Dates and Walnut Cake..A vegan recipe

Hello everyone. I am so glad you have stopped by. I had two very special reasons to celebrate. And I made this delicious dates and walnut cake for the occasion.

One, it was my parent’s marriage anniversary and I wanted to make something special for them. This anniversary is extra special as we celebrated it together after a very long time. Their USA trip is ending soon and I would be so sad when they leave, especially my toddler. Nothing like spending time with your grand parents. It makes me miss my childhood days. Sigh. 😦

Second, my Facebook page just reached 500 Likes. Yay. I am so overwhelmed with all the love I have received in these 5 months. Thanks to each one of you for sticking out with me. I really appreciate that. 🙂

And now back to the cake. I came across this recipe at Tickling Plates. I was a little skeptical to try it out as it was made with water and had no eggs. I really haven’t had very good luck with eggless cakes so wasn’t very sure about this one. But the final result was amazing. The cake was so moist I couldn’t believe it had no eggs or butter. Thank you Radhika for such a fabulous recipe and I will surely make it again.

Here is my adaption of her recipe

Ingredients:

All purpose flour – 2 cups (Feel free to use whole wheat flour if you like)

Pitted Dates – 1 cup, chopped finely

Walnuts – 1 cup, coarsely chopped

Oil – 1/2 cup

Water – 2 cups

Sugar – 1 cup

Cinnamon Powder – 1.5 tsp

Salt – 1/4 tsp

Baking Powder – 1 tsp

Baking Soda – 1.5 tsp

Method:

1. Take a medium sized pan and add in the sugar, chopped dates, salt, cinnamon powder, oil and water. Mix everything well and turn on the stove. Let it come to a boil and then lower the flame and let it cook for about 25-30 minutes. You are looking for a gel like consistency. 
2. In the meanwhile, take the flour, baking soda and baking powder and sieve it at least twice. Keep aside.
3. Once, the dates mixture has cooked well, keep it aside and let it cool completely before adding the dry ingredients. It is very important for this dates mixture to cool down before using further in the recipe. It would take about 2 hours.
4. Once the mixture has cooled completely, add the sieved flour mixture to this liquid little at a time, making sure everything is well blended. I just used my whisk here. Now add in the chopped walnuts to the cake mix. Remember to coat the walnuts in some flour so they do not sink to the bottom of the cake.
5. Preheat the oven to 350 F and grease your 9 inch baking tray and dust well with some flour.
6. Pour in the cake mixture in your baking tray and bake for about 40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.
7. Since all ovens work differently, check around 35 minutes.
8. Let the cake cool down before cutting it. It tastes even better the next day, if you have any left overs. 🙂

So that is how I made this delightful and super delicious cake.

Do give this a try and let me know if you like it.

See you again soon.

Love,

Ritu. 🙂