Date Cake

This European beauty is light, airy and filled with walnuts and dates. When making the cake you will see that I have put flour in with the nuts and dates. You may think this is silly but its quite essential as this coats the sticky dates allowing them to bake through your cake instead of clumping up. I also prefer to use a removable bottom pan but I always sit it on top of a cookie sheet for extra protection. You can use 1-2/3 cups of milk instead of the cream/milk mixture if you do not happen to have cream on hand.

I am also happy to mention that today is Ya Salam Cooking's second year up and running. Over the past two years I have came so far with my cooking, photography and writing. I owe a great deal to this little blog that I started out of boredom of being a stay at home mom. But YSC has brought me great happiness over the years and gave me something to finally call my own and be proud of. We all need something like that don't we? Here is to many more inshAllah. This Cake is for you!

1/2 cup chopped dates
2/3 cup chopped walnuts
2-1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 cup powdered sugar + extra for dusting
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted
1 cup heavy cream
2/3 cup milk
4 eggs
1-1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon allspice

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Grease a removable bottom 10 inch cake pan and sit aside. In a medium sized mixing bowl add dates, walnuts and 1/2 cup flour, mix. Sit aside. In a large mixing bowl add 2 cups flour, powdered sugar, brown sugar, butter, cream, milk, baking soda, cream of tartar, cinnamon and allspice, with an electric mixer mix on low mix well. Add eggs and mix well.

2. Carefully pour batter into cake pan and sit on top of a large cookie sheet. Place in oven. Bake 40-45 minutes or until top is golden and a toothpick comes out clean. Allow to cool the place cake on cake plate then with a bread knife carefully cut any hard crust around the side, dust with powdered sugar.

Yields: 8 servings