Marrakech express loaf

Despite the name, this is a cake, not a loaf. In terms of consistency, it's on the opposite end of the cake spectrum from, say, the Victoria Sponge. If you like your cakes rich, moist and sticky then this is for you.

There's nothing subtle about this cake, it's a big-hitter on flavours and where it lacks on aesthetics, it wows on taste. Most people i give this to wax lyrical after the 1st mouthful.
Best of all, making it is a piece of cake.

Thanks to Dan Lepard for 1st introducing me to this. He's a master baker with real flour-power and has loads of great bread and cake recipes on his website: http://www.danlepard.com/

Serves 1 (if i'm eating it)

300ml black coffee
the crushed seeds of 6 - 8 cardamom pods
1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
zest 1 small lemon
2 tbsp honey
2 tbsp pomegranate syrup, or treacle
125g dark molasses or muscovado sugar
75g unsalted butter
150g chopped stoned dates
1 large egg
100g chopped walnuts or pecans
2 tbsp sesame seeds
125g spelt or wholemeal flour
100g hemp flour, or more spelt
2 tsp baking powder

Line the base and sides of a 1 lb loaf tin with non-stick baking parchment. Pour the coffee into a saucepan and add the spices, lemon, honey and pomegranate, sugar, butter and dates. Bring to the boil then leave until cool. Beat in the egg, stir in the walnuts and sesame seeds. Sift the hemp, plain flour and baking powder though a coarse sieve, as the oil in the hemp flour makes a fine one clog up, straight into the saucepan, stir everything together well and spoon it into the tin. Heat the oven to 180C (160C fan-assisted) and bake for about 40 minutes or until a skewer poked in comes out clean. Let it cool, remove from the tin and wrap well, and it's even better the day after baking.