Cake & Jollyd'ale

It's been a bright and sunny day, and I should have been in the garden Grafting, but it's also been a bit cold, so instead I've been in the kitchen baking. In a bid to use up some Dates which didn't make it into our Christmas Pudding, I made a Date & Cider Cake using a recipe from Anna's Cakes of Exeter website.

It's a real 'local' cake this one. The flour is from Claybrooke Mill, butter is Lincolnshire Poacher, local Honey, Northants Cider, Dates from Waitrose...

The cider is from a new producer to me, just down the road in Woodnewton, Northants. Jollydale Cider is made from Shropshire grown cider apples, and has a pleasant, well-rounded, fruity flavour, though even the dry version is a little too sweet for my taste. You can buy bottles of this cider from Amps Fine Wines in Oundle, or the excellent Tobie Norris pub in Stamford.

The cake! Delicious. Anna's slightly alchemical AGA cooking times didn't quite do it for us. An hour in a fan oven at 160C should do the job.