SAVE THE DATE!

There were many culture shocks for this little Australian upon moving to London in the year 2000. The slow descent by endless escalators into the depths of the London Tube. The way people standing waiting for a street to light to turn green, would edge away if you spoke to them. Not nervously – it was more that we hadn’t yet been properly introduced by a third party.

And the way Northerners, on the phone, would greet you with “You allright?” as if they have heard you are not. And the bluebells! The layers and layers of history in every building, every statue, every park. The weak egg yolk of a sun giving up the ghost at three in the afternoon. Not to mention the fact that Brussels sprouts grow on stalks, good grief.

At Egyptian and Middle Eastern stores, I could buy them as golden baubles on stems, or ‘strings’, as if they were vine-ripened tomatoes; or pick up a frighteningly large jar of gooey, dark date paste, or choose from so many different types of semi-dried dates - Wadi, Gondela, and the prized Deglet Nour.

And so this leads inevitably to a date with dates, in the form of a loaf cake packed and stacked with dates and walnuts. I’ve thrown in some dried cranberries as well, hoping their slightly more assertive flavour would counteract some sweetness (it does), and also chia seeds because it’s a very delicious way to get more chia seeds into my body.

Dried dates, the type we can easily buy in Australia, are soft but firm, with a wonderfully dark, honied sweetness. I love the Medjools, which are long, plump, wrinkled, fudgy, chewy and deeply caramel, almost butterscotch, and come at a premium price. For this recipe, however, any decent pack of dates will do, because you start by softening them into a date syrup that forms the liquid component of the cake.

At its simplest, use boiling water. For more flavour, make a strong tea or coffee instead; but really, there’s enough going on.

This is not a super-rich and super-sweet sticky date pudding or sticky toffee cake, although it’s definitely a relative. If you want good old sticky toffee pud, go here.

This is a more modest offering, proudly domestic in attitude. A cake that came to Australia by way of British tradition and tea-time culture but uses as its major flavour component a fruit that binds ancient cultures across the Middle East, symbolising their centuries of hospitality.

• 300 g dates, roughly chopped

• 50 g dried cranberries

• 100 g light or dark brown sugar

• 1 tbsp butter

• 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda

• 250 ml boiling water (or tea or coffee)

• 225 g self-raising flour

• Half tsp fine sea salt

• 2 large eggs, beaten

• 100 g chopped walnuts

• 1 tbsp chia seeds

Heat oven to 180C (fan-forced 160C).

Spray or lightly oil a 24cm x 10 cm loaf tin and line with baking paper, leaving overhang on either side for easy removal.

Combine dates, cranberries, sugar, butter, bicarbonate of soda and boiling water in a bowl.

Mix well, cover with a plate and leave for 20 minutes to cool.

Add sifted flour, salt and beaten eggs and mix with a spatula.

Fold in the chia seeds and most of the walnuts.

Pour into the prepared tin and gently tap the tin on the counter to discourage any air bubbles.

Scatter remaining walnuts on top and bake for 45 minutes, or until a bamboo skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean and the top springs back when lightly pressed.

Remove from the oven, leave in the tin for 5 minutes, then gently lift out onto the wire rack and leave until cool.

Or eat while still warm, with butter.

Don’t over-mix, and don’t over-bake; both will lead to heaviness.

If it’s a traveller, cool the cake completely, thickly slice, then re-assemble back in the cake tin for travelling.

Yes, it freezes well.

Yes, it toasts well, for breakfast.

IF you still have your mother’s 20 cm x 10 cm tube tin, and IF you can find the two ends, then grease the inside of the tube and two lids with a well-buttered piece of baking paper, then tear paper in half. Use one half to cover one end of the tin, and jam on the lid.

Place lid-side down and fill the tin to two-thirds with batter. (Any leftover batter can go into a few buttered muffin tins or cupcake papers and cook alongside for 20 to 25 minutes.)

Cover the top end of tin with remaining baking paper and jam on the lid. Sit the tin upright on a baking tray, and bake for 1 hour. Remove from the oven and leave for 20 minutes before easing out of the tin.

Thanks for dropping by! And thanks for your comments and suggestions. Special thanks to Terry for getting up on a chair to reach the loaf tin in the back of the top cupboard. At least I didn’t ask him to shimmy up a tree to get me some dates as I would have had we been back in Palma, Mallorca. (Zoom in to see the fruit - isn’t it glorious?)

And yes, I know this is not the first Thursday of the month - that’s next week, but that would also mean five weeks since my last post, and not the usual four weeks, and I couldn’t cop that, so I brought the date forward. Entirely appropriate, considering this is all about being forward with dates.

I would like to acknowledge the traditional owners of the lands and waters upon which I work, live, cook and play; the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation. Thank you for sharing your culture, traditions, knowledge, spirit, art, music, humour and food traditions, allowing us all to experience a sense of belonging in this ancient land.