I have a strong craving for sweets and I often control myself by keeping sugar free for couple of months. This time, I wanted to follow sugar free vegan diet but the craving for sweet could not be controlled and came up with this vegan whole wheat walnut dates cake. I know dates and honey are not sugar free but at least they contain natural sugars and some minor minerals. By now you know my love for whole grains over refined flours or rice, so I tried this recipe with whole wheat flour rather than all purpose flour and it came out very good. 

Before doing this cake, I got to know few substitutions while googling like; replacing all purpose flour with whole wheat flour and adding tsp baking soda to help raise the cake; lemon juice and soy milk to substitute eggs; honey and ½ cup dates to substitute 1cup of sugar; which I have implemented in this recipe. I haven’t replaced oil but we can replace oil with unsweetened apple sauce. Next time I will try ¼ cup apple sauce and ¼ cup oil to make it more healthy. If any of you have tried apple sauce instead of oil, feel free to share your experience. 

Ingredients:

1. Dates – 40 or 1 ¼ Cup
2. Almond milk – ¾ Cup ( I used sweetened almond milk )
3. Honey – ¼ Cup
4. Oil – ½ Cup
5. Lemon juice – 1 tsp
6. Whole wheat flour – 1 Cup ( I used ashirwad atta)
7. Baking soda – ½ tsp
8. Baking powder – 1 tsp
9. Cardamom – 2
10. Cloves – 2
11. Soy milk – ½ Cup
12. Walnuts – ½ Cup ( chop into tiny pieces)
    

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 325F
2. Grease 8 inch round cake pan with oil.
3. Prepare cardamom and cloves powder.
4. Microwave dates in almond milk for about 2 minutes and make smooth paste of dates in a blender.
   
5. Mix dates paste with honey oil and lemon juice and beat until all the ingredients are thoroughly mixed.
   
6. Sieve whole wheat and mix it with baking soda, baking powder and cardamom – cloves powder
7. Now slowly mix dry ingredients into wet ingredients. Just stir enough to combine well, do not beat or over mix them
8. [Optional] Add soy milk if you feel the batter is too thick.
9. Finally add walnuts.
   
10. Pour batter in greased cake pan and put it in oven for 40 to 50 minutes.
11. Insert a tooth pick or knife in cake and if it comes out clean then the cake is ready.
12. Cool it completely before you turn it.
13. Share this moist cake with your family and friends  and enjoy.

Linking this to

Veggie/Fruit of December 2012 is DATE started by Priya Yallapantula

 Cook.Eat.Delicious.Desserts started by Raven Chelanee

Eggless Bakes and Treats started by Surabhi

Bake Fest-14

Show Me Your HITS – Festive Food started by Sangeetha

Bon Vivant event