Friends always request eggless cakes from me and this is for them. I like dessert at the end of lunch and dinner so this is a perfect ending to a vegetarian meal. Or you may serve at Afternoon Tea, which I do most of the time.

I observe vegetarianism a few times a week so I experiment with bakes that do not need eggs. I substitute eggs with other ingredients. Surprisingly, some taste better without the eggs. I will be posting these recipes in due course.

I served this to my cousin recently.  At first she refused to eat it, I had to convince her that the cake had no eggs in it! When she tried it, she was very happy with the texture and the taste of this cake. She asked for more!

A non-vegetarian will not miss or guess that there are no eggs in this cake!

Furthermore, the addition of walnuts and dates makes this cake healthier than most others!

It is moist, delicious and most importantly easy to make. I have made it easier for you to measure in cups instead of grams etc. We will at least have a cup in the kitchen! So no excuse if you do not have a measuring scale etc to avoid baking! Little washing up as well!

So yummy and good – do bake and give me your comments please.

INGREDIENTS:

1 cup milk

3 tsp instant coffee

1 cup seedless dates, chopped

1 cup water

¾ cup butter, melted

1 tsp vanilla extract

¾ cup castor sugar

2 cups plain flour

3 tbsp cocoa powder

1½ tsp baking powder

¼ tsp baking soda

METHOD:

Preheat oven to 170C.

Sieve the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and baking soda in a bowl and keep aside.

In a pan, heat the milk. Take the pan off the heat. Add the coffee, stir and add in the chopped dates.

Leave aside for 15 minutes.

Add butter, sugar, water and vanilla extract to the cooled milk and date mixture and mix well.

Add this mixture to the bowl of flour and fold in, but do not overmix.

Pour into a prepared tin and bake for 40 mins.

Dust with snow powder (non-melting icing sugar) and serve when completely cooled.

Notes:

If you do not like coffee, you may omit it (but coffee and cocoa is a good combination).

You may choose to use low fat milk instead.

You can also bake the cake in a loaf pan or as cupcakes and eat it for breakfast. It is a also a good idea to put an icing on these types of cakes, as it will bring the cake to another level.

To test the cake for doneness, poke a skewer into the cake. When it comes out clean, the cake is done.