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Date, lemon and orange blossom cake.
Every year Muslims around the world celebrate Ramadan. During this Holy Month, it is tradition to break your fast with dates. Because of this, I grew up eating dates of various sorts of origins for years. I have to say that I love them for their bold and complex flavor and versatility.
But one thing that is unavoidable with dates: they get dry over time. I don’t know about you, but I really don’t like dry dates !
That’s how I got this idea for a cake that makes use of these dry dates. Pastry is also about not wasting ingredients ! The trick to this recipe ? Soaking the dry dates in the milk of your choice for 24 h in the fridge. This will soften them and allow you to make a paste out of them. I added lemon zests and orange blossom water to this cake to enhance a delicate citrus flavor of this super moist cake! Hope you will enjoy.
Dates, lemon and orange blossom cake
Equipment
- whisk
- cake pan
Ingredients
- 100 g pitted dates
- 250 g milk to soak the dates
- 40 g milk
- 150 g butter room temperature
- 80 g sugar
- 140 g flour
- 10 g baking powder
- 2 tbsp orange blossom water
- zest of 2 lemons
- 1 pinch salt
- 2 eggs
Instructions
Dates soaking
- Soak the dates in one cup of milk overnight in the fridge (at least 12 hours)
Dates puree
- With a food processor or a blender, puree the dates with only 40 g of the milk used for soaking, to get a date paste.
Mixing
- Whisk the date paste with room temperature butter, sugar and salt. Whisk until everything is well combined. It is important that your butter is room temperature here otherwise it will be very difficult to mix everything together.
- Add orange blossom water and zest of 2 lemons before whisking with eggs.
- Add the flour and baking powder sifted and whisk.
Baking
- Baking time will really depend on your oven. I bake for 50 min at 160C (320F). The best way to know if your cake is ready is to poke it in the center with a knife or a toothpick. You should stop as soon as the knife comes back dry. Any more than that, and it will get dry.
I love my slice of cake with a cup of chai or coffee!
Is orange blossom water something you can make or is it sold in stores? This recipe sounds delicious!
Hello! Thanks for the comment! Orange blossom can be bought in big grocery stores at the international section, but you will be more likely to find it in middle eastern grocery stores. Make sure to buy real orange blossom water and not extract, the taste is really different.:)
What size loaf pan do you suggest?
Hello, I suggest a standard one pound loaf pan 🙂
Hello: where I live there is no way in the world I would ever find orange blossom water. Could I use orange zest and maybe let it soak in a tbsp or 2 or warm water. But this sounds so good. Love anything orange flavour.
Hi Frances, it would work if you put the orange zest directly in the batter and use 60g of milk instead of 40g 🙂
This sounds amazing and the flavours divine. I have all the ingredients and would love to bake this. Please tell me what size loaf pan should be used? And would you recommend brushing the top with a date syrup that I have or would that make it too sweet? 🙏
Hello! Using date syrup would work, brush the cake with a bit of it right after it’s baked. not too much or it will be too sweet I used a 1lbs loaf pan, this one specifically: https://www.williams-sonoma.ca/products/usa-pan-traditional-finish-loaf-pan/