Great-Great-Aunt Tillie was my grandpa Elvin's aunt, and lived to age 102. Her date cake recipe has been a family favorite over the decades. It's moist, wholesome, fragrant, and has an earthy spiciness.
Ingredients
- 1 cup walnuts
- 2 1/4 cups 2 1/4 cups flour (separated as 2 cups and 1/4 cup)
- 1 1/2 cups sugar
- 3/4 cup butter or vegan butter
- 1 cup Medjool dates
- 1 cup buttermilk (or oatmilk and vegan yogurt combined to make 1 cup with buttermilk consistency)
- 1 egg
- zest of 1 lemon
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 heaping teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon cloves or nutmeg
- scant 1/4 teaspoon sea salt
Instructions
- Butter and flour a 9 x 13-inch pan. Heat the oven to 350 F. While the oven is warming up, toss your walnuts into a small baking pan, and toast them. They will toast in the oven while you are preparing the rest of the cake batter.
- Combine 2 cups of the flour, the sugar, and butter in a medium mixing bowl. Mix and crumble with your fingers. Remove 1 cup of this crumb-mixture, and reserve it for the topping. The remaining crumbs in the mixing bowl will create the foundation for the cake batter.
- Chop the medjool dates. I like to use my big, heavy Chinese cleaver for this.
- Remove the toasted walnuts from the oven, and chop them. Add the dates and walnuts to the crumb mixture in the mixing bowl.
- Add the buttermilk, egg, and lemon zest to the mixing bowl. Stir to form a batter.
- Sift in the remaining 1/4 cup flour, the baking powder, baking soda, cloves, cinnamon, and salt. Stir into the batter.
- Pour the batter into the pan. Sprinkle with the reserved 1-cup of crumbs.
- Bake at 350F for 28-35 minutes.