Earl Grey Tea Cake

If the eat-ability of a cake is determined by how much cake batter the cook eats, then this cake is plenty eatable.

Earl Grey Tea Cake
slightly adapted from Donna Hay

140g dates, chopped
1 teaspoon baking soda
180ml strong hot earl grey (I used two tea bags and brewed them for 5 minutes)
185g self raising flour, sifted
135g light brown sugar
2 apples, peeled and grated on the finer side of a box grater
150g unsalted butter, melted
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
4 eggs, beaten

Preheat the oven to 170 C. Grease a 23cm x 13cm loaf pan with cooking oil spray and line the base and the long sides with baking paper.

Put the chopped dates, hot tea and baking soda into a blender and leave them to soak for 10 minutes. Once soaked, blitz until you have a smooth puree. Set aside.

Place the flour and sugar in a large bowl and whisk to combine and aerate. Add the grated apples, melted butter, vanilla, eggs and date mixture. Mix well with a spatula.

Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for 50 - 60 minutes, until a skewer inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean.

Allow the cake to cool in the pan for 10 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.