Hey there! I am going to make this post fairly short and sweet by letting the pictures speak for themselves. This dessert I am about to share with you is nothing short of “KILLER“. Do you love a moist flavorful cake topped with a warm caramel sauce and hit with a scoop of vanilla ice cream? Enough Said!

I have to thank the Zest-In Law yet again for supplying a delicious dessert as the thanksgiving day finale. Below is the scoop on how to pull this off.

Ingredients
- 2 Cups coarsely chopped pitted dates
- 13/4 Cups Water
- 1/3 C butter
- 11/3 cup sugar
- 2 Tsp. Baking Soda
- 3 Eggs
- 2 Cup flour
- 3 Tsp Baking powder
- ½ Tsp. Ginger
Sauce
- ¾ Cup Butter
- 2 Cup brown sugar
- 1C whipping cream
- ½ tsp vanilla
Method
- Lightly butter a 9×13 pan and find a roaster that it can fit into – for water bath !
- Place dates in water cover and bring to boil.
- Uncover and gently boil for 5 min remove from heat and stir in baking soda.
- Cream butter and sugar in mixer. Add eggs one at a time. Beat well after EACH EGG ADDED.
- Add the dry ingredients and mix well into sugar/butter /egg and pour into prepared pan.
- Bake in water bath at 350 for 20 min then reduce heat to 325 and bake for about 35 more min ( Until cake tester comes out clean ).
- Remove pan from water bath and serve (I didn’t serve right away – I am a rebel that way).
- For the sauce, melt butter and add brown sugar – cook until dissolved and well blended.
- Add cream and vanilla – Gently increase heat and bring to a gentle boil – cook for a few min until slightly thickened.
- ENJOY!!




Zesty Tip: When baking any kind of cake in a pan, I like to cut around the edges with a knife as soon as it comes out of the oven to prevent it from sticking to the sides of the pan.
Have yourself a great Thursday and remember to come back for tomorrow’s big launch of the Zesty Video debut with Quaker and Goodbite.com
Take care
zesty





















{ 18 comments… read them below or add one }
You had me at caramel
Oh divine! My grandmother has tons of recipes for date cake but I had never had it before. Gotta try it now.
Looks awesome! I am eating cereal right now, but wish I had this yummy dessert instead
That looks decadent! Holy caramel sauce!
Amazing! Caramel sauce is perfection!
love caramel desserts, and i also love how this ingredient list is fairly short and looks simple to make! can’t wait to see the upcoming video debut!
I love cooking with dates. They add a nice sweetness, and I bet you could even cut down on the sugar some… especially with the caramel sauce. I think I’m with VeggieGirl on this one. Ditto what she said.
sounds very yummy! we love dates. now onto the stupid question…what is a water bath?
@Ursula – A water bath is when you have a larger pan filled a portion of the way up with water and then you place the cake pan inside it. This allows the cake to have a moist cooking environment and will prevent the cake from cracking.
Yum that looks quite fabulous. You can totally see how moist and delicious it is!!
Ridiculous!
I love baking with dates. I always get a fabulous, moist result. I read the recipe several times and maybe I’m missing something but I can’t figure out when to mix in the dates. Are they considered dry ingredients? I think this would make a great gluten-free, sugar-free dish and want to give it a try some time.
Also – saw that Mrs. Zesty is running a half marathon this weekend – tell her I said good luck!
Yikes – Apologies from the zesty in law !! The dates and water are mixed in after the dry ingredients are blended with the butter/sugar mix. Sorry Zesty – I am slipping -
ps I would like to know how the gluten free experiment goes
Is this the same thing as Sticky Toffee Pudding?
@Kristin – I believe the main difference is the actual cake itself.
yes sticky date pudding and sticky toffee pudding are the same thing. this dessert is fabulously popular in australia and i make it for xmas every year.
So, I was wondering…when do you add in the dates?
@ Alex – It is in step 2 where you add the dates and start builing the mixture. Hope this helps.
zesty
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