Gluten-free Date Cake (thermal cooked)

It's another (not) fine day for thermal cooking experiments.  We have guests arriving later in the day and as they are a gluten-free family, I'm trying some more experimentation.

I've previously adapted a few of my favourite recipes by substituting Aldi's gluten-free flour, so am doing that today with this recipe.  I've actually made a few substitutions.  We don't have walnuts and I'm saving the last of the macadamia nuts for something else.  I only have self-raising gluten-free flour, so used two cups of that rather than one of SR and one of plain.  We have run out of butter and olive oil spread, so I used a tablespoon of olive oil.  What else?!  I added two teaspoons of ginger.

The mixture was less dense than yesterday's carrot cake, so I used one of my weights to ensure the cake tin was touching the trivet inside the large pot. Once I transferred the large inner pot to the insulated outer pot, I swapped the 500g weight for the smaller weights - so I could close the lid(s) properly!

Update:  According to the recipe, the cake should have been done after two hours of thermal cooking. 

Sadly, it wasn't ready then, nor after an extra half an hour but we sampled it anyway - tasting the cooked parts.  The flavour was lovely but the gluten-free texture detracted from our overall enjoyment.  I think another attempt with normal flour is definitely warranted - stay tuned!