Iced Date and Walnut Traybake

This delicious date and walnut traybake is a wonderfully rich and nutty cake, combining naturally sweet, soft dates with crunchy walnuts and ground almonds. Dark brown sugar adds a deep, caramel-like flavour, while a touch of cinnamon gives the cake a gentle warmth and spice.

Baked until golden and finished with a fresh lemon icing and walnut pieces, it has a lovely balance of sweetness, richness and citrus. Cut into small squares, it makes an ideal teatime treat or a comforting accompaniment to a cup of tea.

This recipe is a riff on an old Mary Berry recipe, brought up-to-date with a few tweaks and additions of my own. It can keep for a couple of days in an airtight container once it has been cut into, but also makes a great ‘bake sale’ cake because you can get around 16 decent-sized squares out of it.

And if you’re looking for other date recipes, try my sticky date buns or sticky toffee muffins. Enjoy!

Iced Date and Walnut Traybake

Recipe by Julia

0.0 from 0 votes

Servings

16

servings

Prep time

20

minutes

Cooking time

40

minutes

Ingredients

• 250g (9 oz) dates, stoned and chopped

• 40g (1½ oz) butter, softened

• 350ml (12 fl oz) hot water

• 2 eggs

• 200g (7 oz) dark brown sugar

• 150g (5 oz) ground almonds

• 150g (5 oz) walnuts, chopped

• 350g (12 oz) self-raising flour

• 1½ tsp ground cinnamon

• For the icing

• 225g (8 oz) icing sugar, sifted

• Grated rind and juice of 1 lemon

• Walnut pieces, or whole walnuts, to decorate

Directions

• Pre-heat the oven to 180°C/350°F. Grease and line the base of a 13 × 9 baking tray with greased greaseproof paper.
• Mix the dates and butter in a small bowl and pour over the hot water. Leave to cool.
• Beat the eggs and sugar together in a large bowl, then add the cooled date mixture and the remaining cake ingredients. Stir well to mix then pour into the prepared tin.
• Bake in the pre-heated oven for 40-50 minutes or until the cake is firm to the touch and golden brown in colour. Allow to cool in the tin for about 10 minutes then turn out onto a wire rack and allow to cool completely.
• For the icing, mix the icing sugar and lemon together, adding a little hot water to make a spreading consistency. Pour over the cake and gently spread out evenly with a palette knife. Decorate with walnut pieces and leave to set.