Date and Walnut Cake (Sugar Free)

Walnut and date cake is one of my favorites and I used to make it in a traditional style with maida and sugar until the idea of making a healthier version of it came to my mind and I replaced them with wheat flour and khejur gur(Date Palm Jaggery). Didn't expect it to come out so well. Since the cake was moist enough next time I would try it with even less oil(1/8th cup).

For those who don't know much about Khejur Gur (date palm jaggery), it is made from boiling the sap from date palms and is very popular in Bengal during the winter months. It is also commonly called "Notun Gur" ( literally, "new jaggery") or "Nolen Gur". It is not easily available, but to my surprise I found it in the Indian store(Apna Bazar, Jersey City), I'll soon try other traditional recipes of it and post.

Ingredients:

Wheat Flour: 1 Cup

Dates(Khajoor): 10 -12
Milk: 3/4 cup milk
Khejur gur(Date Palm Jaggery): 180gms (Alternate 3/4 cup sugar)
Oil: 1/4 cup 

Baking Soda: 1 Tsp
Chopped Walnuts: 1/4 Cup

Method:

1. Heat milk and add coarsely grated gur to it and stir.
2. Then add the washed dates(remove seeds if they are not pitted) to the milk and let it cook for 2-3 mins.
3. Let it cool a little and then grind it to a smooth paste. The dates might not grind properly, this is absolutely fine.
4. Add oil and mix.
5. Sieve together flour and baking soda and pour the date mixture to the flour and mix well. If the mixture is very thick you can add little more milk, but make sure not to make it thin in consistency else the walnuts would settle down while baking and will not be evenly spread out.

6. Add chopped walnuts and mix well.
6. Preheat the oven at 350F(175 degree C). Bake the cake in a greased oven proof dish for 30-35 mins (or until a knife inserted in the cake comes out clean).

Notes: 

1. Bake the cake immediately after preparing the mixture so make sure the oven is pre-heated by the time mixture is ready.

2. Instead of grinding the dates with milk you can also chop and add them if you would like the prominent taste of the dates.

3. Kajoor ka gur is available in Indian stores and in case you don't have it handy you can replace it with sugar.


Sending this to Nivedita's and Pari's event "Only Original Recipes" from along with Bread Chowmein

Eggless Marble Cake

Ingredients

Maida (All purpose flour) : 250gms

Baking Powder : 1 Tsp
Baking Soda : 1/2 Tsp
Sugar : 2 Tbsp
Butter : 180 gms
Condensed Milk : 1 Tin
Vanilla Essence : 1 Tsp
Coco Powder : 2 Tbsp
Drinking Chocolate :  4 Tbsp
Coffee : 1 Pinch
Milk :  1 1/2 Cup








Method
1. Mix butter, sugar and condensed milk until its is light and fluffy
2. Add Maida and mix properly adding milk slowly to make the paste thinner in consistency
3. Add baking powder and baking soda and mix thoroughly.
4. Apply butter to the baking tin and dust it with flour.
5. Then add vanilla essence and add half of the mixture into the baking tin.
6. In one half add Coco Powder, Drinking Chocolate and coffee and mix well.
7. Add this mixture slowly into the baking tin without disturbing the mixture added previously.
8. Take a knife swirl the mixture just once, this is to give marble effect to the cake.
9.  Bake for 40-45 mins in a preheated the oven at 350 degrees F(175 degree C).