neighborhood bakery because they are round in their shapes!!! Round??? We reckon that these breads and cakes are baked in recycled cans and tins. Being curious, I have tried baking with recycled cans before but gave up the idea eventually. To me, the recycled cans are be sometimes dangerous and not so appropriate for baking as they can be rusty or sharp with rough edges.While browsing the shops in Australia, I happened to spot this nostalgic bakeware coming back in fashion again. After looking at the product closely, I recognize its brand, Daily Bake! It is one of the good quality products distributed by Donaldson, Australia. I told Donaldson that I really like this Daily Bake non-stick nut loaf and they are very generous to send me one to try.
I'm thrilled that I can bake my sticky date loaf in the most old fashioned way.
And it is to bake with this cylinder nut loaf from Donaldson.
To start, I greased both loaf pans with Alfa One Rice Bran Oil Cooking Spray
Then, I cooked the dates.
Then, I stirred in these...
... and baking soda into the hot mixture.
Allow the mixture to cool slightly and then do these.
Spoon batter into the cylinder tin and fill the tin halfway to allow room for the cake to rise.
Important: Bake the cake with the tin upright!
After baking...
This is cute! I really love this cylinder shaped cake.
I used the leftover batter to bake a miniature loaf.
It looks cute too but not as cute as the round loaf.
Whether which is cute or not, the texture of both loaf are equally moist, spongy and irresistibly yummy!
The recipe suggests that I can serve the cake with cream cheese or butter to spread and extra golden syrup to drizzle but I reckon that this cake is naturally good enough when I enjoyed it the most just on its own.
I'm sorry that I have agreed to the publisher that I can't publish the recipes in this book in this book review. To see the recipe, you can either buy this book at the retail price of AUD$19.99 or win one copy of the book here.
a Rafflecopter giveaway
This giveaway is open to ALL international readers and the submission ends on 19 May 2015. Good Luck!
Before ending this post, I like to thank ABC Delicious and Harper Collins Australia for giving me this opportunity to do this review. I like to make a disclaimer here that I'm not paid to do this review and like to share my most honest opinions and hope that everyone who read this review gain adequate insights of this book.
