Kindness Cake

Ingredients:

• 1 cup butter softened
• 1 1/2 cups white sugar
• 3 large eggs
• 1 tablespoon freshly grated orange rind
• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 cups buttermilk
• 1 1/4 cups chopped pitted dates
• 1 cup cranberries fresh or frozen
• 1 cup chopped almonds
• 2 tablespoons butter softened
• 2 cups icing sugar sift through a sieve after measuring to remove lumps
• 2 tablespoons orange juice

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F; line 2 8x4 loaf pans with parchment paper and set aside
• In a mixing bowl beat butter with sugar until mixture is fluffy
• Next beat in eggs 1 at a time then stir in orange rind
• In a separate mixing bowl combine flour baking soda and powder and salt
• Stir dry mixture into butter mixture alternately with buttermilk dry buttermilk dry buttermilk finally dry
• Into this batter stir in dates cranberries and almonds just until combined
• Scrape batter into the two prepared loaf pans and bake in the centre of preheated oven until a tester comes out clean about 75 minutes
• Turn out onto cooling racks and cool completely
• You could now wrap cakes in heavyduty foil and freeze for up to one month if you wish
• To make icing beat butter with just 1/4 cup of the icing sugar then beat in orange juice
• Beat in remaining sugar until icing is smooth
• Spread icing over tops of both cakes