Erika's Nut and Date Cake

Ingredients:

250gm. almonds

250gm. walnuts

250gm. dates

250gm. dark chocolate

6 egg whites

Half cup of castor sugar

Method:

·      Chop up nuts, dates and chocolate into small pieces.

·      Beat egg white until stiff then gradually add castor sugar while still beating.

·      Fold all the ingredients together until fairly well mixed.

·      Spoon into a greased tin.

·      Bake at 180 degrees C. for approximately 45 minutes or until cooked.

·      Serve hot or cold with whipped cream.

Nigella's Lemon Polenta Cake

INGREDIENTS Serves: 16 (Hah!)

FOR THE CAKE

• 200 grams soft unsalted butter (plus some for greasing) 
• 200 grams caster sugar 
• 200 grams ground almonds 
• 100 grams fine polenta (or cornmeal) 
• 1½ teaspoons baking powder 
• 3 large eggs 
• zest of 2 lemons (save juice for syrup) 

 FOR THE SYRUP

•  juice of 2 lemons 
• 125 grams icing sugar 

 METHOD

1.  Line the base of a 23cm / 9inch springform cake tin with baking parchment and grease its sides lightly with butter. 
2. Preheat the oven to 180°C/gas mark 4/ 350°F. 
3. Beat the butter and sugar till pale and whipped, either by hand in a bowl with a wooden spoon, or using a freestanding mixer. 
4. Mix together the almonds, polenta and baking powder, and beat some of this into the butter-sugar mixture, followed by 1 egg, then alternate dry ingredients and eggs, beating all the while. 
5. Finally, beat in the lemon zest and pour, spoon or scrape the mixture into your prepared tin and bake in the oven for about 40 minutes. 
6. It may seem wibbly but, if the cake is cooked, a cake tester should come out cleanish and, most significantly, the edges of the cake will have begun to shrink away from the sides of the tin. 
7. Remove from the oven to a wire cooling rack, but leave in its tin. 
8. Make the syrup by boiling together the lemon juice and icing sugar in a smallish saucepan. Once the icing sugar’s dissolved into the juice, you’re done. 
9. Prick the top of the cake all over with a cake tester (a skewer would be too destructive), pour the warm syrup over the cake, and leave to cool before taking it out of its tin.

Gerda's Poppy Seed Cake

Made for Gumboot Girls September 2016

Adapted from Robert’s birthday 2006

5 eggs, separated

1 cup sugar

1 cup melted butter / oil

2 cooking apples peeled and grated / cooked quinces

125g ground poppy seeds

1 teaspoons vanilla

20g baking powder

40g self-raising flour (rice or buckwheat + baking powder)

125g coarsely chopped walnuts

Icing sugar, for dusting

Preheat oven to 180°C.

Grease and line 20cm cake tin.

Beat egg whites until stiff.

Beat the egg yolks and sugar until pale.

Add remaining ingredients to the yolks, except the whites. Mix well.

Fold in the whites.

Pour mixture into prepared tin and bake for about 1 hour or until cooked when tested with a wooden skewer.

Cool then turn out onto a serving plate.

Dust with icing sugar.

Serve with yoghurt and more of the quinces.