Nishya's Kitchen: Steamed Dates Cake

My first recipe blog...

Since my oven doesn't support baking, I was very much sad seeing the wonderful recipes in different blogs. Recently in Maria's Menu, I saw the recipe of a steamed cake and it gave me the idea that cakes can be prepared in this way also. Started searching for steamed cake recipes and tried making a Banana steamed cake. To my surprise it turned out super...

Since during this season dates are available easily here, I wanted a dates cake recipe.

This dates recipe, I got from Aayi's Cooking and originally it is an oven recipe. I made a little changes in the ingredients to make it a steamed cake. I am posting all the steps...

Ingredients:-

20 dates

1 cup milk ( I used 1 cup water and 3 tsp milk powder)

1/2 cup sugar

1/4 cup oil or butter

3/4 tea spoon baking soda powder

1 cup maida (all purpose flour)

If you are using dry dates, soak it in water overnight. I used ripe dates, so no soaking was required.
Remove the seeds and add 1 cup of milk. Boil it till the dates become tender. ( I boiled it in water and added the milk powder while grinding)
Grind it to a smooth paste along with the sugar. Add 1/2 cup to 1 cup sugar according to your taste.
Pour the paste to a dish and 3/4 tea spoon baking soda add 1/4 cup oil or butter and mix it well. Add the flour little by little and mix it slowly.
Grease the sides of a pan and put a wax paper or butter paper on the bottom. Pour the cake mix on to the pan. Take care that the cake mix should fill only 2/3 portion of the pan. Keep the pan in a steamer/idli cooker/appachembu. ( I kept one idli thattu upside down so that the pan fits nicely on it.)
Close the lid and steam on low flame for at least 25 - 30 minutes. After 25 minutes open the lid and insert a knife on the cake and check if it comes out clean.
Keep the cake in the pan itself till it is completely cool and then transfer it to a plate and decorate it.