Banana, date and rum loaf cake - wheat-free, sugar-free and fat-free!

Our new year's resolution is to try to get healthy. We've started going to the gym (I know, I can hardly believe it myself) and watching the calorie counter on the cycling machines tell you that you've sweated for 10 minutes and only burned about five crisps is slightly soul-destroying, not least as it's made me feel guilty about eating cake.  One of the greatest pleasures in life!  So I have to find a way to make guilt-free cakes. This is my first attempt - it is a fat-free, sugar-free and wheat-free cake - and amazingly, it still tastes delicious!  Made with puréed dates, dried apricots and mashed banana, it's lovely and sweet without the need to add any extra sugar.  Instead of flour it uses a bit of cornmeal (or you could try polenta) to bind it together, and is full of pecans, dried cranberries and sultanas, and finished off with a good glug of dark rum (we all need a little naughtiness...).  As good as any fruit cake, and no guilt attached!

Ingredients

8 oz dates, chopped

4 oz dried apricots

8 fl. oz boiling water

2 bananas, mashed
3 oz pecans, chopped
4 oz dried cranberries

3 oz raisins
3 oz sultanas
3 ½ oz fine cornmeal

1 tsp ground ginger

1 tsp ground cinnamon

2 tsp baking powder
3 tbsp dark rum
2 egg whites

Method

1. Heat oven to 180°C and grease and line a loaf tin.
2. Place dates, apricots and boiling water in a small saucepan and simmer for 5 minutes.
3. Drain the liquid into a jug and place the dates and apricots in a food processor. Add the bananas and half the date liquid and purée.
4. In a large bowl, mix together the pecans, cranberries, raisins, sultanas, cornmeal, ginger, cinnamon and baking powder.
5. Add the date mixture and stir until combined.
6. In a separate mixing bowl, whisk the egg whites to soft peaks.
7. Fold the egg whites into the cake mixture.
8. Pour the mixture into the tin and bake for 1 hour until a skewer comes out clean. (If it's browning too fast, cover with foil.)
9. Leave to cool in the tin for 15 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

Adapted from a BBC Good Food recipe