Date Cake with Toffee Sauce

Okay! New Blog and First Post. I'm excited! :)

I thought it would be good to start of with a dessert post. Its my hub's birthday and I'm starting my blog and .. and.. oh well! Lets have a sweet beginning!

I adapted this recipe from Nags of Edible Garden who has adapted hers from Marcy Goldman's 'A Passion for Cooking'

Without further ado, here is the recipe.

Ingredients for the cake

1 cups dates (pits removed)
1 and 1/2 cups of water
3 tsp vanilla essence
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 cup unsalted soft butter @ room temperature
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 tbsp white sugar
2 eggs
1 cup All purpose flour or Maida
3/4 tsp baking powder
A pinch of salt
Milk (if necessary)


Ingredients for the Toffee Sauce

1 cup heavy cream
1/4 cup brown sugar
2 tbsp unsalted soft butter
2 tsp vanilla essence

Method

1. Preheat your oven to 350 deg F or 180 deg C.
2. Add dates, water, and vanilla essence to a saucepan and simmer it on medium flame. 
3. When the dates ate cooked and mushy, without being watery, turn off the gas.
4. Add the baking soda to the cooked dates. It will froth a bit, but thats okay.
5. Take a mixing bowl, add the butter and whisk it.
6. Add the brown and white sugars and whisk it well till its all blended and smooth.
7. Drop in the eggs into the butter- sugar mixture and beat them well.
8. Add the flour, baking powder, and salt and whisk well till it all comes together.
9. Next, add in the cooked dates, and fold it into the cake batter and mix well. 
10. If the cake batter is a little thick, you can add some milk to loosen it up a bit. 
11. Pour the batter into a greased baking tin (springform is best).
12. Bake for 45-50 mins. A skewer inserted into the cake should come out clean.
13. Lift the cake out of the oven after its done.
14. In another saucepan, boil butter, sugar, cream, and vanilla essence together until it becomes thickish. 
15. Poke holes in the cake and pour the warm sauce over it.

Pictorial

Pour in the cake batter into the prepared pan

Bake to all its scrumptious goodness

Prepare the toffee sauce

Pour over the cake and serve warm

Tips

1. This is a sticky cake. So, you might not be able to overturn it onto a serving plate.So its best to use a springform pan to bake this cake, then remove the rim to serve it.
2. If you want to serve it onto another plate, use a wet washcloth on the bottom of the cake pan (on the outside, to be specific). I havent tried so myself, so let me know if this works.

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