Date Cake with Toffee Sauce

Ingredients

Cake

• 1 cup pitted dates (about 15)
• 1 cup boiling water
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 2 eggs, room temperature
• 50 g butter, room temperature
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1/3 cup yogurt, room temperature
• 1 1/2 cups flour
• A pinch of salt
• 1 tbsp baking powder
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp cardamom
• A pinch of nutmeg

Toffee sauce

• 1 cup sugar
• 3/4 cup warm cream
• 100 g warm butter
• 1 tsp vanilla and a pinch of salt

Method

1. Chop the dates, pour the boiling water and baking soda over them, cover with cling film for 15 minutes, then blend with a hand blender until creamy.
2. Beat the sugar and butter until creamy, add the eggs one at a time while beating, then the yogurt and dates.
3. Whisk the dry ingredients together, add to the wet mixture and stir.
4. Grease and flour the pan (or use baking spray) and preheat the oven to 180°C. Pour in the batter and bake on the middle rack for 40 minutes without opening the oven. Cool, then turn out.
5. Toffee sauce: melt the sugar in a deep non-stick pan without stirring too much, add the butter (it will bubble up) and whisk quickly, remove from the heat, add the cream and whisk quickly, return to the heat for a minute, turn off and add the vanilla and a pinch of salt. Let cool a little and blend until smooth.
6. Pour as much as you like over the cake and keep the rest in a glass jar in the fridge.