Banana, Date and Walnut Loaf Cake

I am delighted to make this cake my first post of the new year, in fact I'm a tad smug.  Why, you ask?  I'll tell you why...it is slightly gooey yet light, full of fruit and crunchy walnuts, very easy to make and...(drum roll please)...it has no added fat or sugar!  And if we're going to get really excited, it's dairy free too!!

I even went as far as to calculate the calories in it and, going on the premise that you will get 14 slices, it is approximately 130 calories per slice.  I'd like to point out that this is not going to become a regular thing, rather an early-January enthusiastic calorie awareness on my part...I doubt it will last, it never does!

You can replace the walnuts with pecans if you prefer, if you don't like nuts at all you can replace them with sultanas, dried cranberries or glace cherries.

You should get about 14 generous slices

Ingredients

125g Dates, finely chopped

100ml Apple Juice

2 Medium Bananas

1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract

Juice of half a Lemon

1 Large Egg

200g Self-Raising Flour

1 teaspoon Baking Powder

Pinch of Salt

75g Walnuts, chopped

• Put the chopped dates with the apple juice into a small pan.  Bring slowly to the boil then turn off the heat and leave to cool slightly.
• Preheat the oven to 175C and line a loaf tin with greaseproof/baking paper.
• In a small bowl, mash the bananas with the lemon juice and the vanilla extract then mix in the egg.
• Tip the self-raising flour into a mixing bowl then mix in the baking powder and pinch of salt.
• Pour in the mashed banana and egg followed by the cooled date mixture and stir thoroughly to combine.  Finally stir in the chopped walnuts.
• Spoon the mixture into the lined tin and bake in the pre-heated oven for 35 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean when inserted into the middle of the cake.
• Leave to cool for a few minutes then transfer the cake out of the tin and onto a cooling rack to cool completely.  To store, wrap the cake in baking paper and keep in an airtight container.