Date and Rooibos Loaf for #thecakeslicebakers

Each month The Cake Slice Bakers are offered a selection of cakes from the current book we are baking through. This year it is The New Way To Cake by Benjamina Ebuehi. We each choose one cake to bake, and then on the 20th - never before - we all post about our cake on our blogs. There are a few rules that we follow, but the most important ones are to have fun and enjoy baking & eating cakes! 

 Follow our Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest pages where you can find all of our cakes, as well as inspiration for many other cakes. You can also click on the thumbnail pictures below to take you to each of our cakes. If you have a blog and are interested in joining The Cake Slice Bakers and baking along with us, please send an email to thecakeslicebakers at gmail dot com for more details. The Cake Slice Bakers also have a new Facebook group called The Cake Slice Bakers and Friends. This group is perfect for those who do not have a blog but want to join in the fun and bake through this book.

It is a new year and a new book - The New Way To Cake - and our choices for September 2020 were:

Date & Rooibos Loaf

• All That's Left Are The Crumbs
• Making Miracles
• Karen's Kitchen Stories

Plum & Black Peppercorn Cake

• Camille Cooks
• A Little Bit of All Right

Sour Cherry & Mahleb Crumble Cake

• A Day in the Life on the Farm

Sour Cherry & Mahleb Crumble Cake

• A Day in the Life on the Farm

This was a WONDERFUL loaf cake - perfect warmed with a smear of butter in the morning, alongside a good cup of tea - and preferably a good book! It's not overly sweet - but just sweet enough. The dates give it a wonderful deep flavor, with a touch of the tea shining through. We all loved everything about this loaf. It bakes up such a beautiful color as well!

Date and Rooibos Loaf

Ingredients
scant 1 cup boiling water
2 rooibos tea bags
1 cup pitted and roughly chopped dates
1 tsp baking soda
1/3 cup butter
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup plus 1 TBS brown sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla bean paste

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and grease a loaf pan; set aside.
2. Place the tea bags in the boiling water and set aside for 5-10 minutes to steep. Add in the dates and allow them to soften 5-10 minutes. Remove and discard tea bags, stir in the baking soda and butter until melted (if water has cooled too much, melt the butter and then stir it into the mixture).
3. In a medium bowl, sift together: flour, salt, sugar, baking powder, and cinnamon and set aside.
4. When the dates have softened, whisk in the egg and vanilla to combine. Then add in the dry ingredients. Be sure to incorporate all the flour, but careful not to overmix.
5. Scrape mixture into prepared loaf pan.
6. Bake 40-45 minutes, until a toothpick / skewer inserted into the center comes out clean. Cool in pan at least 10 minutes before turning out to complete cooling.

Recipe from The New Way to Cake