I was able to share a recipe with my Sikh grandma who is vegetarian and doesn’t eat eggs that I started making for my Muslim friends for Eid. I adapted the original recipe from an Indian food site to create the one I’m using right now below. It’s now my most frequently requested cake for any event! It tastes great all by itself, with a cup of tea, or warmed up and topped with vanilla ice cream!
| Servings: | 8 |
| Yield: | 1 loaf |
Ingredients
- ¾ cup milk
- 18 dates, pitted and left whole
- ½ cup brown sugar
- ½ cup vegetable oil
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract (Optional)
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon (Optional)
- ¼ cup chopped walnuts (Optional)
Instructions
- Heat milk in a saucepan until almost boiling and stir in dates; let soak for several hours, refrigerated. For best flavor, refrigerate dates and milk overnight.
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease a medium loaf pan.
- Transfer milk and dates to food processor, add brown sugar, and process into a smooth paste. Mix in vegetable oil and vanilla extract with a few pulses.
- Whisk flour, baking soda, and cinnamon in a bowl until thoroughly combined. Pulse flour mixture, about 1/4 cup at a time, into the date paste until batter is smooth; do not overmix. Stir walnuts into batter with a fork and transfer to the prepared loaf pan.
- Bake in the preheated oven until a toothpick inserted into the middle of the cake comes out clean, about 40 minutes.
- If you’re really short on time, microwave the milk and dates together in a microwave-safe bowl until milk is almost boiling and let the mixture cool.
- The recipe above works well in an 8-inch cake pan as well if you’d rather serve it that way. You could pipe buttercream or cream cheese frosting to decorate.
- If you want to make 2 loaves, I suggest increasing the temperature to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C), and giving the cakes an aluminum foil tent once the top of the loaves start getting dark. Two loaves will require about an hour in the oven. Check with a toothpick.
Nutrition Facts
| Calories | 320 kcal |
| Carbohydrate | 41 g |
| Cholesterol | 2 mg |
| Dietary Fiber | 2 g |
| Protein | 3 g |
| Saturated Fat | 3 g |
| Sodium | 171 mg |
| Sugars | 27 g |
| Fat | 17 g |
| Unsaturated Fat | 0 g |
Reviews
I used 1/4 cup of vegetable oil and 1/4 cup of butter incorporated in the-soaking date mix. Really yummy!!!!
I love the recipe, I had to change a few things; used brown rice milk instead of milk, used fresh dates instead of dry and olive oil instead of vegetable oil. the result is fudge brownies and i love it. Thank you
I added 22 large dates, 1/3 cup brown sugar, no vanilla, 11/2 teaspoon cinnamon powder. The cake turned out delicious, it did brown a bit from the bottom, but its probably my oven’s mistake as it did the same for the caraway cake. I served it for my wife’s birthday last night and 3 of us finished 2/3 of it!
Excellent and Perfect recipe.
excellent recipe, my family loved it, even kids enjoyed it, only one question since i made it in loaf tin, i noticed a small part in the centre was not fully converted into bread but didnt stick to the toothpick either. is it ok or i can change that
I tried making muffins with this recipe.. Baked at 220 degree c 180 watts in microwave convection setting…muffins did not rise much also I found batter dense so added 1/4 cup extra milk..
This is a birthday classic for us
Never goes wrong! Everyone loves it! Great as mini muffins too 🙂
The cake could have been better if butter used instead of oil but the colour would be very beautiful because of brown sugar and dates.The cake comes out okay