Mother’s Date-Nut Cake

My mother made this simple and satisfying date-nut loaf cake each December for holiday feasting, snacking, and cookie gift plates to share with friends. She stored it wrapped in foil with thinly sliced apples inside to keep it moist. Then we had three Christmas treasures to choose from: my grandmother’s coconut cake and fruitcake, which she baked for each of her daughters’ families, and this fine little cake.