Mini-M’s First Cake: Date & Peanut Butter Loaf

A few weeks ago I received a lovely surprise in the post - a copy of "Harley's Cookbook: The Sweet Edition" - a fundraising cook book for the Harley Staples Cancer Trust, sent to me by my very thoughtful Great Auntie C.

After a quick browse one recipe in particular jumped out - for a soft date cake - because it had relatively little margarine, or added sugar, making it a prime candidate for Mini-M-ification. After some fairly major liberties with the recipe, in terms of both ingredients and quantities, I ended up with a baby friendly cake, with no dairy and no added refined sugar.

The sliced loaf
Interleaved with greaseproof paper ready for freezing

Date & Peanut Butter Loaf (Makes 1 loaf)
  • 100g stone in dates
  • 100g self raising flour
  • 2tbsp mild olive oil
  • 1 tbsp agave nectar
  • 1 tbsp smooth unsweetened & unsalted peanut butter
  • 1/2 tsp baking powder
Preheat the oven to 150C, and grease a loaf tin.
Stone the dates, chop roughly, put in a mug and just cover with boiling water.
Leave them to steep for about 10 mins, then blend them until puply.
Sift the flour and baking powder into a bowl.
Add all the wet ingredients (date pulp, olive oil, agave nectar, peanut butter) and mix thoroughly.
Tip into the prepared loaf tin, and bake for about an hour, until a skewer into the middle comes out clean.

And here are some pics of Mini-M eating her first piece of cake...

Trying to put the whole slice all in at once

Cake? What cake? I don't know anything about any cake!

Cake is fun to crumble onto the carpet...

Showing a little more restraint with the second mouthful!

Making sure all the crumbs go in too

Cake = sticky fingers

All done! (Showing off her bottom 2 teeth)