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
My son has an egg allergy. What can I substitute the eggs with?
Hi Maria, Tori’s assistant Ashley here. A fantastic egg substitute for a recipe like this is aquafaba – the liquid from a can of chickpeas. The ratio is 3 tbsp aquafaba per each egg. Hope this helps!
Made this loaf last week….great recipe.
Thank you for sharing.
I live in the UK what is cake flour pls
It’s a finely milled low protein flour. You can substitute all purpose flour if you have trouble finding it. This post should be helpful: https://www.nigella.com/ask/what-is-cake-flour
Delicious— I made it as a round cake added a little Nutmeg and a shake of Allspice. topped with whipped cream. Enjoyed every bite !
Cake flour is a tad different. It is finer & protein is different. It might make a heavier cake? Just a thought.Pat
Hi Tori.
I loved this cake – a gf made it. However I am not good with egg and all your cakes have them – do you have a reliable and easy substitute – for India?
Looking forward to hearing from you .
Warm Regards, GS
Aquafaba is typically the best sub that I’ve found – three tablespoons of aquafaba = one whole egg.
I need to make this for a celiac did you impl you used a gluten free flour, how did it come out and many thanks
Shannah Tova
This should work fine using a standard cup-for-cup gluten free replacement for flour.
Can I replace cake flour with regular flour.
Yes.
Wow came out really moist flavorful and delicious? I used a bit of clove and allspice ran out of nutmeg. Wow pleased and surprised my wife.
That worked out really well. Thank you
Hi can I use almond flower instead
I have not tested this with almond flour, so I am not sure what the results will be.
At first I wasn’t wowed by the cake. Wasn’t bad but… I even deleted it from my saved recipes.
HOWEVER, not wanting to waste it, I sliced it up, put it into the freezer and then brought it out a few slices at a time. Warming it, adding butter and a drizzle of honey made a HUGE difference. It seemed to become much more moist after time. Just don’t over warm it. I did so in the microwave for a few seconds. Just enough to be warm enough to melt the butter.
So, back into the saved recipes it went. I might add a few raisins next time as well or maybe more dates. Can’t have enough of that in anything.
Sorry not sure what went wrong. I followed recipe and it turned out very dry. Falling into pieces when I sliced it. Can you think what went wrong this time ??
I’m sorry to hear that, Sandra. I’m not sure what could have gone wrong, as I wasn’t cooking beside you. This cake is very moist and I always get great reviews on this recipe. Did you use large eggs? And the full amount of oil called for, or did you substitute apple sauce?
Amazing recipe, made it multiple times and it is perfect every time. I usually make double the amount and freeze it.
Love your recipes! Can I refrigerate this after it’s done to keep it fresh? Or will it dry it out? Thanks!
You can most definitely refrigerate, just wrap it tightly in plastic wrap to keep it moist and fresh.
This was absolutely delicious. Definitely making it again.
I’m vegan and I skipped the honey, used flax eggs and OMG it was amazing. We had a great Rosh Hashanah
Scrumptious cake. Made it 2 days ago. Easy to bake and amazingly delicious!
Made it today. Fabulous recipe. Thank you
Made this tonight and we love it!! Thanks for sharing!!
This turned out to be the best cake we made. Thanks a lot.
So happy to hear that!