Eggless date cake with whole wheat flour

Its amazing how little kids can be the starting point to broaden your social life, or even begin on one, especially when you move to a new place.

Once we moved to Ahmedabad, after being in Bangalore for almost all my life, I realised how difficult it is to find people you can talk to / hang out with when you are thrown into a new place. Since I am working from home, and really dont know anyone around here, my only opportunity to really meet people is at my son's school.
Thankfully, the school my son studies at, has a lot of parent interaction and this is where I got to know this real nice person whose daughter is my son's "best friend". After a few play dates, we were invited to their place for dinner over a weekend.
Since it was all thanks to our kids, I baked a cake to take along.

My aunt who is a fabulous cook had given me this recipe long back which I had sincerely jotted down (and actually found it - this was my lucky day!)



Updated the picture and the recipe, using oil instead of butter

What you need -

15-20 dates
2 cups maida / 2 cups wheat flour / 1 cup maida (APF) and 1 cup wheat flour
1 cup milk
1 cup butter / cream or 3/4 cup oil (I used rice bran oil)
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup chopped walnuts and almonds
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
pinch of salt

What you do with it -

Remove seeds from the dates if you don't get the seedless dates and chop the dates
Warm the milk and dissolve the sugar in it
Soak the dates in this and keep for 30 mins
You could also grind the dates with milk if you like
Then add all other ingredients and mix till forms a thick batter
You can add about 2 tbsp of milk, if it gets too thick
Pre heat the oven to 180 deg C
Grease an 8" square pan or a loaf tin
Pour the batter in and bake at 180 deg C for about 25-30 mins
This may not rise too much, but it turns out nice and moist