Eggless Wholegrain Date Cake

Last month my sister was with us for a week. After her marriage, we get to meet twice or thrice in a year though we talk on the phone almost every day. Sisters share such special bond. There is always so much to talk about, so much to share and discuss that any amount of time seems less. We gave her a surprise by celebrating her birthday though it was a month away. I baked a Dates Cake for her.

Eggless Wholegrain Date Cake

Ingredients

• 20 dates
• ½ cup sugar (powdered)
• ¾ cup milk
• 1 cup whole wheat flour (atta)
• ½ cup olive oil (canola oil or sunflower oil will also do)
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• ¼ cup chopped walnuts or almonds and a handful of chopped dates.

Instructions

1. Remove seeds from the dates and soak them in warm milk for about 3 hours. The dates should swell and become very soft. 
2. Preheat oven to 180 degrees C. Grease and line one 6.5 inch cake pan. If you are using a bundt pan, grease generously and dust with flour so as to coat the pan evenly.
3. Blend dates and milk in the mixer till you get a smooth mixture. 
4. Pour this mixture in a pan. Add oil and sugar and mix well.  
5. Sieve together flour and baking soda. Add it slowly to the milk, dates, oil and sugar mixture. Mix well. Fold in chopped walnuts.
6. Pour the batter into the prepared pan. 
7. Add chopped dates on top and bake in a preheated oven  for 35 minutes till a skewer inserted in the cake comes out clean.

Dates cake is a very soft cake with a unique flavour and sweetness of dates. 

My notes:

I used whole wheat flour. This cake can also be made with all purpose flour. The dates make the cake very sweet. The quantity of sugar can also be adjusted according to taste.