Date cake, yay! And that’s dates as in the fruit, not dates as in this cake is for having on a date. Although you could certainly have it on a date!
The cake is very moist and has a subtle yet deep caramel-y flavor thanks to the dates. I used Medjool dates, which are my favorite variety. You could use another variety if you like, but do try to find fresh, high quality dates. They should be soft and plump, not hard or overly dried out.
The coffee: I like coffee, a lot! So I made this cake with lots of coffee flavor. I used coffee to make the date puree for the cake and as a flavoring for the buttercream.
You can also make this cake with hot water instead of coffee. The flavor using water is milder, but still delicious. Feel free to use either coffee, black tea, or water to suit your tastes.
The cake itself is easy to bring together, the only unusual step is preparing the date puree. Otherwise, it’s your standard creamed butter and sugar, eggs, and flour.
Rich and creamy Coffee Buttercream along with layers of crunchy toasted walnuts complete this layer cake. Coffee and walnut is a tried and true flavor combo, and I think this cake really needs that bit of crunchy texture from the walnuts.
There’s another question which I deliberated long and hard over with this cake…
Why do we soak the dates with baking soda?
If you look around at recipes for date cake or sticky toffee pudding (a British dessert made with dates), you will see the dates are usually soaked in hot liquid with baking soda before adding them to the cake batter.
A google search brought up very lackluster results for this question. How often does that happen?! So without a definitive answer, I did a little testing myself. I made two cakes with the baking soda added in a different step for each. I also made these cakes with water rather than coffee because I wanted to focus on the flavor of just the dates.
So I made one cake with the dates soaked together with baking soda. Then I made another cake where the dates soaked by themselves and the baking soda was added in with the dry ingredients.
The verdict: both cakes had the same texture, but the flavor was very different. The dates that had been soaked with baking soda came across sweeter and had a more pronounced flavor.
So I have to agree with this comment I found, that baking soda probably neutralizes tannins released from the dates, which would otherwise create an astringency in the cake. If anyone could provide more information about this, I’d love to hear it! I always want to know the why behind baking methods.
Buttercream Flower Decorations
As delicious as the Coffee Buttercream is, it’s not quite sturdy enough to pipe intricate details like these flowers. Instead, I used some leftover Italian Meringue Buttercream to pipe these whimsical flower decorations.
If you’d like to learn more about piping flowers, take a look at my post How to Make Realistic Buttercream Flowers.
Truth be told, these flowers are a little bit extra on this cake. But hey, I wanted an excuse to pipe some flowers! I think it would be just as good, if not better, frosted with a casual spatula finish and topped off with more toasted walnuts.
This moist layer cake gets its deep caramel flavor from Medjool dates, and is layered with coffee buttercream and crunchy walnuts. Preheat oven to 325 F. Grease three six-inch round cake pans and line each with parchment paper. Set up the coffee to brew. While the coffee is brewing, scale out dates into a liquid measuring cup and add the baking soda. Pour the coffee over the dates and let cool while you prepare the rest of the batter. Sift the flour and baking powder together into another bowl. Whisk to combine and set aside. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream butter, sugar, and salt on medium speed until light and fluffy. Stop to scrape down the bowl a few times during this process. Continuing on medium speed, lightly whisk eggs together and stream into the mixer. Mix until well incorporated, then stop the mixer. By now the date and coffee mixture should have cooled slightly. Transfer the mixture to a blender (or use an immersion blender if you have one) and puree until smooth. It's ok if there are still some visible pieces of date skin in the puree. Turn the mixer on low and add the flour mixture a third at a time, alternating with the date puree. Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl and use your spatula to fold the mixture, ensuring everything is well mixed. Divide the batter evenly between the three cake pans and bake for about 25-30 minutes, or until a toothpick stuck in the center comes out clean, or a thermometer reads 210 F. Set the baked layers aside to cool while you prepare the frosting. Leave the oven on, and toast the walnuts until fragrant, about 10 minutes. Let them cool, then coarsely chop and reserve to assemble the cake. To assemble the cake: Place one layer of cake on your cake stand or serving plate. Spread a few ounces of the coffee buttercream on the layer, then sprinkle evenly with half the walnuts. Place the second layer and repeat with frosting and walnuts. Place the third layer, then frost the outside of the cake with the rest of the coffee buttercream. Coffee Date Cake
(10 votes, average: 4.00 out of 5)
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