Sticky Date Tofee Cake with Hot Toffee Sauce Recipe

This is by far the best cake I have ever baked with no chocolate in it. Chocolate cakes are my weakness and specialty but now I must add dates to the list. I always seem to have luck while cooking or baking with them.

The recipe is adapted from the brilliant book 'A Passion for Baking' by Marcy Goldman from where I baked the Toblerone Shortbread, which many of you loved for its simplicity. This cake is not as straightforward but it was yummy with such little effort.

I took step by step pictures and then realised there are way too many pictures. I put them in collages, although I am not a fan of posting steps like this. Hope its easy enough to understand, do leave your thoughts.

Sticky Date Toffee Cake with Hot Toffee Sauce
Makes one medium-sized cake - 8 big slices
Adapted from: 'A Passion for Baking' by Marcy Goldman


Ingredients:
3/4 cups pitted dates
3/4 cups water
2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 cup unsalted butter, softened (room temp)
1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar
2 tbsp white sugar
1 tsp grated orange zest
2 eggs
1 cup flour
3/4 tsp baking powder
A pinch of salt

For Hot Toffee Sauce:
1/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/2 cup cream
2 tbsp unsalted butter, softened (room temp)
2 drops of vanilla extract

Step One
Pre-heat oven to 350F / 180C. Grease a springform cake pan or a normal round cake tin with butter.

Step Two 


In a saucepan, simmer dates in water and vanilla until they are soft and almost mushy (about 3-4 mins). Remove from heat and stir in baking soda. The mixture will foam a bit. Mix well and set aside to cool completely.

Step Three

In a bowl, cream butter with both sugars and orange zest until fluffy. Blend in eggs and then fold in flour, baking powder and salt. Then add the dates and mix until well combined.

Step Four

 Blend in eggs and then fold in flour, baking powder and salt.

Step Five

Then add the dates and mix until well combined. Pour into prepared cake pan.

Step Six


Bake for 40-50 mins, until a skewer inserted into the cake comes out clean. If the cake has crowned, cut off the top until the cake is level.

To Make Hot Toffee Sauce

Bring brown sugar, cream and butter to a gentle boil and let simmer for 5-7 mins until the mixture thickens. Remove from fire and stir in vanilla. Set aside.

Once the cake is done, when its still warm, poke holes with a skewer and pour the sauce over, allowing the cake to absorb it. Serve slightly warm or at room temperature.

Do yourself a favour and bake this NOW. Don't miss out the toffee sauce, the cake will definitely not taste as good without it. 

Dates and Butter Dessert Bar

When I saw this, I knew I had to make it. I mean, look at all that butter. And dates. Dates are meant to be baked. Oh and also to be pitted and the seed replaced with a whole cashewnut before eating. These are the only two ways dates are meant to be used, really.

I did some adjustments to the quantity of ingredients based on my taste. I also think I under-cooked the bar but that's fine. One can always increase the baking time by 5-10 next time, no reason to hate the recipe for that.

Here's what we need.

1 cup dates, pitted and chopped into small pieces
2 cups all purpose flour / maida
1.5 cups butter at room temperature
3/4 cup white sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar (or just use white sugar again in case you don't have this)
4 eggs
1 cup chopped nuts of your choice (I used walnuts and about 2-3 tbsp of cashew nuts that I happened to have)
½ tsp Salt
¼ tsp Baking Powder
1 tsp Vanilla Extract

Here's how to make the bars:

1. Melt butter in a pan over very low heat or in the microwave, stirring occasionally. Set aside.

2. Chop up the dates and nuts and set aside.

3. Sift flour, salt and baking powder. Add about 1/4 cup of this into the chopped dates and nuts mixture and mix (dredge) well to coat the sticky parts of the dates. Set aside.

4. Mix butter and sugar and beat lightly for 2 mins until well incorporated. Add eggs one at a time and continue beating. Finally add the vanilla extract and mix well.

5. Fold in the flour-salt-baking powder mixture to the above gently until just mixed and no lumps remain. Then add the dredged dates and flour mixture continuing to fold in gently. This will form a thick batter.

6. Pour into a greased cake or brownie pan and bake in a preheated oven at 350F/180C for 35-40 mins. The original recipe says 30 mins but mine were a bit under-baked so adjust according to your oven.

Cut and serve warm with ice cream for an indulgent treat. I stored mine in the refrigerator for 4 days.

Here's an example of a pic where the white balance is all off :D

Dates-Biscuit Pudding

This month I was determined to do a fairly good job with all the events. I mean, in terms of participation, of course. One of my favourites is AFAM but unfortunately I wasn't able to participate in the last one because of the unavilability of peaches in the near vicinity of my home.

This month's fuit, dates, is a real delight because it is so readily available and in so many different varieties and prices. I bought a tub of lion dates from Food Bazar yesterday. I am going home in vacation for 10 days and may not be able to cook with dates at home, so was determined to come up with something simple for this month's AFAM, hosted by Chandrika of Akshayapatra.

I love puddings with biscuits in it. Soggy, crunchy, however they may taste. I especially love Marie biscuits for its subtle crunchiness and added flavour. So this is a humble attempt from me to make something nice with biscuits and dates.

Dates-Biscuit Pudding

What I Used:

Dates - 10, chopped
Marie biscuits - 8, crushed coarsely
Butter - 4 tbsp, unsalted
Sugar - 2 tsp
Egg - 1, optional
Cashew nuts - a few, chopped

How I Made It:

1. Heat butter on low flame and mix sugar until dissolved.

2. Add chopped dates and cook till soft and a nice smell eminates. Then add the nuts.

3. Remove from fire and while hot, add the beaten egg. Mix well.

4. Stir in the crushed biscuits and let cool.

5. Refrigerate for 3 hours and serve. The consistency would be thick and sticky. I served it in a bowl. You can also try and roll it into balls and coat it with powdered Marie biscuits. The flavour of the caremalized sugar in butter and the crunchiness of the Marie biscuits makes this really yummy. Kids would also love it.

I am sending this quick-n-easy pudding to AFAM-Dates and Sugar High Fridays-Pudding, hosted by Zorra.

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Note about WBB #17 - Cornflakes.

I am home on vacation till December 10 and will be posting the round up only then. So please feel free to send in your entries to the event. More details here.

Thanks to all those wonderful bloggies who sent me their wonderful recipes with this comparatively tough ingredient, Cornflakes. See you all at the round up next week!