Sticky date coconut cake

Recipe

Preparation time : 20 minutes

Baking time : 40 minutes

Makes : One cake (9″ dia x 2″)

For the Date Cake

• 2 cups All purpose flour
• 1 cup milk (can use full cream milk for a softer texture)
• 1 cup dates – pitted and roughly chopped
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp soda-bi-carbonate
• 100 gm butter
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar ( In case you want to use less dates, you can increase the sugar content to balance out the sweetness in the cake)
• 1/4 cup raisins
• 1/4 cup almond powder – Take about 20-25 almonds and grind to form a powder
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon powder

Topping

• 1/2 cup fresh coconut – grated
• 2/3 cup brown sugar
• 20 gms butter
• 2 tsp milk

Method

1. Set your oven at 375 degrees F and preheat. Take the spring form cake tin and line with butter paper/ wax paper to avoid the cake sticking to the tin while baking. If you don’t have butter paper, you can straight away grease the tin and sprinkle some flour on it to create an even flour surface on the tin.
2. In a bowl, sieve through all your dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, soda-bi-carb and cinnamon powder) and mix well. Add in the almond powder and mix.
3. In a separate bowl, take the butter and melt on low heat. Add in milk, chopped dates, raisins, sugar and vanilla essence. Heat on medium heat till the sugar melts. Remove from flame and keep aside for 15 minutes.
4. Add spoonful of dry mixture to the wet mixture and fold in gently in one direction. Do so with the complete dry mixture. Create a homogenous batter mixture. Note : Do not whisk the mixture or else the cake will not come out fluffy post baking.
5. Check for the consistency of the Cake batter. It should be of “Dropping consistency”. You may add a little more milk if required.
6. Pour batter into the pan. Bake for about 30 minutes.
7. While the cake bakes, prepare the coconut topping*. Refer below for the method for preparing the coconut topping.
8. Generously pour the coconut topping over the cake and bake for about 15 minutes.
9. Check if the cake is done by inserting a knife/ wooden pin. The pin should come out clean (the topping will be soft and may stick to the pin, so use your judgement here. Usually the texture for the date cake and this topping is very different so it would be easy to judge)
10. Once the cake is baked, remove from oven and cool on the cooling rack.

*For Coconut Topping :

1. In a saucepan, take all the ingredients of the toppings and heat on medium flame till the sugar melts and the mixture is homogenous.
2. Bring to boil and keep stirring to avoid the coconut sticking to the bottom of the pan. Depending on your preference, you may like to keep the coconut mixture on low flame till the sugar in the mixture turns a little caramel like for a divine and richer taste.