This Date Cake is a moist, soft, delightful cake featuring sweet dates, crunchy walnuts, fragrant coffee, healthy almond milk and raw sugar. It also has whole wheat flour that makes it wholesome and a bit healthier. Even a beginner in baking can make this eggless, vegan Date and Walnut Cake easily.
Table of Contents
About Date Cake
Date cake is a favorite with us. No wonder, I make this on days when we crave for sweets or desserts that are healthy.
This Date and Walnut Cake recipe is almost a decade old that I had posted many years back. I have been making this Date Cake for many years now.
It simply never fails and you get the perfect date loaf every time. My recipe always impresses my family and friends. When I serve this delish cake to them, they keep on asking for more.
The earlier recipe was made with a mix of whole wheat flour and all-purpose flour. Later I switched to making the cake entirely with whole wheat flour changing some of the other ingredients proportions.
And oh boy! I was so surprised to see the cake having a soft and moist crumb in spite of the whole wheat flour. So I have updated the recipe post to the date cake made entirely with whole wheat flour.
This date and walnut cake is healthy as together with dates and walnuts it is made with whole wheat flour and almond milk.
The cake recipe is apt to make for special days or festivals like Christmas or Easter, especially when you want to enjoy eating desserts that are not heavy on butter or cream frostings, refined flour and too much of fats like butter or oil.
Even a novice in baking can make this cake and get full marks. Try this cake and you will be simply bowled over by its texture, flavor and taste.
Ingredients You Need
- Flour: The entire recipe is made with whole wheat flour and works well with both the Indian wheat flour (atta) used for making roti and the milled whole wheat flour available outside India. You could easily swap the whole wheat flour with all-purpose flour, pastry flour or whole wheat pastry flour.
- Dates: Well of course since the cake has dates in it, it is loaded with the flavor and aroma of dates. Dates also makes the cake soft.
- Coffee: I also add instant coffee that pairs beautifully with the dates and add its own charm and flavor to the cake. Though you can chose to opt out of coffee.
- Walnuts: I love to add some walnuts in this recipe. But if you are out of walnuts, skip them. But they do add a lovely crunch to the soft cake.
- Chocolate Chips: You could also choose to add some chocolate chips or cacao nibs. Sometimes I do add these and I have mentioned the proportions in the recipe card below.
- Leavening Ingredients: Both baking powder and baking soda are required and cannot be substituted for each other. Since this is an eggless cake, I would suggest that you use both baking powder and baking soda that are fresh and in their shelf-life.
- Liquids: I make this cake with almond milk, but feel free to use your preferred milk to make the recipe. Earlier I have also made this recipe with homemade soy milk.
If you love baking with nuts and dry fruits, do check my Fruit Cake Recipe and Wine Cake.
How to make Date Cake
Prep and Make Date Walnut Mixture
1. Rinse and finely chop 100 grams or about 5 large or 8 to 9 medium-sized or 12 small dates and 4 to 5 walnuts (25 grams).
Measure and you will need ½ cup finely chopped dates (tightly packed) and ¼ cup finely chopped walnuts.
Grease a 7.5 to 8 inches round pan with oil (neutral flavored) or line it with a parchment paper. You can also use a loaf pan to make date loaf.
2. Heat 1 cup almond milk (or choice of milk) in a pan or steel bowl. Do not boil. The milk should only be hot.
3. Switch off heat and place the pan or bowl on the kitchen countertop. Add instant coffee.
4. Add the finely chopped dates and walnuts.
5. Mix very well to make an even mixture.
6. Add ½ cup raw sugar. You can also add ½ cup white sugar or add it according to the sweetness you prefer in the cake.
7. Mix thoroughly until the sugar granules dissolves. Set aside to cool for about 15 minutes.
Make Cake Batter
8. Place a wired mesh sieve over the bowl and ddd the following dry ingredients to it.
- 1.5 cups whole wheat flour – 180 grams
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- 1 pinch salt
Sift the dry ingredients directly over the bowl ensuring the sifted ingredients fall into the bowl.
9. Pour all of the the cooled dates and milk mixture to the sifted dry ingredients in the bowl.
10. Add ¼ cup of sunflower oil (or any neutral tasting oil), ¼ cup water and 1 teaspoon vanilla extract or ½ teaspoon vanilla essence.
11. Mix with a wired whisk or you can also choose to fold the batter.
Mix to an even batter but take care not to overdo the mixing or folding. Over-mixing can cause gluten strands to develop in the batter and will result in a doughy dense texture.
12. Pour in the greased or parchment lined pan. Tap the pan with the batter in it on the countertop a few times so that the batter spreads on its own.
Bake Date Cake
13. Bake at 190 degrees C/392 degrees F for 35 to 40 minutes. Preheat oven at 190 degrees C/392 degrees F for 15 minutes. It took me 40 minutes to bake in my oven.
Note that temperatures vary from oven to oven. It can take less or more time for the cake to bake in your oven.
14. Check the baked date cake with bamboo skewer. The skewer should come out clean with no sticky batter on it.
15. Cool cake pan on wired rack.
16. Slice and serve when cooled. You can also refrigerate the date cake for about a week. Store the cake in an air-tight container in the fridge.
More Egg-free Cakes To Try!
Please be sure to rate the recipe in the recipe card or leave a comment below if you have made it. For more vegetarian inspirations, Sign Up for my emails or follow me on Instagram, Youtube, Facebook, Pinterest or Twitter.
Date Cake | Date and Walnut Cake
Ingredients
Wet Ingredients
- ½ cup finely chopped dates (tightly-packed) – 100 grams or 5 arwa dates (or 5 large dates) or 12 small or 8 to 9 medium-sized dates.
- ¼ cup finely chopped walnuts – 25 grams
- 2 teaspoons instant coffee
- 1 cup almond milk or choice of milk
- ½ cup raw sugar – 110 grams, can use ½ cup of regular sugar instead
- 1 tablespoon cacao nibs or small chocolate chips, optional
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract or ½ teaspoon vanilla essence
- ¼ cup sunflower oil
- ¼ cup water
Dry Ingredients
- 1.5 cups whole wheat flour – 180 grams
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- 1 pinch salt
Instructions
Making cake batter
- Finely chop the dates and walnuts and set aside. If you prefer, you can rinse dates, walnuts before chopping them.
- Line a 7.5 to 8 inches cake pan with parchment or grease it with a neutral flavored oil like sunflower oil.
- Take almond milk in a small pan and heat it gently on low. Do not boil the milk but only heat it.
- When the milk gets hot, place the pan on the kitchen countertop.
- Add the instant coffee, finely chopped dates and walnuts, sugar. Stir to get an even mixture and ensure that the coffee granules and sugar have mixed evenly.
- Set aside to cool for 15 minutes.
- Now you can preheat the oven to 200 degrees C/392 F for 15 minutes.
- Sift whole wheat flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a mixing bowl.
- Add dates and milk mixture to the sifted dry ingredients.
- If using cacao nibs or chocolate chips add them now.
- Next add sunflower oil, water and vanilla extract.
- Mix with a wired whisk or you can also choose to fold the batter. Mix or fold to an even batter. Remember not to overdo the mixing or folding.
- Pour batter in the greased or parchment lined cake pan.
- With the help of a rubber spatula remove the batter from the sides of the bowl and add it to the cake pan.
- Tap the pan on the countertop a few times so that the batter spreads on its own.
Baking date cake
- Place cake pan in the preheated oven and bake at 190 degrees C/392 F for 35 to 40 minutes.Keep in mind that each oven has a different baking temperature. So to bake the cake in your oven, it can take less or more time. It took me 40 minutes to bake this cake in my oven.
- Check cake with a bamboo skewer by inserting it in the center of the cake as well as around the edges. The bamboo skewer should come out clean.
- Place the cake pan on a wired rack or tray to cool.
- When cooled, slice and the Date and Walnut cake. Serve as a evening snack or as a dessert.
- The remaining cake can be kept in an air-tight box and refrigerated. Keeps well for about a week.
Notes
- You can make this date cake easily with all-purpose flour, pastry flour or whole wheat pastry flour. You can also use an equal mix of whole wheat flour and all-purpose flour.
- Addition of coffee and cacao nibs are optional.
- For a more earthy flavor in the cake, choose to add coconut sugar, palm sugar or jaggery.
- Use neutral flavored oil – one that is odorless and flavorless. Please do not use any oil which has an aroma or a particular flavor.
- Instead of oil, you can use softened unsalted butter. If using salted butter omit adding salt.
- Note that the approximate nutrition info is for the entire cake made from this recipe.
Nutrition Info (Approximate Values)
This Date Cake recipe post from the blog archives first published in March 2013 has been republished and updated on Jun 2022.
Dear Dassana
I am being huge fan of your recipes, useing it and enjoying the flovers on holidays
I have some queries
Can is substitute oil with only Butter ,if yes any changes in taste or texture of the cake
What is the measure for coffee liqueur in ml / tbsp
Thank you
DeepikaRani
thanks deepika. you can use butter instead of oil. with butter the taste will be different as well as the texture. texture will be not as soft as compared to using oil and taste will be slightly buttery. i have not used readymade coffee liqueur in the recipe. if you follow the recipe, then i have used 1 cup milk for mixing coffee, which is equal to 250 ml milk. if this 1 cup is converted to tablespoons, then it is 16 tablespoons
Amazing recipe! I baked for the first time and it came out perfect! Thank you for the wonderful recipe!
Welcome Bhavya. Thanks for sharing your positive feedback.
Thank you sooo much for replying 🙂
Welcome Shilpa
Hi
I tried this recipe but it didn’t came out well. I think my measurements were not correct. The outer crust was over cooked and inner part was not cooked and it was dense and moist.
Can you please suggest me some good quality baking pan and measurement spoons available online.
fine shilpa. best is to use steel cups and spoons. pans i have brought locally. buy you can check online if you get good pans. avoid non stick and silicon pans. its best to use cast iron, heavy steel or aluminium pans for baking. i have purchased cups and spoons from amazon.in.
link here – http://www.amazon.in/Tablecraft-H726-Bakers-Measuring-Spoons/dp/B000I1WMGQ
Hey hiii
Can I add curd in place of water
ankita, already replied to your comment.
Hii… can I use curd instead of water
i do not know how curd will taste in this recipe or how will the texture be. so cannot say if curd can be used.
Hi Dassana! Thank u for sharing this wonderful recipe.
I made it twice recently using all purpose flour.served it once with tea & second time with ice cream.family & friends simply loved it.
thanks meveera for sharing this feedback and the variation with all purpose flour. good to know that everyone liked the cake. happy baking ????
Dear Dassana,
Need a suggestion, if i want to make only dates & walnut cake and i want to skip the sugar completely, how much should I increase the dates quantity so that it is just sweet. Just an approximation ?
shweta, you can increase the dates to 1.5 to 2 cups. my suggestion would be to puree the dates. first cook the dates in water or milk. you will need to add some more water or milk to cooked and soften the dates. then when warm or cooled, blend the mixture to a smooth puree. add this to the cake batter.
Can i double the cake quantity by just dubbling the ingredients?
Hemangini, can’t say. Never tried and don’t know how it will work out.
Hi,
I’ve baked this cake a few times and they’ve come out great, thanks!
I was wondering if I could bake it for a family road trip? Would it last 5 days without refrigeration? Any idea?
Welcome Divya. I don’t think so. However in a cold climate or in a cold country it may last.
Words are not enough to express my gratitude for posting such lovely recipes. I have started baking so much, thanks to your blog! I get so many compliments! And I follow your recipe to the T. Thank you so much once again! 🙂
Welcome Nandita. Thanks for your kind words and appreciation. I am touched reading this. Glad to know that recipes helped you in your baking journey.
hi. it looks yummy n moist. how to modify this recipie if I want to use eggs
ashwini, with eggs many things in the recipe will change. so i am unable to tell you the exact proportions and there recipe as i always test and then add recipe on website.
My cake came out dense and also cracked in middle. Did I do something wrong
nikhita, if the batter is mixed too much, then the cake will come out dense as then there is a formation of gluten strands. this will give the cake a dense doughy structure. so whether mixing by a hand held whisk or with an electric beater, always mix lightly and not too much. another reason for the cake to be dense would be the freshness of the baking soda or baking powder. if they are not fresh or within their shelf life, then it affects the leavening in the cake. the cracks are also due to the dense texture.
Hi
Fan of urs..keep following ur recipies and they turn out to be excellent.
1.Can i kw why hve u used wheat flour plus maida.
Why not only maida.
2.in ur 4 comment..nicola said coconut milk..do.we hve to.use coconut milk fr gud flavour.
Thks in advance
thanks honey. your queries answered below:
1. for some additional nutrition benefits and health reasons, i have used atta. but you can use only maida too.
2. adding coconut milk is optional and you can add it instead of soy or almond milk or dairy milk. coconut milk will give a nice coconut flavour and taste to the cake.
Hi
Please suggest the size of the round pan used for baking. Also, if I am baking using a convection oven, what should be the temperature?
Thanks.
usually a 6 to 8.5 inches (diameter) pan works very well for most cake recipes. reduce the temperature to 15 or 20 degrees celsius for baking in convection mode.