This sticky cake is studded with tangy feijoas and has a chewy caramelised coconut topping added halfway through cooking and it’s just gorgeous.

Makes a 23cm cake.

Ingredients

1 cup pitted dates

1 cup boiling water

1 teaspoon baking soda

130g butter

½ cup white sugar

½ cup brown sugar

1 large egg

1 ¼ cups plain flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

Pinch salt

½ cup dessicated coconut

1 cup peeled and diced feijoa

Coconut topping:

1 cup shredded coconut

1/3 cup brown sugar

1/3 cup milk

50g butter

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 170 C. Grease and line a 23cm round baking tin.

2. Cover dates in boiling water and leave to soak for 5 minutes then add baking soda and blend to a chunky paste in a food processor.

3. Cream the butter and both sugars until pale and creamy then beat in the egg and beat for one minute more. Add the date paste to the creamed mixture and stir until combined. Sift in flour, baking powder and salt. Fold in coconut and feijoa chunks until combined. Scrape into baking tin, gently smooth the top and bake for 30 minutes. While it cooks make the coconut topping by combining all ingredients in a small pot over a low heat until melted together.

4. At 30 minute mark, gently spoon the coconut topping over the cake, in an even layer. Continue to cook for a further 25-35 minutes until topping is golden brown and a skewer inserted comes out clean. Run a knife around the edge of the cake to loosen the topping from the tin and leave for one hour before gently turning out and cooling fully.

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Mark Gregory is a chef who has worked around the world, cooking for royalty, music legends and sporting greats - and has spent decades in top European kitchens.

He’s appeared on TV shows like Ready Steady Cook and the BBC’s Good Food Show and Mark was the first kiwi chef to be awarded both the Master of Culinary Arts by the Royal Academy and France’s Master Craftsman status.

He joins Francesca Rudkin in studio to talk all things Christmas cooking and his cookbook 'Christmas at the Castle'.

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From NME - “Contrasting with this recollection, there’s a peacefulness to ‘Mahashmashana’, the tone grounded even when its author veers into psych-rock (the pounding ‘She Cleans Up’) and strutting funk (‘I Guess Time Makes Fools of Us All’). Half of its eight tracks spool on for more than six minutes and he’s not minded, these days, to explain them in interviews or on social media. Insteadhe’s bowed out from the spotlight to produce a record that tunes into love, ageing and the search for meaning without the compulsion for a punchline or wry aside.

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