Its my Anniversary, so I made a date (cake)!

Cheesy post titles not withstanding, it was my 13th wedding anniversary! We celebrated a couple of days before since it fell on a Monday and of course Golden Boy had to work, I had a busy with my job as a chauffeur, and we spent the evening doing this:

That's Little Brother up to bat at his T-Ball game!

So, in honor of my 13th wedding anniversary I made a date cake! Actually, in England they call it "Sticky Date Pudding". However, after it baked, it had the consistency of a cake, so we are going to roll with that title, ok?

Sticky Date Cake (Pudding) with Caramel Sauce

For the Cake:
1 c. chopped dates
1 tsp. baking soda
1 c. boiling water
2 eggs or flax egg substitute*
1 c. brown sugar
2 TBSP. Butter
1.5 c. self rising flour

For the sauce:
1 c. brown sugar
3/4 c. whipping cream or whipping cream substitute*
1 tsp. vanilla
2 TBsp. butter

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees. Place dates in a bowl, mix in baking soda and cover with boiling water.



Set date/water mixture aside and let them do their thang. The hot water will make the dates "melt".

Cream butter and sugar, then add the eggs (one at a time if using eggs) beat well, after each addition. I used the flax egg substitute because I was out of eggs. To make flax eggs mix 1 TBSP. ground flax with 3 TBSP warm water for each egg you need. I needed 2 so I used 1 TBSP. flax and 6 TBSP. water. Allow this mixture to sit for just a minute and it will get sort of gooey, with the consistency of an egg and look like this:


Because I used the flax eggs I just added the whole batch to the sugar/ butter mixture all at once.

Next, fold in flour and date mixture and pour into a greased round or square cake pan.



Now, bake the cake (pudding) at 375 degrees 30- 40 minutes, testing with a toothpick to make sure the middle is done.

Mine came out looking like this:




For the caramel sauce, I didn't have whipping cream so I googled a substitute. Don't you love technology? There really isn't anything you can't find out just by simply searching the Internet. I just googled "whipping cream substitute" and was given 3 or 4 options. I chose the low fat option. Whisk together 1 cup low fat milk (I had 1% on hand) with 2 tablespoons of cornstarch. Add 1 tablespoon of flour and whisk. Let this sit for just a minute. In a saucepan combine sugar, butter vanilla and 3/4 c of the whipping cream substitute. Bring to a boil, stirring, and simmer for 5 minutes.



Serve cake on a warm plate topped with warm sauce.



Oh yall, this was good! I wish I would have had some ice cream on top!



Happy Anniversary Golden Boy! To bad you don't really like dessert because this is good! (scratch that, I'm not sorry, there's more for me!) I am honored to be your wife and can't wait to see what the next 13 years will bring us!

"...(love) always protects, always trust, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails..." 1 Corinthians 13:8