'The Queens' Date & Walnut Cake Recipe

In an earlier post I talked about the fresh walnuts I had got from Alberton House. I still had some walnuts left to use and I remembered the deliciously light Date & Walnut Cake recipe that my friend Vicky had made for my birthday. I asked Vicky for the recipe and was delighted to discover that it was in an old hand-written recipe book and mysteriously titled “The Queens Recipe” (she had no idea why it was called this).

After a bit of searching I discovered that there are various stories about this that are quite possibly just a nice urban myth. It also varies as to whether it refers to the current Queen Elizabeth or the Queen Mother when she was Queen Elizabeth (sometimes it is called the Queen Mother’s cake). It is proclaimed to have been her favourite cake or the only cake that she bakes by herself. It is also said that it must only be made to raise money for charity. It has appeared in many recipe books all around the Commonwealth since the 1940s with all sorts of variations on the date and walnut theme. Vicky made hers with a lemon icing, others serve it with a caramel sauce or with a fudge icing, with walnuts or coconut sprinkled on top, and in one version the coconut topping is put under a grill (“A scrumptious date nut cake that is truly fit for a queen. It is crowned with a grilled coconut topping”).

1 cup dates (pitted)
1 tsp baking soda
1 cup boiling water
50g butter
1 cup sugar
1 egg
1 tsp Vanilla
1 1/2 cups flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 cup walnuts (chopped)