Chocolate date birthday cake- vegan

Shown here with a milk chocolate-covered date, but the cake itself and its filling  is completely vegan. (Apologies for blurry photo, but I was excited and the lighting was not so good...)

My husband cooked us a lovely vegan meal for my birthday last week, and for the cake he also told me the exact quantities of everything, so I am pleased to be able to share his awesome recipe with you! (The main course was the best vegan lasagne ever; so good, in fact, that our cheese-loving kids didn't reach for the grater at all. I photographed it, and as soon as he shares his recipe I'll post it.) 

300g white self-raising flour

200g organic wholemeal flour

5tsps baking powder

200ml light olive oil

50ml water

180g demerara sugar

70g date syrup

6 tsps cocoa powder

300ml soya milk

•    Mix the dry ingredients (apart from the sugar) together in a large bowl.
• ·         Whizz up the rest of the cake ingredients in a blender, including the sugar.
• ·         Combine the wet and dry mixtures, then add soya milk and beat well to mix.
• ·         Pour into damp 10” silicone moulds (or greased and floured cake tins).
• ·         Bake in a preheated oven at 175C for 22 mins (fan oven time) or until a thin skewer inserted comes out clean.

 Filling:

12 fresh sticky dates, pitted (the sort you can buy from Arabic shops packed in cardboard boxes- not the ones with the plastic fork you can get at Christmas time.)

1 tab tahini

Just enough water to blend, then stir in 4 tsps cocoa powder.

• Mix all the ingredients together thoroughly in a blender.
•  Spread on one of upturned cooled cakes and sandwich together

 Topping:

12 fresh sticky dates (as above), pitted

A bar of your choice of chocolate

• ·         Put on top of cake, alternated with squares of chocolate. Melt chocolate briefly under the grill. Or make chocolate dates and top with those. Being something of a perfectionist as well as an amazing cook, my husband put a walnut inside each date before covering them with the chocolate.