Heartiest Christmas Wishes with Chocolate and Dates Cake (Eggless)

At the very outset my heartiest wishes to all who celebrates Christmas. Wish you a very merry and fun filled Christmas!

Whether you celebrate this festival or not, you can't miss the festivity in the air and of course good food is all a part of the festive spirit. As everybody, I can't miss the opportunity to indulge in something delicious and of course baking comes to my mind.

I made this cake for a small get together at a friend's place. I was received well by my friends and in fact my DH also gave a thumbs up to it even though he is not a very big dates fan. The taste of dates is very subtle and in this particular cake it helps to accentuate the chocolate flavour. This recipe actually comes from one of my friends. I have only experimented a little by adding cocoa to it. 

 

Without much ado let's hop to the recipe:

Ingredients:

1 cup minus 2 tbsp AP Flour

2 tbsp cocoa powder

1/2 cup castor sugar

1/2 cup pitted dates(About 15-18 soaked in water for 2-3 hours or overnight).

1 tsp baking powder.

3/4 tsp baking soda.

1/4 cup melted butter.

1/4 cup water used for soaking dates.

1/2 cup milk.

Process:

1. Grease a 6'' square cake tin and preheat the oven at 180C.

2. Churn the dates along the water and milk to make a smooth paste.

3. Shift flour, baking powder, soda 2-3 times together so that it is well blended.

4. Cream in the sugar and butter till well incorporated and fluffy.

5. Slowly add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients whisking all the time.

6. Whisk till the batter is smooth, around 2-3 minutes.

7. Pour into the pre greased tin and bake at 180 C for 20 mins and then lower the temperature to 160 C and bake for another 15-20 minutes or until a skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean.

8. Let it rest in the tin for 5-10 mins before turning it on a wire rack to cool.

9. Cool completely and slice. Serve.

Thank you for stopping by! Merry Christmas! Cheers!

Breakfast in a glass ~ Strawberry Banana Shake & Dates Mocha Shake

Shakes and smoothies are my ideal express breakfast. A few ingredients into the blender and whiz! Voila! Ready to drink :-)! There are times when you are in no mood to cook early morning and sometimes you are fed up of regular corn flakes or bread jam. For me 'Shakes' is the answer. Here are two of my favourite, of course for the second one you have to plan the night before. I do often ;-)

Strawberry Banana Shake:

Ingredients:

4 strawberries washed and hulled.
1/4th of an extra ripe banana peeled and chopped.
250ml low fat milk.
Sugar/Honey/Maple Syrup to taste.

Process:
Add all the ingredients into a blender and churn till smooth. Pour into glass and serve immediately.

Dates Mocha Shake:

Ingredients:
4 dates soaked overnight in less than 1/4 cup water.
1 tsp chocolate powder.
1/2 tsp instant coffe powder.
Sugar to taste.
250ml low fat milk

Process:

Add the dates along with the water in which it was soaked into the blender. Add all other ingredients. Churn till smooth. Pour into glass and serve immediately.

Linking it to Srivalli's Breakfast Mela

Sending the Strawberry Banana Shake to ToRview's Event Food Palette-Pink.

Cheers! Thank you for stopping by!