Apricot Walnut Loaf

Jan in our Finance department recently put in a special request for a cake that diabetics could eat.   I was happy to oblige, as I have a number of diabetic cookbooks, and I like to expand my repertoire.  

My choice for Jan's cake was Apricot and Walnut Loaf  from p244 of Diabetes - Eat and Enjoy by C Roberts, M Cox and J McDonald. This cake, as its name suggests, is packed with dried apricots and walnuts.  However, unlike a regular cake, it contains relatively low fat and sugar, and half of the flour is wholemeal flour.  This makes it denser and less sweet than your average cake recipe, but it is still delicious.

Jan (and a few other people!) really like this cake, and I certainly enjoyed it for a change.

To make this cake, you will need:

 1/2 cup boiling water1 cup dried apricots, roughly chopped
3/4 cup wholemeal self raising flour
3/4 cup self raising flour
1 teaspoon mixed spice
1 teaspoon cinnamon
2 tablespoons margarine
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
1 beaten egg
1 cup skim milk

Pour boiling water over the apricots, stir, and stand for 30 minutes.

Preheat your oven to 190 degrees Celsius, and lightly spray a loaf tin with oil.  Sift the flours and spices together into a bowl.  Add the margarine to the bowl and rub it into the flour mix with your fingers until ti resembles breadcrumbs.

Add the sugar, apricots and their soaking water with the walnuts to the flour mixture, and combine well.  Stir in the beaten egg and milk.

Pour the batter into the prepared loaf tin, and bake for 30 minutes, then lower the oven temperature to 180 degrees Celsius and bake for another 20 minutes or until cooked through.

Remove the cake from the oven and leave it to cool in the tin for 10 minutes before unmoulding it onto a wire rack to cool completely. 

Cut the cake into 12 slices to serve.