Date Honey Nut Cake – a moist, tender cake bursting with flavor. This super easy quick bread cake is lovely served with tea or coffee. It’s also a nice change from standard honey cake – perfect for Rosh Hashanah, Sukkot, or any holiday!
When I received a batch of organic dates from a kibbutz in Israel, I found myself wondering what to do with them. These sweet, luscious dates on the vine were perfect for snacking, but how else could I get creative with them? Date nut cake was an obvious choice, but I wanted to do something a little different. With Rosh Hashanah coming up, my mind wandered to honey cake. The thought of sweetening date nut cake with honey seemed like just the ticket.
Voila! The Date Honey Nut Cake was born. This tasty loaf cake is a unique take on a traditional Rosh Hashanah honey cake. Dates are actually a symbolic food for Rosh Hashanah, so it’s a great choice for the holiday. In Hebrew, a date is called a “tamar,” which is related to the word “tam” (meaning “to end”) and the word “sheyitamu” (meaning “to be consumed”). Dates are eaten in the hopes that our enemies will be consumed. They also happen to be naturally sweet, which is another good reason to eat them for Rosh Hashanah (as we hope for a sweet new year). And here’s another fun fact– biblical scholars believe that the honey repeatedly mentioned in the Torah likely came from dates (and other fruits), not bees. Yet another good reason to eat dates for Rosh Hashanah!
So, what better way to enjoy dates than in a sweet, delicious honey cake? The dates provide lots of moisture, which makes this a convenient make-ahead dessert—the cake will not dry out if you make it a day or two before the holiday begins. The walnuts add some nice texture and crunch. It’s naturally dairy free, but can be topped with cream cheese frosting for extra decadence (if you’re not worried about keeping it parve).
I hope this cake ends up on your holiday table. It will definitely be on mine.
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Date Honey Nut Cake
Ingredients
- 6 ounces whole dates (3/4 cup)
- 1 cup cake flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 3/4 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- Pinch nutmeg
- 3/4 cup vegetable oil (I use avocado oil, canola oil can also be used)
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 1/4 cup honey
- 2 large eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1/2 cup chopped walnuts
- Nonstick cooking spray
NOTES
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Place dates into a bowl and cover them with very hot water. Let the dates soak while you prepare the cake batter.
- In a large mixing bowl, sift together cake flour, baking powder, cinnamon, salt, and nutmeg.
- In a medium mixing bowl, whisk together vegetable oil, brown sugar, honey, eggs, and vanilla.
- Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and stir till a thick batter forms.
- Drain water from the dates. Pit the dates, then chop the fruit into small chunks.
- Fold the walnuts and date chunks into the batter.
- Generously grease your loaf pan with cooking spray. Pour batter into loaf pan.
- Place loaf pan in preheated oven. Bake cake for about 1 hour, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Remove from oven and set on a wire rack to cool.
Nutrition
tried this recipe?
Let us know in the comments!
Other Great Recipe Ideas
Yummy. I substituted coconut oil for the canola. My batter was not thin like was mentioned. I made it in a 9×9 pan and it came out like a snack cake. It was very good.
So glad you enjoyed it Kelli, thank you for sharing your substitution! I am sure that will be helpful to others. Lately I have been using avocado oil in place of canola in quick breads like this, with good results.
I look forward to making a number of the recipes above. I am also interested in seeing the Mediterranean recipes.
The nutrition facts chart indicates 11 g of saturated fat in one slice. Is this accurate? I really really want to try this, but that’s too much saturated fat for me! Thanks!
Hmmm Susan, thank you for bringing this to my attention! It didn’t seem accurate, so I put it through the calculation software again, and it adjusted to 3 grams saturated fat per serving, which seems more like what it should be.
Hi David asking could I use wholemeal self rasing flour in this recipe
Self raising cake flour should be fine (if using here remove the baking powder, and only use 1/4 tsp salt). I usually don’t like to sub wholemeal flour for the whole recipe, however, as it can make the texture very different.
This is the best honey cake my family has ever tasted. For 20 years I’ve been trying recipes from everywhere but the cakes were always too dry. This cake never fails to be moist, flavorful, and a nice texture. We look forward to having it for breakfast before holiday services. Thank you for sharing a truly great recipe.
I have tried this recipe a few times now and it never fails. It is a very moist bread with the date flavour coming through. The only thing I do different is when I I soak the dates I add a very small amount of instant coffee crystals to the hot water. It really makes the dates pop in flavour.
What an interesting tip Joann, thank you for sharing!
Hi! Can I use Pecans if I don’t have walnuts?
Yes that would be lovely.
Hi there , I am wondering if I can bake this without adding the additional sugar?
I think it would not really be considered a cake if you did this, and might be lacking in flavor, but you can certainly try!
Quite tasty, however, the 1 hour baking time was way too much. Probably 50 minutes would have been better. Mine got burnt around the edges and turned rather dark on the bottom. Also, the recipe was a bit too oily for my taste. The loaf did not rise in the middle at all so I had a great big hole in the center. For those of you asking about cake flour, you can make your own by measuring 1 cup of regular flour, removing 2 tablespoons, and replacing the removed flour with 2 tablespoons cornstarch. I did follow the recipe exactly as written.
Looks delicious, but I would prefer NOT to use so much oil. Do you think subbing apple sauce for some (or most) of the oil would work? I am tempted to try this as I’ve had good results in the past with this substitution. Thanks! JG
Hi Jeannie, typically you can sub up to half the oil for applesauce in simple cakes and quick breads, and still maintain a good texture result.
Haven’t made it yet but love the ingredients!
Can I replace the oil with apple sauce or Greek yogurt?
Can you used GF flour for this recipe?
Cheers Alex
Hi Alex! I have not tested it that way, but cup-for-cup gluten free flours usually work quite well in quick bread/cake recipes like this one.
Hi,
How could I adjust this review to make it as sugar free as possible.
I usually use maple syrup in place of sugar but unsure about the honey?