Dates and Cashew Nut Cake (Vegan)

  

Dates and Cashew nut cake is a quick and easy, super moist, soft and delicious, healthy egg free cake, dotted with bits of nutritious date and cashew pieces throughout, made totally vegan (with no butter  or milk products) and with whole wheat flour used in the batter.

In our house, we love plum or fruit cakes we get during Christmas.  During trips to Salem, India (my hometown), on our way back , we normally stop at a bakery in Gobichettipalayam, between Salem and Mysore, to pick up some savory snacks and cakes.  One of their specialities is plum cake.  On our last trip recently, I picked up 2 of them and we loved it so much, they were gone in a week!!!

Craving for some more, and with lots of dates and cashew nuts in the pantry, I decided to make a similar cake to satisfy my sweet tooth!!

This recipe of Dates and Cashew nut cake is a slight variation of a cake recipe I had got from a good friend of mine from Delhi, who used to make an amazing date and walnut cake!!

I was out of walnuts and so used cashew nuts instead.  For all-purpose or maida flour, I substituted half of it with whole wheat flour to make it more healthy.

The best part of making this cake is, it is eggless (egg free) and needs only a bowl and fork or spoon to mix (no beaters!) and fold and can be prepared in just about 1 hour .

UPDATED MAY 26, 2020:

I have been revisiting my old recipes and trying to make them more healthy by using jaggery (unrefined cane sugar) instead of plain sugar and whole wheat flour wherever possible and I tried with this one too.

I used only whole wheat flour (1 1/2 cups total), reduced the oil a bit (to 1/2 cup from 3/4 cup), reduced plain sugar (3/4 cup) to 1/2 cup of jaggery powder and stirred in sunflower seeds along with cashew bits.

As whole wheat flour tends to make a super thick batter as compared to all-purpose flour, I stirred in about 1/4 cup extra water to make the batter easy to spread in pan as well as make a lighter cake. Adjust the amount of water accordingly.

What do you know? It came out amazing and delicious as before and I feel less guilty too!

Doesn't this look amazing and tempting? Just make sure to chop the dates as fine as possible; big chunks will tend to make the cake crumble and break apart wherever there are date chunks!

And remember, all whole wheat cakes will be a bit denser than with using all-purpose flour or maida! But no compromise on taste I promise you!

You can make it either way but your whole family is going to love this easy, healthy, egg-free, no-beater Dates and Cashew nut cake!

Our family loves this cake so much, that in addition to enjoying it with tea or coffee, we sometimes relish it topped with ice-cream, so it can be served as a dessert at parties too!!

If you love dates, you will like these

• No-cook, no-bake Dates and Cornflakes Energy bite too!
• Dates Yogurt
• Chocolate Covered Filled Dates

  Lets check out this easy, no-beater Dates and Cashew Nut cake shall we?

Step-by-step method to make Eggless Dates and Cashew Nut Cake:

• Preheat oven to 180 degrees Centigrade or 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
• Grease and flour a 9-inch round baking pan or line with aluminum foil and then grease and flour as I have done.
• Deseed and chop the dates fine.  Soak in just enough water for 30 minutes to an hour.
• Measure all the ingredients and keep ready.

• In a mixing bowl, beat oil and sugar with a spoon or fork.

•  Sieve all purpose flour, salt and soda.
• Add this along with the whole wheat flour to the oil and sugar mix.  Mix again.

• Stir in the chopped dates along with the water.
• Mix in the chopped cashew nuts.
• Add more water if needed.

• Pour or spoon into the greased baking pan and level with a spoon.
• Bake for about 30 minutes or until a tooth pick inserted into the center of the cake, comes out clean.
• Remove from the oven and place the pan on a cooling rack.

 

• After 10 minutes, remove from the pan and cool completely.
• Enjoy this mouthwatering, eggless Date and Cashew nut cake with tea or coffee or with a scoop of your favorite ice cream!!
• Store in an airtight container.

Note:

1. Any type of nuts can be used in the place of walnuts or cashew nuts.
2. The cake is so moist, you can use only whole wheat flour and it will not affect the texture too much.
3. I have not added any flavoring as we do not like the aroma of dates to be overpowered by any other flavor.  If you prefer, you can either add 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract/essence or 1 teaspoon of cinnamon powder.

 

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