Date and Almond Crumble Cakes 🍪

These are adapted from a very traditional Syrian recipe. I grew up eating them, so they feel really nostalgic ☺️

Eli loves anything with dates, so I’m very excited to give him one of these when he wakes up from his nap!

Most of the cakes I make for Eli are rich in fibre, low in added sugar, and usually contain fruit or nuts.

Dates provide fibre and natural sweetness, as well as small amounts of minerals including iron and calcium. Because they are naturally sweet, you don’t need to add much sugar to the recipe.

Almonds provide healthy fats, protein, and vitamin E, and they give these cakes a lovely crumbly texture.

Recipe (makes 8 mini cakes)

For the filling

• 80g dates, stones removed and chopped into small chunks

• 1 tsp water

• A squeeze of lemon

• 1/2 tsp of cinnamon

For the crumble mix

• 40g softened unsalted butter

• 1tsp runny honey

• 40g wholemeal flour

• 40g fine semolina

• 10g ground almonds

Method

• Preheat oven to 180c. Add all the filling mix to a pan and cook for 3-5 mins, until thick and sticky.

• In a bowl, rub the butter with the honey, flour and semolina until you have your topping.

• Grease 8 muffin tins and add half the crumble mix to the base of the tins and press it down. Then add the date mix, followed by the rest of the crumble mix.

• Add the ground almonds to the top of the cakes and press the nuts lightly into the crumble topping.

• Bake for 12 mins.

• Leave to cool before removing from the tins.