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 canola)
- 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
Sneha says
Extremely delicious recipe!!
I relaced oil with unsweetened applesauce and used a little less sugar to make it more healthy. Because I used applesauce, the recipe became very sweet so next time I’ll use even less sugar. Thank you for the amazing recipe!!
Rebecca Leon says
hi!
‘when a friend gives me a batch of dates, you make cake!’
I came across your recipe and just had to do it. It was very good.. however, my date chunks sunk to the bottom. My daughter suggested flouring them the next time so they won’t sink. Your recipe says nothing about flouring them. Am so confused… 🙂
I did soak them prior to cutting and adding to batter. Any tips? thank you in advance.
Sam says
Love this recipe!
It’s a family favourite
I will be making this again
Julie says
DELICIOUS! I did use chopped dates and lined the pan with parchment paper. A definite keeper. Thanks for sharing.
Sandy says
Delicious. Only change I made was dividing the oil in half and added in apple sauce for the rest. Moist and just perfect with tea/coffee.
lesley loon says
Absolutely love this cake – my husband’s favorite afternoon tea cake! I use Sunsweet Chopped Dates rather than having to soak and chop the dates and it works out perfectly – of course, adds more sugar as they are sweetened. Great recipe!
Barbara says
Tori, this recipe sounds soooo delicious and I want to try it as a first time I use of the mixer I was gifted. I would like to know if it was cause a problem if I add more nuts to the recipe. I love nuts and would likely up the amount to a full cup. Does adding more nuts alter the baking time or affect ones ability to get a true clean straw test? What should I look out for as far as the cake’s doneness?
Tori Avey says
Hi Barbara, I have never added more nuts, but I can’t see it being a problem. Test it out with one batch before you do a larger batch just to make sure. Enjoy!
Pat Marsh says
I am in Australia & would love to make this. As with another comment when clicking on metric it automatically takes me back up to the top of the page.
Not sure if I use your amounts of ingredients if it would give me the same results. Example, I have a feeling your cup measure is different to 1 cup here in Australia
Tori Avey says
Hi Pat, I will check on that error. I am slowly converting all of the baked recipes on the site to weight measures, and this one is on the list! Meanwhile, you can plug it into a recipe converter online and it should be able to convert everything to metric for you easily.
Marni Neuburger says
Hi- do you know if I can substitute the Measure for Measure Gluten Free King Arthur Flour for this recipe? It looks amazing!
Tori Avey says
Not sure, but cakes like this one are generally pretty forgiving with cup-for-cup GF subs, so it’s worth a try!
Jessica says
This was awesome. Perfect. Home run. I followed the recipe exactly. I did however bake it in 3 disposable mini-loaf pans for 40 minutes since I was baking for gifts. This recipe is a keeper.
Ana Scherer says
Hi Tory,
Can I sub canola oil for coconut oil?
Thanks!
Tori Avey says
Hi Ana, I don’t generally bake with coconut oil but I think you can sub 1:1 for canola in a baked recipe like this.
Reva says
Hi, We don’t eat nuts on Rosh Hashana. Can I just leave them out? Do they need to be replaced with something to keep the texture?
ty!
Tori Avey says
You can just leave them out, or substitute pumpkin seeds for a bit of crunch. 🙂
Michelle says
Hi Tori-
I was curious why you chose cale flour for the daye honey cake. Will it make a difference if I use whole wheat pastry flour or white whole wheat flour? Thanks in advance!
Ashley at ToriAvey.com says
Hi Michelle, Tori’s assistant Ashley here. Cake flour gives this cake a lightness that cannot be achieved with other flours.
Tori Avey says
Hi Michelle, as Ashley mentioned the cake flour is lighter and produces a more tender crumb. You can sub white whole wheat flour if you prefer, it may be a little more dense but should still turn out great. Enjoy!
Jean Rosenberg says
For some reason I can’t get your Print icon to work. Is there an issue with this on your end or mine? I’d love to print the Rosh Hashanah recipes!Thanks in advance.
Tori Avey says
Hi Jean! Which browser are you using? On some browsers you may need to click it a few times to get it to activate (for some weird reason). If you’re still having trouble give me the details of browser, and if you’re on desktop or mobile. Thanks!
Alex Fisher says
One minor problem, the buttons to convert to Metric or US values are not working. They are only links to the top of the page, so every tom I click it just jumps to the top. I sort-of need teh metric, but so long as the recipe had cups/spoon measures it’s not too much of a hassle.
Tori Avey says
Alex thank you for letting me know, I’ll have my team look into it! The buttons appear to be working on my end, can you please let me know if you’re on mobile or desktop, and which browser you are using?
Alex Fisher says
Love the recipe, but I’ll probably substitute pecans for walnuts (I have both, but prefer pecans).
Arcilia Adams says
I would like to make this recipe, but I don’t know how to convert the whole recipe to cups, teaspoons, egg size, etc. Is this size egg 1 or 2 eggs (1.67 large eggs). I need the recipe convertered to US measuring.
Thank you.
Arcilia
Tori Avey says
Arcilia, I’m sorry I’m not sure what you mean. Did you alter the number of servings? If you reduced the number of servings you need, my recipe software automatically reduces the amount of the ingredients to make the amount of servings you are looking for. Baked recipes tend to work best with their original measurements, not altered by servings. I would recommend using the 12 servings setting and making it as written. You can always freeze leftover cake to use in the future. 🙂
Neha says
I’d like to bake the recipe since it looks amazing. Could I use pitted dates instead of whole and soaking? If so, what amount shall I use?
Tori Avey says
You can use pitted dates, it would be the same amount and I still recommend a quick soak for best texture.
Louise says
I live this recipe and have made it many times varying the recipe and it always comes out delicious. Thank you fir sharing it.
Wanda Aponte says
Delicious! My family loved this recipe!!! Thanks!
Zama says
I love your recipes. I teach pupils with learning difficulties, pictures support their sequencing skills and memory! Thank you very much.
Tori Avey says
So glad to hear that Zama! Thanks for writing. 🙂