Ingredients
Cream cheese frosting
Method
1.Preheat oven to 170°C (150°C fan-forced). Grease a 22cm square cake pan; line base and sides with three layers of baking paper.
2.Bring ginger beer to the boil in a small saucepan. Remove from heat; stir in dates and soda (mixture will froth up). Stand for 15 minutes or until dates are softened. Transfer mixture to a food processor; pulse until coarsely chopped.
3.Beat butter and sugar in a medium bowl with an electric mixer for 6 minutes or until pale and fluffy. Beat in eggs, one at a time, until well combined. Add combined sifted flour and baking powder alternately with combined milk and extract, beginning and ending with flour; beat until just combined. Fold date mixture into cake mixture. Spoon mixture into pan.
4.Bake cake for 1 hour 25 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean (you may need to cover the cake with baking paper for the last 20 minutes to prevent it from overbrowning). Stand cake in pan for 10 minutes before turning, top-side up, onto a wire rack to cool.
5.To make cream cheese frosting; beat ingredients in a small bowl with an electric mixer for 6 minutes or until smooth.
6.Spread cream cheese frosting over cake.
Don’t be too concerned if your cake has a small dip in the middle; it will be covered with icing.
Note
