Our nutty tamarind and date cake is one of our most popular afternoon tea cakes throughout the year and its unique spicy-sweet aromatic cardamom icing makes it stand up against the heat of a Jamaican summer as it helps to cool the body down. For over 5000 years, Ayurvedic cooking has utilised the soothing, permeating qualities of Cardamom, here at Hotel Mockingbird Hill we think its use is a great excuse to be able to eat cake no matter what the season.
Nutty Tamarind & Date Cake
Cook time
Total time
We love this cake as
Author: Barbara Walker
Recipe type: Dessert
Cuisine: Jamaican
Serves: 8
Ingredients
- 200g chopped dates
- 80g tamarind paste
- 250g unsalted butter
- 150g dark brown sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 275g plain flour
- 2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
- 175g shelled walnuts, roughly chopped
- 150g icing sugar
- 220ml water
- 8 pods of crushed cardamom
- Glaze:
- The seeds from 6-8 cardamom pods, finely ground
- Juice of ½ lemon
Instructions
- Line the base and sides of a deep, 18cm cake tin with nonstick baking paper, and heat the oven to 180C (160C fan-assisted)/350F/gas mark 4.
- Put the dates, tamarind paste and water in a pan and bring to a boil. Boil for a minute, remove from the heat, add the butter, and set aside for 10 minutes to cool.
- Add the brown sugar, stir, then beat in the eggs until smooth. Beat in the flour and bicarb, add crushed cardamom then stir in the walnuts.
- Spoon the cake mix into the tin and bake for about an hour, or until a skewer poked into the centre comes out clean. Remove and leave to cool.
- When cold, make a thick, smooth icing with the icing sugar, cardamom, juice and a little water, if needed, and spoon over the cake so it dribbles down the sides.
