Date Wal­nut Cake with ap­ple com­pôte

Var­sha’s date and wal­nut cake is sweet and per­fect­ly spiced with warm aro­mat­ics. Rich and moist, dates nat­u­ral­ly sweet­en the cake so that less sug­ar is need­ed. Wal­nuts add tex­ture while or­ange essence adds an ex­tra di­men­sion of flavour.

Var­sha tops off the cake with a yum­my ap­ple com­pôte which can be used to top ice-cream or any oth­er type of cake.

Yields: 8 serv­ings

Prep Time: 30 min­utes

Cook Time: 1 hour min­utes

To­tal Time: 1 hour 30 min­utes

IN­GRE­DI­ENTS

¾ cup or 6 ounces un­salt­ed but­ter

1 cup gran­u­lat­ed sug­ar

2 eggs

2 tea­spoons or­ange essence

2 cups all-pur­pose flour

1 tea­spoon bak­ing pow­der

½ tea­spoon salt

1 ½ tea­spoon ground nut­meg

½ tea­spoon ground car­damom

1 tea­spoon ground cin­na­mon

½ cup chopped wal­nuts

8 ounces dates, chopped

1 ½ cups boil­ing wa­ter

1 ½ tea­spoons bak­ing so­da

For ap­ple com­pôte

1 pound granny smith ap­ples, peeled, cored and thin­ly sliced.

¼ cup unsweet­ened or­ange juice

2 ta­ble­spoons wa­ter

4 ta­ble­spoons brown sug­ar*

1 ta­ble­spoon cin­na­mon

*Add more sug­ar if you’d like your com­pôte to be sweet­er.

DI­REC­TIONS

1 Pre­heat oven to 350°F. Grease a 9-inch by 13-inch pan or 9-inch round pan; set aside.

2 In a small bowl, add chopped dates, boil­ing wa­ter and bak­ing so­da. Let soak for 15 min­utes or un­til mix­ture cools com­plete­ly.

3 In a large bowl, add all dry in­gre­di­ents. Mix and set aside.

4 In the mean­while, us­ing a hand or stand mix­er, cream but­ter and sug­ar un­til fluffy and pale yel­low.

5 Then, add eggs and or­ange essence. Mix un­til com­bined.

6 Slow­ly, add dates to­geth­er with the liq­uid mix­ture.

7 Add dry in­gre­di­ents in three parts, mix­ing and scrap­ing the sides of the bowl af­ter each ad­di­tion.

8 Af­ter every­thing is ful­ly com­bined, fold in wal­nuts.

9 Spread bat­ter even­ly in pan and bake for 40 to 45 min­utes.

10 For the ap­ple com­pôte, add all in­gre­di­ents to a medi­um pot. Let sim­mer un­til ap­ples be­come soft.

11 Let com­pôte cool and top your cake with a gen­er­ous amount.

by Var­sha Ma­habir