Banana date cake

I was craving for something sweet today. I was just going to settle for a plain pound cake and enjoy it. But DH did not want something ‘plain’. He wanted something with orange and nuts in it. There were no oranges or nuts. Then I remembered that I had cashew nuts in the pantry. I always have cashews since you never know when you have to make a last minute dessert. I adapted the Granny cake recipe from the Better Home and Gardens New baking book to make this cake.

Banana-Date cake (adapted from Granny cake recipe from BHG New Baking book)

Ingredients
3 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon ground nutmeg
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
½ teaspoon ground ginger
½ teaspoon salt
¾ cup butter, softened
2 cups mashed bananas
1 cup pitted and chopped dates
¼ cup orange juice
3 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 cup chopped cashews

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 325F. Grease and flour a 10 inch fluted tube pan
2. In a small bowl, combine chopped dates and orange juice
3. In a mixing bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking soda, nutmeg, cinnamon, ginger and salt

4. In another mixing bowl, beat butter for 30 seconds at medium speed using a electric mixer.

5. Add bananas, eggs, vanilla and the orange-date mixture to the beaten butter and beat till well combined.

6. Add all the flour mixture and beat at low speed till combined.

7. Beat at medium speed for a minute

8. Fold in the chopped cashews

9.Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for 75 minutes or till a wooden toothpick inserted towards the center comes back clean.

10.Cool the cake in pan on a wire rack for 10 minutes

11. Remove the cake from the pan and cool thoroughly

I never change or substitute ingredients when it comes to cakes. Today's experiment was new to me. I was very happy with the cake. It was moist and sweet. It did taste a bit like banana bread.

Here is the final cake,