Very nutty nut and date cake

This cake is chock-full of nuts (three quarters of the cake is nuts), it’s also gluten-free and versatile — serve warm or cold, with tea or coffee, or turn into a dessert with custard drizzled on top. Since the silly season is upon us, I’ve added in glace cherries which speak of Christmas. They are optional though.

Ingredients

2 cups	Dates, chopped (Main)
½ cup	Water
1 ½ cups	Walnut halves, approx 140g
1 cup	Almonds, whole, approx 140g
2 packets	Glace cherries, red and green, 150g each
1 cup	Brazil nuts, whole, approx 140g
50 g	Butter, softened
½ cup	Brown sugar, packed
2	Eggs
1 cup	Almond flour, or ground almonds
1 tsp	Baking powder
1	Orange, finely grated zest and juice
1 tsp	Vanilla essence/extract
½ tsp	Nutmeg, freshly grated
½ tsp	Ground cinnamon

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 150C. Grease and line a medium square cake tin (I used a 20cm square tin).
2. Place dates and water in a pot and boil dates for a few minutes, stirring to break them up, until they become a paste. Stir in nuts and glace cherries.
3. In a large mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar together. Whisk in eggs, one at a time, until well incorporated.
4. Add almond meal, baking powder, orange zest and juice, vanilla, nutmeg and cinnamon, and whisk batter together until well combined.
5. Add nut and date mixture to batter (there will be about equal quantities of each) and stir together until well combined.
6. Spoon into prepared cake tin and bake for 1 hour 10 minutes. Allow to cool before tipping out.
7. Cut into chunks and serve with tea or coffee (and topped with a slice of cheese for a British twist), or with custard drizzled on top.