Date Pudding Cake

This old-fashioned date pudding cake is more fruit and nuts than actual cake. With only a quarter cup of flour in the whole recipe, the dates and eggs do most of the structural work, giving you something dense, sticky, and almost fudgy.

Beating the eggs until light and fluffy is the critical step. There’s no butter and almost no flour, so those beaten eggs are the only source of lift in the batter. Sugar gets beaten in gradually until the mixture is thick and pale, then the small amount of flour, baking powder, and salt fold in before the chopped dates and nuts.

Serve this warm. Straight from the oven with a scoop of vanilla ice cream or a dollop of whipped cream, the sticky date center practically melts. Cold, it firms up and loses that pudding-like quality that makes it special.

Pro Tips

• Chop the dates into small, even pieces. Large chunks clump together and create pockets of solid date in the cake.
• Beat the eggs a full 3 to 4 minutes. Under-beaten eggs mean a flat, gummy result instead of a light one.
• Use a 9×9 pan, not larger. A bigger pan spreads the batter too thin and you lose the dense, pudding-like center.
• Check at 25 minutes. Overbaking dries out the dates and the cake goes from sticky to tough.

Variations

• Use pecans or walnuts for the nuts. Both pair beautifully with the caramel sweetness of the dates.
• Add a teaspoon of cinnamon and a pinch of nutmeg for a warm-spiced version.
• Drizzle warm toffee sauce over the top instead of ice cream for a sticky toffee pudding twist.