When Toddler Mash was born, the labour took 33 hours and we then had to stay in hospital for a further three days. The hospital food was OK, all things considered, but sorely lacking in terms of snacks, so Ash had to make a few trips to the shops to pick up supplies. Three years later, awaiting the arrival of Baby Mash, we were fully prepared for this eventuality and had a big bag full of every food we might need (both savoury and sweet, healthy and unhealthy), one of which was a Tupperware full of dates, which we thought would be a high sugar, high energy survival food.
In the end, Baby Mash charged his way out in less than 6 hours, arriving only 13 minutes after we got to the hospital, and we were discharged the same day, so other than a pack of biscuits and some chocolate coated ginger (best snack ever, just saying), we brought all of our provisions home with us again. The early days of sleep deprivation with a newborn (and a very wakeful toddler) need real refined sugar, not substandard natural fruit sugar, so the container of dates has sat sadly in the cupboard, waiting for its time to shine. And that time was 20 days later when, with Baby Mash strapped helpfully in the baby carrier, Miranda attempted to assemble and bake Burundian date and banana mix without waking him up. (The assembly was successful; he woke up before it finished cooking but we are still counting this as a win!)
Date and banana mix
Ingredients
220g butter, melted
1 cup sugar (we used granulated because we had some to use up and it worked fine; caster would obviously also work)
2 eggs
4 cups plain flour
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
4 bananas, sliced (we only used 3 because that was enough to create a layer in the tin)
1 1/2 cups chopped dates (we only used 1 cup for the same reason as above, and also because chopping dates is tedious)
2 tbsp butter, melted (we didn’t need all of this)
2 tbsp sugar (we only used 1tbsp which was plenty)
1 tbsp ground cinnamon (again, we used half this amount)
Method
1. Beat the 220g butter with the sugar.
2. Add the eggs one at a time, fully incorporating the first before adding the second.
3. Mix in the flour, salt and baking powder – this will take quite a bit of stirring as it is a very dry mixture but persevere until the flour is fully mixed in.
4. Line a baking tin with greaseproof paper (the one in the recipe was 7×10″; we used tin because that’s what size we had) and spread half the dough in the pan, pressing down with your fingertips.
5. Add a layer of banana slices.
6. Add a layer of dates.
7. Cover with the remaining dough.
8. Bake at 180C for about 30 minutes until golden brown.
9. Brush the top of the cooked cake with the 2 tbsp melted butter and sprinkle with a mixture of sugar and cinnamon.
Makes 10 generous pieces
It’s hard to believe that such a dry, crumbly dough could somehow turn into a cake in 30 minutes in the oven – but it did! The texture, probably unsurprisingly, is a lot like shortbread. Apparently date and banana mix is actually best served warm, which would give it more of a soft and spongy texture, but beggars can’t be choosers and frankly we were happy to have any homemade cake at all at this stage of parenthood. And for something so simple, this cake is really good! We think it’s the cinnamon sugar sprinkled on top that really makes it. With the amount of butter and sugar in it, you’d be hard pressed to get away with calling it healthy, but the bananas and dates do provide some nutritional value. And mixing in all of that flour is a workout, so we’re sure it all balances out. (That said, if you want to upset the balance a bit, we reckon this would go really nicely with some custard.)
Good Food on Bad Plates 