Recipe

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.