This Hairy Bikers sticky date cake boils dates, raisins, sultanas and currants with butter and condensed milk, then bakes them slowly with marmalade. So at my 16 squares, rather than the 6 in Mums Know Best, it’s an estimated 385 calories a square and takes over 4 hours.
A lady in a supermarket gave them this recipe, told them to try it and “said ta ta”, a story they call “slightly bonkers”. And there are no eggs and no sugar on the list, since the condensed milk and fruit do the sweetening.
Patience before the flour goes in is the real trick, because the boiled fruit has to cool in its bowl before it’s folded through. And I’d guess hot fruit would set the bicarb off early, once it meets the flour.
Hairy Bikers Sticky Date Cake Recipe
Description
Four dried fruits simmer for 3 minutes in a pan of butter, condensed milk and water, then rest until cool. Then wholemeal and plain flour, bicarb and marmalade turn it into a batter for a slow bake in a lined 20cm square tin.
Ingredients
For the fruit
For the cake
To decorate (optional)
Instructions
- Line the tin: Grease a 20cm square cake tin with a little butter and line it with baking parchment.
- Boil the fruit: Put the raisins, dates, sultanas and currants in a saucepan with the butter, then pour in the condensed milk and 275ml of water. Then bring it to the boil, stirring often so it doesn’t stick, and simmer for 3 minutes.
- Cool: Pour the mixture into a large bowl and leave it to cool, which I’d allow about an hour for.
- Mix the flours: Preheat the oven to 170°C/Gas 3, or about 150°C fan by my conversion. Then mix both flours with the salt and bicarb in another bowl.
- Combine: Once the fruit mixture is cool, fold it into the flour and stir in the marmalade. Then spoon it into the tin and top with almonds and glacé cherries if you like.
- Bake: Cover the top with a double layer of baking parchment to keep it from burning. Then bake for 2½ hours.
- Cool and serve: Leave the cake in the tin for 10 minutes, then turn it out onto a cooling rack.
FAQs
Does it really serve 6?
That’s the printed count, though it’s a 20cm square cake with over 600g of dried fruit, a tin of condensed milk and 275g of butter. So 6 pieces would come to roughly 1,030 calories each by my sums, which is why the card here says 16.
Fruit cakes usually slice thinly, so 20 fingers should work too, at about 310 calories a finger.
Is this the condensed milk cake?
It’s one of them, because a whole tin of condensed milk goes into the pan with the fruit and butter. And a 2010 food blog about this recipe calls it the Condensed Milk Cake in its title.
Their stout and cocoa boiled fruit cake works on the same boil-then-bake idea, but with sugar and stout in the pan instead.
Do you need the almonds and cherries?
No, both are marked optional, so leave them off for a plain top or a cake without nuts. But if you like the look, whole blanched almonds go on before baking, along with the glacé cherries.
For a cake where the almonds are the star, their whisky and marmalade Dundee cake sets them in circles on top.
How do you stop the top burning?
They lay a double layer of baking parchment over the top for the whole 2½ hours, because that long bake would otherwise burn the top. And with a UK fan oven, I’d work from about 150°C, since no fan setting is printed.
No skewer test is given, and a member-posted copy on BBC Good Food bakes it for just 1¾ hours. So I’d start checking with a skewer from about 2 hours, which is my own safety net.
How long does it keep?
They say it “keeps well”, wrapped in foil and stored in a tin, and they rate it “fabulous for a picnic”. But no number of days is given, so about a week is my own estimate for a cake this fruity.
If you’d rather have your dates warm with sauce, their date-rich sticky toffee pudding is the warm pudding to make instead.
