Date banana cake

Date:    Tue, 27 Jul 93 14:18:16 BST
 From:    Michael Traub 
 
 Low fat Date and Banana Cake
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 This  recipe  is  my modification of the one found in "The Vegan Cookbook",
 by  Gordon  Baskerville  and  Alan  Wakeman,  published  by Faber and Faber
 1986.
 
 2/3 lb	Wholemeal Flour
 2 tbsp	Baking Powder
 6	Dates, pitted
 2 tbsp	Date Syrup
 1 tbsp	Barley Malt Extract
 3	Bananas
 3 tsp	Vanilla Essence
 1/8 pt	Soy Milk
 1/8 pt  Water
 1/4 lb	Apple Sauce
 1 doz	Whole Almonds to Garnish
 
 Mix  the  flour and baking powder together. Cut the dates up with a pair of
 scissors  and  add  to  the  flour.  Put  the bananas, the date syrup, malt
 extract,  apple  sauce,  vanilla  essence, water and soya milk in a blender
 and  blend  for  about twenty seconds. You don't really want the bananas to
 be  totally  pulverised,  a  few little chunks are nice. Mix the liquid and
 dry  ingredients  together.  Place  in  a 6 inch baking tin, which has been
 previously  coated  with  non-fat  spray  and dusted with flour. Optionally
 place  a  few  almonds  on top of the cake for decoration. Spray the top of
 the  cake  with  a  little soya milk or oil (optional, though the cake gets
 quite  crusty  without  it).  Bake in an oven at about 170 deg C/ 340 deg F
 for approximately an hour or until a knife comes out clean.
 
 This  makes  quite  a  substantial cake. To make a lighter cake use a flour
 with  less  bran  in  it  and  use  concentrated apple juice as a sweetener
 instead of barley malt extract.