TWD - Date Loaf

This week Mary of Popsicles and Sandy Feet (love that name!) chose Date-Nut Loaf. I was intrigued by how this would turn out as it is not the date loaf that I know and love.

I made a half recipe and left out the nuts to make it kid friendly. Oscar adores dates and he scoffed quite a few while helping me whip this up. If you have kids you'll know that his 'help' resulted in a whole lot of cleaning up afterwards!

The date loaf I am used to is rich and dark. The dates are soaked in hot water and bicarb soda which essentially turns them to mush, they are then folded through the batter rather than just being dotted throughout.

To me this was more like a pound cake that just happened to have dates in it. Not that there is anything wrong with that! The cake was moist and buttery and I had a piece warm from the oven with custard. Definitely nothing wrong with that!

This was nice for a change and is a perfect snack cake. Thanks to Mary for her pick this week! You can find the recipe on Popsicles and Sandy Feet under today's date.

TWD - Blueberry-Brown Sugar Plain Cake

It may be Thursday not Tuesday but I am so glad I decided not to skip this one. Cindy of Everyday Insanity chose Dorie's Blueberry-Brown Sugar Plain Cake and it was sensational!

In my opinion there is nothing 'plain' about this moist cake flavoured with brown sugar and studded with juicy blueberries. I didn't even bother with a dusting of icing sugar over the top. I think my tin was a little big because this looked more like a slice than a cake but it cooked in barely 25 minutes and I loved the dimply top.

We are having some really chilly weather here at the moment and this was perfect with a hot cup of tea. Now if you'll excuse me I'm going to grab another cuppa and curl up under the doona until the boys wake up!

Make sure you check out Cindy's blog for the recipe. This one's a keeper!