I love one bowl cakes. I’ll often make this to put a slice as a treat in the 12year old’s lunchbox. Of course, I just throw things in willy-nilly, but this time, I wrote down measurements as I went. I use yoghurt in it because I once ran out of milk and tried substituting with yoghurt and it gave a nice moist texture. Same reason I use olive oil- I found I had no butter when I came to make it once and so used olive oil, which I liked better. 

Date, Pecan and Banana Cake

• 1 cup dates
• 1tsp bicarb soda
• 1tbsp hot water
• 10-15 pecans
• 2 soft medium size bananas
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 2tbsp plain yoghurt
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup plain flour
• 2tbsp olive oil
• 1/2 tsp ground ginger
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon

Roughly chop dates, A good way to do this is to put in the bowl and chop with kitchen scissors.  (Reserve a quarter of them.) Add a tablespoon of hot water and bicarb soda and allow dates to soften.

Add mashed bananas, olive oil, yoghurt and eggs and mix, then add flour and sugar and the dried ginger.

Get the reserved unsoaked dates and chop a little more finely. Put the pecans in a mortar and pestle and grind them up a bit, then add cinnamon and the dates. You should have a rough crumble looking mixture.

Put the cake mix into a loaf tin and thickly sprinkle the crumble mixure on top. Cook for around 45-50 minutes at 160 degrees. (You might need to lightly cover with foil towards the end of cooking to make sure dates on top don’t burn).

Serve warm with butter or with a caramel sauce and vanilla icecream as a dessert.