Dates Cake

Dates cake doesn’t it sound exciting? I feel baked good with dates not only has a sweet taste but it also has a deep flavour which is better than sugar.

I absolutely love to bake anything with dates. I love adding dates in breads, puddings and this time I thought of making a cake.

There are very few puddings I can eat over and over again, one of them is Sticky Dates Pudding. For me it’s simple, classical and delicious. The inspiration for this cake comes from that humble sticky date pudding.

For a longest time I was thinking of making a dates cake but because of my diet I was holding that desire back. But a few days ago I gave in and to contribute to this year’s World Baking Day I baked this wonderful cake.

To make it more interesting I made a toffee sauce and I drizzled it on the cake. Let me tell you, what an amazing combination that was. It eats better warm with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

Give this recipe a try!

Toffee Sauce:

Ingredients:

• 100g brown sugar
• 1 tbsp golden syrup
• 25g unsalted butter
• 120 ml double cream
• ½ tsp rock salt

Instructions:

In a saucepan heat sugar, golden syrup with 3 tbsp water for 5-7 minutes or until the sugar has caramelised to golden brown. In a separate pan heat cream until comes to a rolling boil. Add the hot cream, butter and salt to the sugar syrup and whisk it well till it’s all combined.

Ingredients:

• 200g plain flour
• 150g muscovado sugar
• 1 tsp baking powder
• ½ tsp cinnamon and ginger powder
• ¼ tsp salt
• ¼ tsp nutmeg powder
• 115g pitted chopped dates
• ½ tsp baking soda
• 175g unsalted butter
• ¼ cup double cream
• 2 eggs
• 15 ml dark rum
• 1 tsp vanilla

Instructions:

Preheat the oven 180C/350F. Butter the bundt pan well.

Mix flour with all the spice powders, salt and baking powder well.

Pour boiling hot water and soda to the dates, cover it for 10 minutes. Strain it well.

Cream butter and sugar together till very light and fluffy. Add 1 egg at a time, whisk well. Add in the rum and vanilla.

Fold in the flour very gently, don’t over mix. Fold in the dates and cream. Pour the batter in the pan.

Bake it in the preheated oven for 35-40 minutes or the toothpick inserted in the centre comes out clean.

Drizzle the toffee sauce on the top when the cake is warm.