Honey-Date-Walnut Cake ~ Fresh Out of the Oven
The classic combination of honey, dates and walnuts is used for this light, moist cake. This is my first ever cake of this type that I baked. Delicious and nutritious, Honey-date-walnut cake is one of my favorite cakes.
Recipe:
1 cup dates
½ cup honey
1 cup walnuts
2 eggs – at room temperature
¼ cup each – milk and butter at room temperature
2 cups – all-purpose flour (maida pindi)
½ cup brown sugar or white cane sugar
½ tsp each – baking powder, baking soda and cardamom powder
Honey, Walnuts and Dates
Dates and Honey: Finely chop dates into thin rings. Take them in a cup and add honey. Keep the dates soaked in honey for about 30 minutes. This is done to soften and further sweeten the dates. The dates that I used in this recipe are Deglet Noor, mildly sweet Tunisian variety. Extremely sweet and soft Medjool type does not need the honey/soaking part.
Walnuts: Finely chop walnuts to small pieces
Eggs: Break eggs into a cup and beat with a spoon. (I removed yellows, my preference.) Sometimes I skip the eggs totally and would add a mashed, ripe banana in its place. This works too.
Sift and add flour to a big vessel. Stir in sugar, baking powder, soda and cardamom powder. Mix.
Add butter, milk and eggs. Also walnuts and dates along with the honey they are soaked in. Combine all thoroughly. If the batter is too tight, adjust the consistency by adding little bit more milk. Pour the mixture into a cake pan. level it evenly.
Preheat the oven to 350 F. Place the cake pan in the bottom rack for the first 15 minutes, and then move the pan to the top rack. Bake for about a total 30 minutes, until the top of the cake turns to light honey color and when a knife inserted into the cake comes out clean.
Remove the cake from oven. Let cool. Slice and enjoy!
Cake and Care Package to Our Friends
Vijay’s classmate and friend became a proud parent of a cutest baby boy, couple of days ago. They came home from hospital yesterday and this is the care package we sent today for them. Chapatis, aloo chole, idly, peanut chutney and honey-date-walnut cake.
Congratulations Dimpy and RP!
Notes:
Honey tends to thicken during winter time. Microwaving for couple of seconds usually lightens the honey.
Flour Choice: King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
Recipe Source: My own creation
huh? not me! not me! 😀
The cake sounds interesting. Any advice on buying good honey? Please…
Comment by RP — March 9, 2007 @ 8:31 pm
. 🙂
There are lot of good quality, fancy tasting honey’s out there. But we are on the student budget now, so we use regular Costco variety, RP.
Comment by Indira — March 9, 2007 @ 8:43 pm
Believe it or not.. I have to visit this wonderful site everyday otherwise , i’d be restless.. somethings buzzing in my ear that I missed out something.. I normally make the honey,date,banana milk shake as I read that is really good for the skin. Will definitely try this over the weekend as I have taken fancy to baking cakes!
Comment by Deepika — March 9, 2007 @ 9:18 pm
Cake looks delicious. Just curious-Do you notice any difference when you add and leave out eggs?
Comment by mika — March 9, 2007 @ 10:11 pm
Hi Indira,
Nice pics!! I prepared this cake very often in 2004 witout honey. My DH liked and bored for all so now stopped making. I rembered those days today.You both have a great heart…Giving friends a home cooked meal as a gift.Now a days who has that much patience really…Hats off to u.
Bye
Laxmi
Comment by Laxmi — March 9, 2007 @ 11:55 pm
indira, you combined my three favopurite ingredients – dates, honey and nuts. your friends are really fortunate people.
Comment by bee — March 10, 2007 @ 7:11 am
I love dates, iam going to try this one!
I really like the cute tiffin carrier in your picture.wish i had one 🙂
Comment by hema — March 10, 2007 @ 7:40 am
Awww, you are so sweet — what a thoughtful and original (and yummy, I’m sure — that cake looks inviting!) present for your friends with the new baby!
Comment by Uma — March 10, 2007 @ 7:44 am
you rock.
Comment by sandhya — March 10, 2007 @ 10:16 am
You have a very nice blog, lots of interesting recipes and nice pics. This cake looks fantastic!
Comment by julie — March 10, 2007 @ 11:02 am
Lovely cake and such lucky parents to have a cute baby and such good food soon as they reach home 🙂
I love the shining stainless steel bartan at your home, didn’t carry any from home so have none 🙁
Comment by sandeepa — March 10, 2007 @ 11:21 am
You have such lucky friends. We were showered with nice things after our babies but these treats you mention sound better!
I am not a walnut fan but I think I will try the cake regardless without it.
Archana B.
Comment by archana — March 10, 2007 @ 12:29 pm
Oh boy, I would have loved to be your neighbor when I was expecting my two youngsters…..I’d get a care package too, right, Indira?
Just kidding….Honey Date Walnut Cake looks delicious,your friends are lucky to have you around.
Comment by Trupti — March 10, 2007 @ 1:57 pm
Hi Indira,
Cake looks delicious. I’m glad that this cake uses jus egg whites cos then its healthy and low in cholestrol.
Comment by Deepz — March 10, 2007 @ 2:48 pm
Hi Indira, your mention of your friend’s new baby reminded me of a question I’d wanted to ask for a while. I happen to have a new baby (7mo) and I have also recently discovered your blog and all your spicy Indian food (I’m not of Indian descent). I wonder, in India, when do you first expose babies to spicy food? Are there certain spices they can have right away and others they have to wait for? The official word here in the USA is you have to wait a long time to give babies any spice, but I wonder if that is really true…
Comment by Katherine — March 10, 2007 @ 5:17 pm
Now that was quite a special recipe-its looks delicious. I too would be interested in love to know altrenatives to make an eggless variety.
I make a frozen dessert with dates sometime, quite like what Deepika mentioned above. I freeze whole ripe bananas, and when i want to make my fruit-ice, i just blend it with dates, honey and a handful of blueberries (or any other berrier) plus a cpl. of spoonfuls of milk. it tastes yummy and is nutritious too :).
Comment by musical — March 10, 2007 @ 5:26 pm
oh! and i forgot to mention that i got the idea for this frozen recipe from (a health food lover) Ms. Sashi…..whose original recipe called for blending the mix longer ro make a thick smoothie and the berries were in equal proportion to bananas. besides, this is a wonderful way to make kids eat fruit :).
Comment by musical — March 10, 2007 @ 5:54 pm
#16 sorry, it should read “i too would love to know”…..i know that comment of mine sounds goofy otherwise! my apologies, Indira.
Comment by musical — March 10, 2007 @ 5:56 pm
Hey Indira
Awesome recipe, delightful combination and simple to make-all my favorite ingredients :).
Comment by Altoid — March 10, 2007 @ 6:29 pm
Nice to see fellow fans of honey, dates and walnuts. Thanks all. Have a great weekend.
Mika: There is definitely a difference in taste and also in smell. Texture wise I didn’t notice any major differences.
Eggs and banana each add different things to the cake and I guess it’s all depends on our preference.
Hi Archana: Sorry I couldn’t reply to your comment at Dining Hall personally. I know you meant well. No harm is done, please feel free to visit us at that site. Thanks Archana.
Sometimes I make this cake with dates and pecans. That combination works too.
Trupti: That is right. I am gathering all the ingredients one by one. I want to make it special for you, the least I’d do after your sweet surprise. Thanks!
Hi Katherine: I do not have children so I can’t give any advice in this matter. But my mother fed us food with little bit of salt and less spice until we were two. Almost all types of spices that we use in regular cooking are fed to us, but in moderation of course. No restrictions and whatever we liked, except some well known harmful things like honey etc. Then she moved us to regular food, the type that I blog here. We turned out ok according to my mother.:)
Comment by Indira — March 10, 2007 @ 9:35 pm
Thanks Indira for the pecan tip.
Also, if you don’t mind I would like to respond to Katherine regarding her spice question with babies as I am mom to 10 month old twins. The new research even in the US suggests spices like cinnamon, garlic, ginger, nutmeg, etc are ok for babies. We started trying things with these type of spices around 6 to 7 months. Only thing we dont use in our family is too much salt, peppercorns, chilli powder.
Also, I have an idea to make this honey walnut cake for babies – instead of egg whites you can use egg yolks for babies under 1 or banana as you suggest. Skip the honey as it contains spores that might cause botulism and nuts as they might be allergens to young infants. Rest of it might make a great snack for babies who can handle finger food.
Katherine you can contact me via my site if you have any other baby food related question; if I know it I will let you know. Thanks Indira for allowing this space for response.
Comment by archana — March 11, 2007 @ 8:43 am
Now that’s a truly thoughtful and envy-invoking gesture – the Care package – I really like that phrase. The Cake looks delicious and I am going to try an eggless version of that – fabulous combination of ingredients…cant resist. Great going Indira.
Comment by Pritya — March 11, 2007 @ 5:23 pm
thanks indira and archana for your answers to my question… i suspected that in other cultures, where the food is spicy, they allow babies to have spice earlier than they typically do here… i love spicy food and I can’t imagine the best way to get my daughter to enjoy it too is to feed her bland food for 3 or 4 years straight! Today she had cinnamon for the first time and loved it… of course I will wait on the hot chilis, don’t worry.
Apologies if it was not appropriate for me to use this space for this conversation — not sure of the guidelines here!
Comment by Katherine — March 11, 2007 @ 6:49 pm
Hi Indira,
I love your tiffin carrier. Did you buy it in US? What are the specific dimesions for height, and diameter. How many cups does each tier hold? I have been shopping on line for one, but the descriptions are not very clear, and I would hate to pay a ton in shipping when I don’t know exactly what I’ll receive. Now that I have kids, and cook and take food everywhere, I think this will be very useful.
Maybe this could become a separate post to be filed under “Indian Kitchen”.
Thanks,
Padmaja
Comment by Padmaja — March 12, 2007 @ 9:03 am
Hi Indira,
I really like your presentation skills. I keep checking if you have posted any new recipes, the joy of seeing them fulfills my stomach.
I always visit your site whenever I am trying a new recipe.
I had a question for you. By reading your recipes, I feel you do not like the milk and eggs which we get in U.S. Can you please tell me the reason and what alternatives you use or which company products you use for milk and eggs; since I am allergic to many food items in U.S, it was not like that when I was in India. Will appreciate your response. Thanks.
Comment by Aparna — March 12, 2007 @ 11:31 am
Awwwwww! How sweet of you… I’m sure this gift and the gift of your friendship is well appreciated. Congratulations to your friends!
You are a very thoughtful person.
Comment by Kay — March 14, 2007 @ 7:29 am
Hi Indira,
Im amazed at the size of dates and walnuts you are using in this recipie – i cant seem to find any that are the same size as the pan i use to keep my honey in.. where do you get yours from?
Many thanks!
Comment by Andrew — March 16, 2007 @ 2:14 pm
For buying ingredients for South Asian and Middle Eastern cooking, other things too
http://www.kalustyans.com/
I’ve shopped there for 30+ years, starting when it was recommended by Madhur Jaffrey in her first book. Huge selection of dates, nuts, honey. Probably not the cheapest place you can find but absolutely reliable in all ways.
Comment by Virginia — March 17, 2007 @ 12:05 pm
thought you might enjoy this article:
http://www.insidebayarea.com/food/ci_5321059
Comment by lalitha — March 19, 2007 @ 8:35 pm
Hi Indra,
After consequetively failing 3 attempts in baking with various other recipies, I came back to your site today and looked for recipies of cake. I should first tell u that all the recipies i tried from ur site have always been successful..
Today i followed ur honey walnut cake recipe line by line..I wanted to make sure that i follow ur steps very carefully ..so my laptop was with me in my kitchen with ur page open 🙂
and you know what..today it was a success !!!
i got a cake just like the above picture..but a rectangular one 🙂
I am very thankful to you for making mine success..thanks to your decsription
I donno what I was missing..may be if i know the reason for all the ingredients like baking powder baking soda..i cud have not missed last few times..do you know..why both are needed till last time i used only baking bowder..i donno if that cud cause a disaster..Any info u can provide wud be useful..
Thanks again,
Cheers,
Kavitha.
Comment by Kavitha — May 20, 2007 @ 2:50 pm
Hi Indira,
I tried this cake of yours, it turned out great. Thank you sharing this wonderful recipe. I have tried out a couple of your recipe’s, every single one has been a big hit. Apart from the recipe’s there’s so much information out here.
Thank you,
Vineela.
Comment by Vineela — March 22, 2009 @ 9:31 pm
I finally made this cake y’day, which has been in my bookmarks for a long time. Let me say it was de-li-cious. The flavors were simple but quite pleasing. Thank you!
So glad to see you Suganya after such long time. Hope everything is going great at the homefront. Happy that you tried and enjoyed this cake. Thanks for the feedback.
-Indira
Comment by Suganya — July 16, 2009 @ 2:04 am