Date and Walnut Cake Recipe

Tender, moist, and studded with pockets of caramel-y dates, this Date and Walnut Cake is the perfect blend of rich sweetness, warm spices, and simple preparation. Serve alongside a cup of coffee or afternoon tea, or top it with my luscious root beer cream cheese frosting for a simple yet impressive dessert. This modern take on an old fashioned cake checks all of the boxes. Whether for a cozy afternoon tea or an elegant dessert, this cake checks all the boxes.

What’s Notable About This Recipe

Perfect texture: this cake is tender and moist yet sturdy enough to be served as a coffee cake. Plus, it retains that moisture for days after baking, making it a great option for weekend snacking or holiday breakfasts.
Traditional cake made modern: variations of date and nut cakes have been a part of cultures around the world for centuries. In England during the Victorian era, dates were considered an exotic luxury, making it a popular ingredient for dried fruit and nut cakes. This recipe is a modern take on what is often a fairly dense cake. Instead of being stodgy, this cake is tender, moist and beautifully spiced. Plus, it’s got a wildly unique and delicious frosting recipe.
Versatile: Serve the date and nut cake as is, without frosting, for more of a coffee cake feel. If you’re going for an impressive dessert, make the root beer frosting. Not only is it absolutely luscious and gorgeous, but it’s creamy, tangy and uniquely flavored.

Ingredients Needed

Ingredients for this moist Date and Walnut Cake recipe are listed out below with a few notes. You can find the full recipe, with ingredient amounts, instructions and timings, in the recipe card below.

Dry Ingredients: all purpose flour, baking powder, baking sods and kosher salt.
Spices: you’ll need ground cinnamon, dried ground ginger, grated fresh nutmeg, and ground cloves. Make sure your spices are fresh (opened within the year).
Wet Ingredients: dark brown sugar, sour cream, unsalted butter, oil (any neutral oil works here but sometimes I like to use roasted walnut oil if I have it!), eggs and vanilla. If you plan to make the frosting, you’ll also need a brick of plain cream cheese.
Dates: Fresh medjool dates are ideal for this cake because of their caramel-like sweetness and soft texture. Joolies are a great company to source from.
Root beer: an uncommon ingredient that makes this cake really shine. You’ll use part of a can of root beer to hydrate and soften the chopped dates. The remaining root beer will be cooked down into a syrup for the delicious frosting.
Walnuts: make sure to toast them ahead of time so they have a chance to cool before you chop them. I recommend chopping them fairly finely—about pea sized.

How to Make Easy Date Walnut Cake

Chopped dates and root beer in a glass bowl with spoon.

Prep the Dates: pit and chop the dates then add them to a bowl with ½ cup root beer. Microwave the mixture for 1 minute then stir so the dates are evenly covered and set them aside while you start to prepare the batter. This allows the dates to soft and soak up the spiced flavor of the root beer.
Whisk Together the Dry Ingredients: I always recommend whisking together the dry ingredients before you whisk together the wet ingredients. This allows you to use one whisk for the entire batter (less dishes is always a good thing, yea?).
So, in a medium bowl combine the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, baking soda, salt and ground cloves. Set this aside.

Whisk Together the Wet Ingredients: in a large bowl, whisk together the brown sugar, sour cream, melted butter, oil, eggs and vanilla until smooth. Add in the cooled date and root beer mixture (make sure you add all the moisture) and whisk to combine.
Mix the Dry Ingredients into the Wet Ingredients: add the flour mixture to the wet sugar mixture and mix, using a rubber spatula, until nearly combined (some dry pockets of flour is OK).

Fold in Walnuts: add the toasty, nutty walnuts and fold just to combine.
Bake: Scrape the batter into a greased and parchment-lined 9-inch round cake bake and spread into an even later. Bake the cake until it’s golden brown, the center springs back when lightly pressed and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out with a few moist crumbs attached, this will take 32–35 minutes at 350ºF (177ºC).
Cool and Remove From Pan: let the cake cool in the pan for just 5 minutes before running a knife around the edges of the pan and inverting onto a wire rack to cool completely.

Expert Tips and Troubleshooting

Be sure to toast the walnuts—this deepens the flavor of the nuts and gives them a slightly crisper texture. Raw walnuts won’t add nearly much flavor.
It’s imperative that you don’t over-bake this cake. Most ovens run a few degrees hotter or cooler than it says. Use an oven thermometer (this one is very affordable and reliable) for accuracy—this will help you avoid a dry cake.

A close-up of a slice of date and walnut cake with a moist, textured crumb, topped with thick, smooth cream cheese frosting. The cake sits on a dark plate, with a fork placed beside it. Sunlight highlights the cake's golden-brown color and the creamy frosting, with the remaining cake blurred in the background.

Variations and Substitutions

Spices: change up the spices in this! Instead of the cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves, add cardamom (along with the ginger) and some orange extract instead of vanilla. A nod to the flavors of the middle east.

Nuts: swap out the walnuts for pecans, hazelnuts or pistachios.

Frosting: instead of the cream cheese frosting, simply drizzle with a confections sugar drizzle. Or, if you don’t want to reduce down the root beer, make a simple cream cheese drizzle with 1 ½ cups confectioners’ sugar, 2 ounces softened cream cheese, 1 tablespoon milk, dash of vanilla and a pinch of salt.

Banana: make a banana date and walnut cake by using mashed banana in place of sour cream.

Cake Shape: instead of a round cake, bake this in an 8×8-inch square baking pan.

Serving Suggestions

Brunch Sweet: skip the frosting and serve this as you would a coffee cake. I like to slightly rewarm it in the microwave or 250ºF oven. It’s great paired alongside this Crustless Quiche and a Savory Citrus Salad.

As an after-dinner dessert: topped with the cream cheese root beer frosting, this is a great dessert cake. I love to serve it for Christmas, but it’s great all winter long.

Storage and Make-Ahead Tips

Make ahead: this cake can be baked up to 2 days ahead of time. Wait to frost it until right before serving.

Unfrosted Cake Storage: Unfrosted, this cake can be stored at room temperature for up to 4 days when wrapped tightly with plastic wrap. You can also freeze it for up to 3 months. To freeze, wrap it tightly in plastic wrap and place in a zipper-lock bag. Let thaw at room temperature for a few hours before serving.

Frosted Cake Storage: once frosted, this cake can be stored at room temperature for 1 day when stored in an airtight container. For longer storage, I would store it in the refrigerator. Just allow the cake to come to room temperature for about an hour before serving. This will soften up the cream cheese frosting and the fat in the cake.

FAQs

Can I make Date and Walnut Cake without eggs?

I haven’t tested this, but I think it should work if you use a vegan egg replacer such as Bob’s Red Mill. You can also make this eggless by using flax eggs. For each egg called for, combine 1 tablespoon flaxseed meal with 3 tablespoons of water. Allow it to sit until fully hydrated. Then use as directed.

What kind of dates are best for this cake?

Fresh medjool dates are ideal for this cake because of their caramel-like sweetness and soft texture.

How do I keep my cake moist?

To make a moist date cake, you need to keep an eye on it while it bakes, And remove it from the oven the moment the center springs back when slightly pressed and when a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean or with a few moist crumbs.
Also, allow the cake to cool in the pan for just 5 minutes. After 5 minutes, use oven mitts or a couple of kitchen towels to invert the cake onto a wire rack.