Lovely and moist Date and Coffee loaves that taste delicious on their own or spread with a little butter and served with a nice crumbly cheese.
I've made this recipe many times and I've often frozen one of them if I know they are not going to be eaten within a few days. You could leave them wrapped in the baking parchment and either store them in an airtight container. Or wrap them in freezer bags and freeze them.
How to make a Date and Coffee Cake
You will find a full list of ingredients and instructions on the recipe card at the bottom of this post.
Before you scroll down I want to tell you about small loaf tins.
I use 1lb loaf tins for a lot of my cake baking. For this recipe, I lined 2 x 1lb loaf tins with baking parchment or cake liners, they make washing up so much easier, and they help keep the moisture in cakes when kept in an airtight container.
If your cake liners are a little too big, fold them in the centre.
This recipe calls for you to soften the dates with a little bicarbonate of soda. It's worth doing as it helps to make the cake nice and moist with no surprise hard pieces of Dates or tough skins. It also resulted in an even distribution of dates throughout the cakes.
TIPS and FAQ's
- An alternative to coffee - You could substitute the coffee for tea or some other beverage. Personally, I think the flavour of coffee works best with dates.
- Dark Brown Sugar - If you are going to make any Coffee and Date cake, I encourage you to use dark brown sugar whenever you can. It adds a delicious toffee flavour that you don't get when you use plain white sugar. You could use Demerara sugar is you wish, although that doesn't have the same strength of toffee flavour.
You can freeze these cakes. Wrap them well in freezer bags to help prevent freezer burn. Add a label with the name and date you baked it.
To make dates softer, simmer them de stoned, in a pan with a little liquid for about 5 mins before adding bicarbonate of soda.
This Date Loaf recipe uses freshly brewed coffee. After simmering, take off the heat and add the baking soda. Mix until well combined. Let the mixture cool a little before adding the softened dates to your recipe.
Like most loaf cakes, you can eat a slice on its own. Or you could serve a slice spread with butter, similar to serving a Yorkshire Tea Loaf with a slice of nice crumbly cheese.
Other Coffee Cakes that you may like to try
- Try this Coffee and Walnut Cake made in a tray bake tin
- Or this Coffee and Almond Cake made in a 2lb loaf tin
- Coffee Pudding with a Toffee Sauce
- Mixed Fruit and Coffee Spelt Loaf
Date and Coffee Loaves
- 225 g Medjool dates pitted and roughly chopped
- 250 ml freshly brewed coffee. Made either from instant or ground coffee
- ½ teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda
- 170 g unsalted butter softened
- 170 g dark brown sugar
- 3 medium eggs
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 225 g self raising flour
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 180deg fan assisted. Line 2 x 1lb loaf tins with baking parchment or cake liners
- Place the chopped dates and coffee in a saucepan over a high heat and gently bring to the boil. Turn down the heat and simmer for about 5 mins to soften the dates and reduce the liquid. Stir occasionally. Remove from the heat and leave to one side to cool slightly.
- Add the Bicarbonate of soda. It will fizz a little. Mix until well combined.
- Beat the butter and sugar together with an electric mixer until well combined and lighter in colour. Scraping down the sides of the bowl as you go along.
- Add the eggs, one at a time, adding a little flour each time. Mix until well combined, scraping down the sides of the bowl.
- Add the remaining flour, vanilla extract and the cooled date mixture. Mix until well combined.
- Pour the mixture into the prepared tins and bake for 35 – 40 mins or until baked, testing the centre of the loaves with a skewer until it comes out clean.
Notes
TIPS AND FAQ’S
- An alternative to coffee – You could substitute the coffee for tea or some other beverage. Personally, I think the flavour of coffee works best with dates.
- Dark Brown Sugar – If you are going to make any Coffee and Date cake, I encourage you to use dark brown sugar whenever you can. It adds a delicious toffee flavour that you don’t get when you use plain white sugar. You could use Demerara sugar is you wish, although that doesn’t have the same strength of toffee flavour.
This Date Loaf recipe uses freshly brewed coffee. After simmering, take off the heat and add the baking soda. Mix until well combined. Let the mixture cool a little before adding the softened dates to your recipe.
Allie
Hi - this looks like a delicious recipe. I always struggle to make loaf cakes moist. Can I add chopped nuts/walnuts to this recipe and if so what quantity? Will it still be moist?
Lynn
Allie. It's the dates that help make the cake moist. Although I've never tried this recipe with nuts in, I think a small handful of chopped walnuts would be fine. Just enough to add a little crunch, but not too much.
Allie
My cake was in the oven for an hour and it’s still not cooked in the middle. But dark on the outside. I had it in at 180 deg fan. Followed the recipe exactly. I even weighed my eggs to ensure they were medium size and in weight. Any tips for next time? Flavour is delicious so I’m disappointed as my husband was really looking forward to a slice
Lynn
Edited: Very sorry to hear about the end result. Did you bake it in two separate 1lb cake tins? If not, that will affect the baking times.
The only thing I can think of is perhaps the oven was at too high a temperature. Baking the outside too quickly. As all ovens are different it may help to use an oven thermometer to ensure your oven is heated correctly. Some oven temp can differ by as much as 10 deg.
It also helps to test the centre of the cake with a cake skewer until it comes out clean. If there is still raw batter it needs extra baking. Perhaps next time adjust the oven setting down a little to ensure the edges don’t over bake.
Maggie
Hi, can I use this mixture in a 2lb loaf tin and what adjustments would I need to make for temp/timing etc?
Lynn
Maggie. I've not made this recipe in a 2 lb loaf tin so cannot say for sure if the quantity would be too much. Just make sure that when you had the mixture in the 2lb loaf tin that it does not fill higher than 3/4 full. This will avoid it spilling out over the top of the tin. If you have excess cake batter, you could make muffins or buns using a bun tin with bun cases.
Shirley Stiles
I had a really old tea cake recipe that got lost, so thanks for sharing yours. I am also a lover of anything date and am going to try this one with coffee for an afternoon tea next week with the teacake. I will let you know how it turns out. I am also looking for a round share scone mix. The one I had was a bit softer than normal scones, not spongy I suppose it could be like a brioche more than anything. This was also a favourite recipe lost in moving frequently! You make a round and divide into 8 portions.
Lynn
Hi Shirley, please let me know how you get on with this recipe.
Sara Foster
By how much should you reduce the date and coffee mixture? Should you aim for half of the original volume, for example?
Lynn
Sara. If you are only reducing the volume of Date and Coffee mixture and not the rest of the recipe. Yes, you could reduce the Date and Coffee volume by half and see how it goes. I've only baked it using the quantity listed.
Sara
Thanks, but that’s not quite what I meant. The recipe says to simmer the dates and coffee to soften the dates and reduce the liquid. How much does the liquid need to reduce by?
Lynn
Apologies Sara. I see what you mean. No. Not reduce by half. I'd say reduce by a quarter. You need some liquid for when you add the bicarb of soda. It fizzes and then softens the Dates further. You can then mash it a little bit more if you wish. Hope this explains things a little better. Thanks for the comment.
Sara
Thanks - I used the recipe before I saw your last comment and just timed the simmering for 5 mins and went with what was in the pan! I made individual muffin-sized cakes with mixture, baked for about 18 minutes, and they turned out beautifully! Drizzled them with melted dark chocolate to decorate, and they went sown a storm at a charity bake sale, will definitely be using this recipe again!
Lynn
Hello Sara. Thanks for the update. I'm delighted to hear how they turned out and to know that the recipe works as cupcakes.
Emma
Just made this and it's yummy. I baked mine for only 30 minutes. Very easy to make.
Lynn Hill
Thanks for sharing your baking time Emma. It will be interesting to see how other peoples' ovens fair with this recipe.