Cake Ingredients:
133g treacle 180ml milk
66g dark brown sugar 133g dates (chopped)
168g butter 100g caramel
2 eggs 225g gluten free self-raising flour
1 ½ teaspoon bicarbonate of soda 1 tablespoon ground ginger
1 tablespoon cinnamon ½ teaspoon mixed spice
Frosting:
80g butter 250g icing sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract 2 tablespoon caramel
2 teaspoons of milk Extra caramel for decorating
Caramel:
100g butter 100g soft brown sugar
397g condensed milk
This is absolutely one of my favourite cakes. I have tried this with gluten free flour and ordinary flour, and I honestly can’t tell the difference. There are so many flavours and the sponge is so deliciously soft, that this is a perfect gluten free cake.
Start by making the caramel. Put the butter in a pan and heat gently. Then add the sugar and stir until the butter and sugar begin to melt. The butter will sit at the edge of the pan, so stir it back to the middle. You want to get to the stage where there is no more excess butter in the pan and all you have is bubbling caramel. Continue to stir on a low light for another minute or so until it thickens.
Put the caramel to one side to cool, while you make the cake. You can, of course, use shop bought caramel.
Chop the dates as finely as you can. Then put them in a pan with the treacle, milk and sugar and bring the mixture to boiling point. Then turn the heat down and simmer for around 3 minutes, until the dates are soft.
Cut the butter into cubes and stir it into the mixture until the butter melts.
Pour into a large bowl and put to one side until it cools.
Mix all the dry ingredients together in your mixing bowl, i.e. the flour, the bicarbonate of soda and all the spices. Make a dip in the middle of the dry ingredients and add the cooled date mixture, the eggs and the caramel and whisk until all the lumps have gone and everything is properly blended. This will probably take around 2 minutes.
Split the cake mixture between two 20cm cake tins, which have been lined with baking paper, and bake for 30 minutes at 180 degrees. The smell in your kitchen will be wonderful!
Allow the cake to cool on a cooling tray and then make the frosting.
Mix the icing sugar, butter, caramel and milk together and whisk for at least 4 minutes, until it the frosting is soft and fluffy. The more you whisk it, the lighter it gets.
Sandwich the cakes together with half the frosting and put the other half on top. Put the cake in the fridge for the frosting to set.
To make the caramel decoration, heat the caramel in the microwave until it softens and use a spoon to drizzle the liquid caramel over the cake. Make sure the frosting is cold so that the warm caramel cools as it hits the cold cake and drips down the side.
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