This is my peaceful version of war cake, a cake that goes back at least until WWII. It didn’t lean too heavily on ingredients that may have been limited then, and honestly you won’t miss the eggs or milk.

My favourite thing about this recipe is that it uses dates for both moisture and some of the sweetness. Thiss means that regardless of what is going on out in the world, you eat cake anytime and pretend that it is healthy.

Makes: 1 8×8 inch cake

Ingredients:

• 1-2 black tea bags (English Breakfast, Earl Grey, Orange Pekoe – whatever you like best is fine)
• Boiling water
• 2 cups (300g) chopped dates – make sure to remove the pits, dental work is expensive!
• 1/3 cup (75g) unsalted butter
• 1 cup (200g) sugar
• 1 tsp molasses
• 2 cups (240g) flour
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp nutmeg
• 1/2 tsp cloves
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt

Directions:

1. Make a pot of strong tea. This is just good life advice, always start with tea before you take on a project. In this case, the tea serves two purposes, it will power the chef and you will also use 1 cup of the tea in the cake.
2. Grease and line your baking dish, try to pick one with higher sides
3. Preheat your oven to 325 degrees f
4. In a large pot, boil 1 cup tea, dates (2 cups), butter (1/3 cup), sugar (1 cup), and molasses (1 tsp)
5. As soon as the mixture boils, set aside and let cool for at least 5 minutes
6. Stir together flour (2 cups), cinnamon (1 tsp), nutmeg (1/2 tsp), cloves (1/2 tsp), baking soda (1 tsp), and salt (1/2 tsp)
7. Add dry ingredients to the molasses mixture – you can save yourself some dishes and do this straight into the pot. Stir just until combined.
8. Pour the batter into the prepared cake pan. Bake for about 40 minutes, until the edges are brown and start to pull away from the dish and a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.
9. Try not to eat the whole thing in one sitting.

Notes:

• This is arguably not the prettiest of cakes, the top is a little bit lumpy, All will be forgiven on the first bite, but if you are worried about it, just serve this with whipped cream.