Lumberjack Cake

Hello everyone, I'm back from my trip to China! It was such an incredible experience and you can look at the pictures of my Chinese foodie eats in my "Food and Travel" section here!  

When I returned back to my parents and sister in Australia, they demanded that I bake a cake the next day! I was still quite tired so I settled on some museli bars that I had made many times before.  But today, I finally felt up to trying out a new recipe.  This is called a Lumberjack cake and is densely packed with dates and grated green apples. The milky coconut topping takes this classic to a new level. It is definitely a new favourite. 

Ingredients for Cake
200g dried dates, pitted and chopped
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
125g unsalted butter, softened
1 cup caster sugar, minus 1 good tbsp
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 green apples, peeled and grated
1 cup plain flour
1/2 cup self raising flour

Ingredients for Milky Coconut Topping
75g unsalted butter
1/3 cup soft brown sugar, lightly packed
1/3 cup  milk
1 1/3 cup shredded coconut

Method
Preheat the oven to 180 degrees and prepare a round 20cm tin by lining and greasing it.  Put the dates in a saucepan with 250mL water and bring to boil.  Stir in bicarb of soda, then remove from heat.  Then, beat together the butter and sugar until fluffy.  Add egg and vanilla and beat until combined.  Stir in date mixture and grated apple.  Then fold the flours through this mixture until smooth.  Spoon batter into tin and bake for 40 minutes.  Meanwhile, put all the topping ingredients in a saucepan and stir over low heat until butter is melted and ingredients are combined.  Remove cake from oven and carefully spread topping over cake.  Bake for futher 25 - 30 minutes.  Put silver baking foil over cake if coconut starts to burn.  Expect a dense and moist cake but ensure it springs back slightly when touched before you remove it from oven.  Remove from oven and allow cake to cool completely. Cake will keep for 3 days in airtight container.