242. Date Molasses and Cardamom Cake

This delicious cake is eggless, and apart from a quarter cup of brown sugar, it completely replaces sugar with date molasses. Date molasses is common in Arab countries, and is the liquid reduction of dates.
I picked this recipe up from the fantastic blog Arabic Bites.

You can make this cake uber healthy by incorporating whole wheat flour with the regular flour, and replace the milk with low fat milk, or even soy milk to render it vegan suitable.

Ingredients:

For the Batter:
7cups  flour (you can use half whole wheat flour and half regular flour)

2 Tbsp baking powder.

2 Tbsp ground cardamom.

1/2 Tbsp baking soda

2 cups date molasses

1 cup oil

1 cup milk

For the Walnut Filling:

1cup chopped walnuts.

1/4 cup brown sugar.

1/4 cup rosewater

pinch of ground cardamom

pinch saffron (optional)

Method:

Preheat oven to 350F.
Mix all the walnut filling ingredients in a bowl, set aside.
Mix the date molasses with the milk first, and then stir in the oil.
Combine the flour(s) with the rest of the dry ingredients (baking powder, baking soda, salt, cardamom.
Using a heavy-duty mixer, add the molasses mixture to the flour mixture until the silky batter is formed, it will the thick and spoonable (rather than pourable).
Press half the batter in a large (22cm x 30cm pan), spread the walnut mixture, top and press to smooth with the remaining half of the batter.
Bake for 35-40 minutes in the oven.
Cool in its pan for 2 to 3 hours or overnight before cutting to get smooth cuts.
If you attempt to cut while still warm it will crumble.

 صحة و عافية