Unexpected flavours

One of the things I most enjoy when baking is dropping in unexpected flavours. Flavours that on paper probably shouldn’t be there. But when you eat them you’re glad they are. It’s great to watch the look of surprise on someone’s face when what you’ve served them turns out to be more than they expected.

I find it very easy to fall into the trap of only using the spice rack for savoury dishes. Ginger might be the obvious exception to this, but believe me, there are many more spices that will enhance a sweet bake. Adding extra layers of flavour. Taking cakes out of their comfort zone.

If you’re going to do this I would urge you to check just how fresh and up to date your spices are. One of the positives of our recent kitchen refurb was when clearing the old cupboards it prompted me to have an audit of what was in them. There were far more bags, packets and bottles of spice than I expected, but when I came to check the dates on them many had been lurking there for far too long. When opened up most of the scent and taste had long since faded away. So they all went out and I’m only replacing them as and when I come to a recipe requiring that spice. The difference this is making to final flavours is remarkable. 

I’ve recently made a couple of unusual combination cakes and both were hits, quickly devoured and requests for second bakes already in.

The first was sumac, spelt & apple, the second date, toffee and cardamon. If you’ve clicked the link for the first cake you’ll have seen it’s a Benjamina Ebuehi recipe. Her book The New Way To Cake is one of the most used in my kitchen and I can’t recommend it highly enough. I’ve made virtually everything in it and I’m now eagerly awaiting her second volume, due next spring. 

The date, toffee and cardamon cake was my version of a recipe I saw in a magazine. If you make this I’d recommend you keep it in the fridge. Ours lasted about four days and the flavours seemed to get stronger as the cakes aged. Chilling also helps to firm up the toffee topping.

Ingredients

Cake

• 150g chopped pitted dates
• 140g unsalted butter
• 180g caster sugar
• 0.5tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 1 tsp vanilla paste
• 120g natural yoghurt
• 200g self-raising flour
• Ground seeds from 4 cardamom pods

Toffee

• 40g unsalted butter – softened
• 40g dark brown sugar
• Ground seeds from 4 cardamom pods
• 100ml double cream

Filling

• 200ml double cream
• 2tbsp caster sugar

Method

• Grease 2 20cm cake tins and preheat the oven to Gas 4/Fan 160
• Put the dates and 200 ml of water in a pan and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer for 10 minutes, then set aside to cool.
• In a bowl, use an electric whisk to cream together the butter and sugar. Then add the remaining cake ingredients and the softened dates. Stir the mixture until combined and then pour into the two prepared tins. Bake for 25 minutes.
• To make the toffee heat the butter and sugar in a pan, stirring until the sugar has melted. Then remove the spoon and let the mixture bubble for about another minute before adding the cardamon and cream. Let it bubble for another minute then set aside to cool.
• Once the cake and toffee are cool, whip together the cream and sugar for the filling. Put one of the cakes on a plate, cover this with the cream filling, add the second cake and then pour the toffee on top.