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Baking, Easy Bakes, Eggless Baking, Healthy, KiddieLunchBox, Winter

Pumpkin Date Cake

January 9, 2010

Recipe for a simple pumpkin date cake – that is perfect for tea time

 

Since Christmas, actually since December, I’ve been on a baking spree and the reason is a certain person – a young woman who is here to take care of my son for some hours each day – it has freed some hours to do the things I like or to do just nothing – which was completely impossible for the last one year since Atri was born. So I’m back to baking for the few friends I have here, for my wonderful neighbouring aunty-uncle and for my little one of course. He is quite the foodie and shows sincere appreciation for everything his mom cooks up. After devouring a carrot-banana cake on his first birthday, he quite liked it that he got a new cake to eat on his 13th month birthday. The rum-soaked Christmas cakes I baked was out of bounds for him as I didn’t want him getting hooked on to Old Monk this early in life – although some of my relatives and friends think otherwise.

He has been eating pumpkin puree since he started on weaning foods six months ago, hence the familiar taste of pumpkin in this cake along with iron-rich dates that play the role of natural sweetener, replacing most of the sugar in this pumpkin date cake. Hope you and your little ones enjoy this.

If you love tea cakes, also check out my favourite Slam Bang Coffee Cake!

coffee cake with coffee

 

You’ll also love this BEST Banana Bread with Oat flour

How about this super moist eggless apple cake with a secret technique that keeps it soft as ever!

 

Love pumpkins? Are pumpkins in season now in your part of the world? Check out my best pumpkin recipes for sweet, savoury dishes, and curries too!

Print Recipe
Pumpkin Date Cake Yum
Combining the goodness of yellow pumpkin and dates in this eggless pumpkin date cake is perfect for kids' lunchbox or a tea time guilt-free treat.
Pumpkin Date Cake
Cuisine american
Cook Time 60 minutes
Servings
serving
Ingredients
  • 2 cups yellow pumpkin cubes
  • 10 dates soaked in water overnight
  • 1/4 cup vegetable oil
  • 1/3 cup brown sugar
  • 2 tbsps yogurt
  • 1 tbsp vinegar
  • 1/4 cup milk
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
Sift the following together:
  • 1.5 cups plain flour (or 1 cup plain flour & 1/2 cups whole wheat flour)
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • 1/2 tsp baking soda
  • 1 tsp cinnamon powder
  • 1 tsp ginger powder
Cuisine american
Cook Time 60 minutes
Servings
serving
Ingredients
  • 2 cups yellow pumpkin cubes
  • 10 dates soaked in water overnight
  • 1/4 cup vegetable oil
  • 1/3 cup brown sugar
  • 2 tbsps yogurt
  • 1 tbsp vinegar
  • 1/4 cup milk
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
Sift the following together:
  • 1.5 cups plain flour (or 1 cup plain flour & 1/2 cups whole wheat flour)
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • 1/2 tsp baking soda
  • 1 tsp cinnamon powder
  • 1 tsp ginger powder
Pumpkin Date Cake
Instructions
  1. Pressure cook the pumpkin cubes with the soaked dates with 1/4 cup water. Squeeze out the seeds from the cooked dates (if using dates with seeds). In a mixer jar, puree the pumpkin and dates. You'll get roughly 1 cup of thick puree.
  2. Preheat the oven at 180 Celsius.
  3. Mix the pumpkin date puree, oil, sugar, vinegar, yogurt, milk and vanilla extract in a bowl. Whisk well with a hand whisk or electric whisk until you get a smooth mixture.
  4. Gently mix the sifted dry ingredients into the wet mixture. Pour into a well oiled 8" square tin, or line a muffin tin with paper cups and fill up to 3/4th (makes 12 muffins).
  5. Bake at 180 Celsius until a tester comes clean; 30-40 minutes for cake and around 16-20 minutes for muffins.
Recipe Notes

Note:

Optional : Some chopped dried fruits or nuts, I used some chopped dried fruits soaked in juice (1/4 cup)

Cool on a rack and cut into slices. Serve with coffee or tea. Great when served for a kiddies' party too.

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baking cooking for kids eggless baking pumpkin teacake vegetables
by Nandita Iyer 
10 Comments

About Nandita Iyer

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Comments

  1. Anjali says: January 9, 2010 at 7:36 am

    That is an interesting Combo in a cake. Atri is sure being trained for gastronomic delites.

    Reply
  2. Sanjeeta kk says: January 9, 2010 at 11:55 am

    Looks yummy and healthy too ! A must try for me.

    Reply
  3. Jagruti says: January 9, 2010 at 2:37 pm

    Healthy start for a new year…some diffrent combination as well…got to try…

    Reply
  4. Aparna says: January 9, 2010 at 4:09 pm

    So you’re in Hyderabad now. Arundati told me you’d be moving.I’m yet to bake with pumpkin.Happy New Year to you and family.

    Reply
  5. Mona says: January 10, 2010 at 12:13 am

    Cakes looks yumm Nandita!

    Reply
  6. Pauline says: January 10, 2010 at 8:16 pm

    This looks so healthy and delicious. That’s a good idea to use a mix of pumpkin and dates. I never have dates on hand, but I wonder if it’s possible to use pureed raisins instead of dates. The recipe sounds easy and healthy. Thanks for posting!(By the way, I like the new layout)

    Reply
  7. Raaga says: January 11, 2010 at 5:46 am

    Nice. Why does this look more like the carrot raisin cake? I can see carrots and raisins in this one 🙂

    Reply
  8. Anonymous says: April 8, 2012 at 4:42 pm

    Just happen to discover this, looks great and surely I gonna try it! Thanks!

    Reply
  9. Aarti says: June 22, 2017 at 10:40 am

    Hi, you add the raw pumpkin cubes as they are in the cake batter? The pumpkin doesn’t need to be cooked and pureed before baking?

    Reply
    • Nandita Iyer says: June 22, 2017 at 11:03 am

      Thanks for bringing this to my notice, some recipe instructions got scrambled when I moved to wordpress – in the original recipe the entire pureeing process was in brackets that got omitted. Have rewritten the recipe now. Hope this helps 🙂

      Reply

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WARM BROCCOLI SALAD
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Amla Raita

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