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Dessert

Date Cake

A moist cake made with dates, molasses, and walnuts, baked with shortening, brown sugar, and eggs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Date Cake

Why it works: Dates and walnut work together. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 302 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Date Cake

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point. The book gives no cooking times either; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Prepare

  1. Preheat your oven to 350°F (175°C).

Make the batter

  1. In a mixing bowl, cream together the shortening and brown sugar.

  2. Add the egg yolks and molasses, mixing well.

  3. Stir in enough sour cream to fill the mixture.

  4. Add the baking soda and spices, then mix thoroughly.

  5. Gradually add the flour, mixing until combined.

  6. Fold in the chopped dates and walnuts.

Bake

  1. Pour the batter into a greased cake pan and bake for about 30-40 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Dates + walnuttop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together302 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  3. Sugar + molassestop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Flour + walnuttop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,873 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Shortening
Adds fat that keeps the cake tender and rich in texture.
Egg yolks
Add richness and help bind the batter into a stable structure.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic molasses and sour cream to lift the cake.
Flour
Provides the main structure that sets as the cake bakes.
Dates
Add moisture and natural sweetness throughout the cake.
Molasses
Adds moisture, deep sweetness and a darker color to the batter.

The step that matters

Gradually add the flour, mixing until combined. Overmixing once flour is in develops gluten, which can make the cake tough and dense rather than tender. Mix only until no dry flour streaks remain.

Swap the walnut

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, egg, molasses, cream, flour, dates):

  1. Almondfits better
  2. Chestnutfits about as well
  3. Mixed nutsfits about as well
  4. Walnutthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, egg, molasses, cream, flour, dates. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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