Recipe: Date and Walnut cake (eggless)

I have been planning to make an eggless cake for quite sometime now but kept postponing it. Finally when I located some milkpowder in the fridge, I thought, “let me make eggless cake using the milkpowder”. Except, of course, I had no idea how to incorporate milk powder in a cake recipe. Neither the Internet nor my handy book was any help. But now that I'd decided to bake a cake, I decided to go ahead and do that anyway, except instead of using the milkpowder, I stayed traditional. (If anybody knows how to use milkpowder in a baking recipe, I'd like to know). Instead of eggs, I decided to use curds (yoghurt)

As always, I was going to make use of the things I already had at home. I had just one cup of flour. So that would be the quantity of flour I would use. Accordingly, I sliced and cut the dates and walnuts (2 tbsps. each). I had only ½ cup of powdered sugar. The baking guide, to which I have been returning recently, says, “castor sugar helps to trap the air better than powdered sugar," so I decided to use castor sugar to fill the cup. I always have homemade butter in the fridge , so that was no problem. Even after slicing the fruits and nuts, I did not find the time to bake the cake for two days. So the next day, in between my cooking I started the cake also. The preparation and baking took exactly one hour (slicing the fruits not included).

Here is the recipe.

Ingredients:

Flour: 1cup
Butter : 1 cup
Powdered sugar : ½ cup
Castor sugar : ½ cup
Cocoa powder: 1 tbsp.
Walnuts(sliced into tiny bits): 1 tbsp.
Dates(sliced into tiny bits): 1 tbsp.
Thick curds: 1cup
Baking powder: ½ tsp.
Baking soda: ½ tsp.
Rind of one lemon
Juice of one lemon
Milk to get the required consistency

Method:

Preheat the oven to 200 deg. centigrade (390 F).

Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the curds and cream some more. It may curdle a little, don’t worry. Sift the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and baking soda twice. Mix the fruits in a tbsp. of sifted flour and keep aside. Gradually fold in the sifted flour into the creamed mixture alternating with the fruits mixture. When all the flour has been added, mix in the lemon rind and lemon juice. The dough should be of dropping consistency. If not, add little tepid milk (not very warm) to get the right consistency.

Pour into a 9" dia baking dish (well greased and dusted) and bake in the preheated oven for 30 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the cake comes clean.

My cake came out just right. Fluffy and soft and melting in the mouth.

HAPPY BAKING.