Date Walnut Cake

I like to add something healthy in my bakes and dates and nuts definitely qualify as healthy! There are many ways to make a date cake, you can add chopped dates or blend the dates and then add. In this recipe, I chose to blend the dates and make a puree and add to the batter. My family loves nuts so I add lots of it to the batter! This made an awesome soft, moist nutty cake!

DATE WALNUT CAKE
Preparation time 15 mins | Baking time 35 mins | Makes one 9" cake

Ingredients

• Dates - 2 cups, chopped
• All purpose flour/maida - 1 cup
• Wheat flour - 1 cup
• Eggs - 3
• Sugar - 1 cup (I used 3/4th cup)
• Milk - 1/4 cup
• Oil - 1 cup
• Baking soda - 1/2 tsp
• Baking powder - 1 tsp
• Vanilla - 1 tsp
• Cinnamon powder - 1/2 tsp
• Walnuts - 1/2 cup to 1 cup (as per preference)
• Salt - 1/2 tsp
• Hot water - to soak dates

Method
1. De seed the dates and chop them into small pieces. Soak the dates in just enough hot water. Add baking soda and mix well. Let this rest for 30 mins to 1 hour. This is to soften the dates. After 1 hour, add 1/4 cup milk and blend to a fine paste and set aside.

2. Pre heat the oven to 180 degrees C. Grease and line a 9 inch baking pan. In a large mixing bowl, add the vanilla and eggs one at a time and beat using an electric mixer until light and frothy.

3. Add the sugar and beat again. Add the oil and beat again.
4. Now add the dates puree and beat again. 

5. Sieve the flour, salt, baking powder and cinnamon powder. Add in small batches and fold with the wet ingredients.

6. Coat the chopped walnuts with 1 tbsp of flour and mix well until it is well coated. Add the walnuts to the batter and mix in.

7. Pour the batter into the greased pan and bake for 35-40 minutes or until a tooth pick/skewer comes out clean.

8. Let cool in the pan for 10 minutes and then turn onto a cooling rack and cool completely.

Notes
1. You can add 2 cups of all purpose flour instead of wheat flour.
2. Add any nuts of your choice. 1/2 cup is more than enough but we like nuts so I added more.
3. Coating the nuts with flour prevents it from sinking to the bottom of the cake.
4. The cake tastes awesome after a few hours when all the flavors have seeped in.
5. I used only 3/4th cup sugar since the dates were very sweet. Adjust the sugar depending on the sweetness of the dates. I used 3/4th cup of granulated white sugar but powdered it after measuring to make it easy to dissolve.



Until next time,

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