Eggless Dates Cake..a Beginner's recipe!!!

Though I helped my mom in baking cakes during my childhood,this dates cake is the first one I baked on my own few years ago and hence this recipe is always special to me as this recipe has opened the doors of baking for me.Even before entering the blogging world I used to spend a lot of time surfing for recipes and that is how I landed on various famous sites and then discovered many food blogs.I have followed this recipe from Aayi's Recipes as it seemed very easy to begin with and you know I have even messed up with it and my cake was undercooked and also stuck to the pan.Later I tried this and made N number of times by now and it never failed me though it is the same recipe.The only difference is the lack of confidence before which I gained a bit now after lots of baking and I should say even small tips really helps a lot in successful baking.

I like to try egg less recipes as both my mom and MIL don't eat egg based ones and hence I always search for new egg-less recipes.This recipe was always a hit in our family and friends and is definitely a perfect treat for all those people who are in search of a good egg-less cake recipe if you are bored of regular egg-less chocolate or vanilla cakes.

Ingredients:
1 cup all purpose flour or maida
18 seedless good quality Arab dates(Kharjoor)
3/4 cup milk
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup oil
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 cup chopped cashew nuts/walnuts(optional)
Method:

• Sieve together flour and baking soda for two times which helps in even mixing.
• Warm the milk and soak dates in it for 10-12 mins.You can even microwave them for 1-2 mins so that dates becomes soft which helps in easy grinding.
• Preheat the oven at 180 deg C/360 F for 12-15 mins.
• Grease an 8" inch round or square tin with oil/cake spray and sprinkle a tsp of flour over it and turn the tin to coat the tin with flour evenly on all sides.
• Once the milk mixture comes to normal temperature grind it along with sugar to a smooth paste and pour into a wide mixing bowl.
• Add oil to the mixture and mix using a wire whisk or hand blender until the oil blends into the batter properly.
• Add the flour one table spoon at a time and fold in the mixture slowly using a silicon spatula. Take nuts in a small cup and sprinkle a tsp of flour and coat the nuts well.Add nuts to the cake mixture and mix with a spatula.
• Pour the cake batter into the ready tin and tap it once.Tapping means dropping the cake tin gently from a height of 1" above the surface which helps in removing the formation of any air bubbles in the cake.But do this process very slowly and gently otherwise the cake batter will spread all over the tin.
• Bake it in preheated oven at 180 degrees for 30-35 mins until done,do a tooth pick test always to check whether it is done completely or not.Insert a tooth pick in the cake,if it comes out clean then it is done properly.Keep an eye after baking for 25 mins as it might get burnt as well depending on the type of oven you use.
• Cool the cake in the tin for sometime and invert it onto a wire rack and rest it.Cut into pieces of your desired shape.
  

Serve it warm with vanilla ice cream or as a snack at room temperature.

Notes:

1. You can reduce the oil quantity to 1/4 cup for low cal version,I have even tried like that and the cake was still moist and yummy.
2. You can even sprinkle some chopped walnuts or cashew nuts over the batter before baking which gives the look of a brownie.
3. The color of the cake depends on the quality of dates you use,if you use regular ones it might be brown in color and if you add good quality dark dates it would come extreme dark chocolate color.
4. You can even use regular dates with seeds but for that you need to soak the dates in milk overnight in the refrigerator.Remove the seeds and proceed with the same recipe.