My good friend Jane gave me this recipe. It is wonderful served very fresh with a big dollop of cream!
Dense cakes such as this do work best when cooked in a ring tin.

Ingredients

• 185g pitted dried dates, coarsley chopped
• 1 cup boiling water
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 125g butter, chopped
• 250g caster sugar
• 1 egg, whisked
• 1 1/2 cups plain flour
• 1 teaspoon vanilla essence
• 2 apples, peeled, cored and diced
• topping:
• 2/3 cup brown sugar
• 1 cup shredded coconut
• 1/4 cup milk

Method

Preheat oven to 180 C
Combine dates with 1 cup of hot water and soda, set aside for 1 hour (I set aside for much less time than that). Beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Gradually beat in egg. Sift flour with pinch of salt and stir into mixture with vanilla. Mix in date mixture and apple. Spoon into a ring tin, line base with baking paper and grease and flour sides. Bake for 40 minutes or until top is set.

Place topping ingredients in a small saucepan and stir over medium heat until well combined. Remove cake from oven. Spoon topping over to cover and cook for 20-30 mins longer or until topping is golden and cake is cooked through. Remove from oven and cool in tin.