Baking tin: 9″ ∅ Bundt tin
Serves : 12
Ingredients for the cake:
- Dates pitted and chopped large – 180 grams
- Baking soda – 1 teaspoon
- Boiling water – 150 millilitres
- Butter, at room temperature – 80 grams
- Thick sticky Melted jaggery – 2 tablespoons
- Plain flour – 160 grams
- Baking powder – 2 teaspoons
- Custard powder – 2 tablespoons
- Jaggery Powder – 40 grams
- Instant Coffee powder – 3 tablespoons
- Large Eggs – 2
- Dark Rum – ¼ cup
- Vanilla – 1 teaspoon
Ingredients for the Toffee Sauce:
- Butter – 120 grams
- Jaggery powder – 250 grams
- Thick melted Jaggery – 1-2 tablespoons
- Amul Fresh Cream – 250 millilitres
Method for the Cake :
- Grease and dust a 9″ bundt tin.
- Preheat the oven to 180ºC.
- You can either chop the dates up into tiny bits or do what I do, crush them coarsely in the blender.
- Plop the crushed dates into a large bowl, sprinkle on the baking soda and pour over the boiling water. Stir around once, cover and set aside for late.
- Sift together the flour, custard powder and baking powder and set aside.
- To a separate large bowl add the softened butter, thick sticky melted jaggery and beat until well blended.
- Add in the jaggery powder and beat until well incorporated.
- Add the eggs one at a time, beating only until each egg has just blended in. Don’t overwork the batter.
- Pour in the sifted flour with custard powder, baking powder and the rum, mix until you don’t see any flour streaks.
- Finally, fold in the soaking date crush along with all the liquid.
- Immediately pour the batter into the prepared tin, smoothen the top with a spatula and bake at 180ºC for 35 – 40 minutes or until a skewer inserted comes out clean.
- Allow the cake to cool in the tin for about 30 minutes and then turn out on to a serving plate. Using a skewer poke holes all over the cake and set aside.
Method for the Toffee Sauce:
- To a saucepan on low heat add butter, jaggery powder and thick melted jaggery.
- Once everything in the saucepan has melted add in the fresh cream and cook until the sauce to come to a bubble.
- Turn off the heat and pour enough sauce onto the cake covering it well and spreading it evenly.
- Serve warm with cold unsweetened whipped cream and extra toffee sauce on the side.
Notes:
- Substitutes for:
- Jaggery powder: Muscovado Sugar
- Thick melted Jaggery – Honey or treacle
- Unsweetened Whipped cream – Vanilla Ice cream (Since this is a really sweet dessert I prefer unsweetened whipped cream )
- For a sweet salty variation, sprinkle some coarse salt onto the toffee sauce