SPICY PRUNE CAKE

“Smell is a potent wizard that transports you across thousand of miles and all the years you have lived.” - Helen Keller

Definitely a winter’s night tonight, wet, cold and dark! It’s the sort of night that begs you to come home quickly, turn the heater on and prepare something hot and filling that will smell delicious and taste scrumptious. The type of cooking that warms the air of the house with its aroma and ensconces itself in memory for later nostalgic reminiscences. Such a reminiscence is the cake below that always conjures up for me past winter afternoons at our house where the spicy, fruity aroma of baking permeated the house and promised delicious eating. I haven’t had this cake for some time now and the cold weather this year has made me hanker after it!

PRUNE AND WALNUT CAKE
 
Ingredients - Cake
 2 cups sugar
1 cup vegetable oil
1 tbsp unsalted butter
3 large eggs, beaten
1.5 cup milk
1 cup plain flour
1.5 cups self-raising flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground cloves
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
1/2 tsp ground allspice
1/2 tsp ground mace
1 cup prunes, pitted and finely chopped, soaked in Benedictine liqueur
1 cup chopped walnuts
½ cup sultanas
2 tsp vanilla essence

Sauce
1.5 cup sugar
3/4 cup milk
1/2 tsp baking soda
2 tsp vanilla essence
3/4 cup butter

Method
For the cake, blend sugar, butter and oil; add eggs and beat well.
Sift dry ingredients together; add alternately with buttermilk to the sugar mixture, beating well after each addition.
Add walnuts, prunes, and vanilla.
Stir to distribute well through batter.
Pour batter into a greased and floured 22x33x5 cm baking tray
Bake at 175˚C for 35-40 minutes, or until cake tests done with a skewer.
While cake is baking, prepare the sauce.

For the sauce, combine all ingredients in saucepan. Bring to boil and boil one minute. Pour immediately over cake while still hot from the oven. Let cool completely in pan.

This cake is quite delicious and one can even be convinced that this cake is healthy! The prunes, sultanas and walnuts have much fibre that works as a laxative to assist the intestinal movement and break down bulky foods.