Eggless Dates Rava(Sooji) Cake

I am back and this is my first post from Coimbatore.... Kind of settling in new home and am sure it will take time to settle down fully. Never even thought I will be connected to net so soon.....Sometimes its hard to believe things that happens unexpectedly even if its favorable to us. Have just started cooking for the past 2 days....still havent got into the clicking mode/mood also the location for photo shoot is still not yet finalised ;) So all the posts from now on till a month will be from my drafts :)

The source for this is from Red Chillies. I made a few variation and used dates instead of banana and the result was absolutely delicious. A cake without maida and that was the first reason that made me glance at this recipe.......Am glad I tried this, sure a keeper recipe!

Ingredients:

• Rava/Sooji - 1 cup (200 gms)
• Seedless Dates - 3/4 cup chopped or blended (100 gms)
• Milk - 1 cup (250 ml)
• Oil - 2 tbsp
• Ghee - 2 tbsp
• Granulated Sugar - 1/4 cup (60 gms)
• Baking powder - 1 tsp
• Cardamom powder - 1/2 tsp
• Cashews - 3 to 4 broken into small pieces

Method:

1. Roast the rava on medium flame for 3-4 mins or till nice aroma comes and keep aside.



2. Mix the sugar, cardamom powder, cashews and baking powder well and add it to rava.



3. Next add milk,oil ,ghee to the rava mixture and mix well. Finally add the chopped/blended dates and mix till all ingredients are mixed well. Keep aside for 10 minutes.



4. Pre-heat the oven to 180 deg C and bake it for 30-35 minutes. Check it after 25mins, check with a fork if it comes out clean ur cake is done



5. Allow it to cool completely before cutting.I was not patient enough and so the pieces werent shaped perfectly :)

My Notes :

• The orginal recipe didnt call for roasting the rava but I tried it and the cake did turn out super good.



• If it is baked for a longer time, the cake becomes hard as the first time I did that mistake and the cake turned out a little harder.



• You can also soak the dates in 1/4 cup milk and blend it to form a paste then add it to rava for uniform mixing.



• If you are using banana then add 1/2 cup sugar instead of 1/4 cup. Mine was fine as dates had the natural sweetness.



• Dont expect the cake to raise, it will not raise much....may be just a thin unnoticeable layer but the cake will turn out light and fluffy.