Sesame, Date and Banana Cake
- Total Time
- About 2 hours
- Rating
- Notes
- Read community notes
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Ingredients
Yield:8 to 10 servings
- 3tablespoons/50 grams tahini
- ⅓cup/75 milliliters orange juice (from 1 large orange)
- 5ounces/140 grams medjool dates, pitted and quartered (about 8 dates)
- 2 to 3very ripe peeled bananas (8 ounces/240 grams), thinly sliced
- 2tablespoons toasted sesame seeds
- ½cup/113 grams unsalted butter (1 stick), at room temperature and cut into ¾-inch/2-centimeter pieces, plus extra butter for the pan
- ¾cup/150 grams granulated or superfine sugar (caster sugar)
- 2large eggs, beaten
- 1⅔cup/200 grams all-purpose flour (plain flour), sifted
- 2½teaspoons baking powder
- ⅛teaspoon salt
- ½cup plus 1 tablespoon/130 grams cream cheese, preferably at room temperature
- ½cup plus 1 tablespoon/130 grams mascarpone cheese, preferably at room temperature
- 3tablespoons/35 grams lightly packed light brown sugar (soft sugar)
- 3½tablespoons/55 grams tahini
- 1ripe peeled banana, cut into ½-inch/1-centimeter-thick slices
- 1tablespoon Demerara sugar
- 1½teaspoons date syrup, for drizzling
For the Cake
For the Tahini Cream-cheese Icing
For the Caramelized Bananas
Ingredient Substitution Guide
Nutritional analysis per serving (10 servings)
566 calories; 34 grams fat; 17 grams saturated fat; 0 grams trans fat; 9 grams monounsaturated fat; 4 grams polyunsaturated fat; 61 grams carbohydrates; 4 grams dietary fiber; 38 grams sugars; 9 grams protein; 329 milligrams sodium
Note: The information shown is Edamam’s estimate based on available ingredients and preparation. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.
Powered byPreparation
- Step 1
Heat oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit/200 degrees Celsius. Grease an 8-inch/20-centimeter aluminum springform cake pan with butter, and line the base and sides with parchment paper.
- Step 2
Make the cake: In a medium bowl, whisk together tahini and orange juice, and then stir in dates, bananas and sesame seeds, separating the date and banana pieces as you add them to the bowl so they don't clump together. Set aside.
- Step 3
Put butter and sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, and mix on medium-high speed for 2 to 3 minutes, until light and fluffy. Add the eggs, in two additions, until combined, scraping the bowl down as needed.
- Step 4
In a small bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder and salt, then add to the stand mixer bowl and mix on low speed for about 30 seconds, just to combine. Add tahini-date mixture with the speed still on low and mix until blended, then spoon the batter into the cake pan and smooth the top.
- Step 5
Transfer cake to oven and bake for 30 minutes, until golden brown. Without removing it from the oven, carefully cover the cake loosely with aluminum foil. Continue to bake for an additional 25 to 30 minutes, or until cake is cooked through and a skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean. Remove from oven and set aside to cool in the pan on a wire rack.
- Step 6
While the cake is baking, make the icing: Place all the ingredients in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment. Whisk for 1 to 2 minutes, on medium speed, until combined and airy, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed to mix thoroughly. Set aside until cake has cooled.
- Step 7
Make the caramelized bananas: Heat broiler on its highest setting, with a rack placed about 4 inches/10 centimeters beneath the heat source. Arrange banana slices closely together on a small baking pan and sprinkle generously with sugar. Broil bananas for 2 to 3 minutes, until sugar has melted and caramelized. Remove from oven and set aside to cool.
- Step 8
To assemble, remove the cake from the pan and transfer to a plate. Spread icing generously over the top of the cake. Arrange the caramelized bananas on top, then drizzle with date syrup.
Private Notes
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Cooking Notes
Martha Gonzalez
Date syrup recipes online. Too easy not to make at home.
Ingredients
6 Medjool dates, pitted (about .3 lb)
1 cup hot water
½ teaspoon cinnamon
Place dates in a bowl and cover with hot water for at least 30 minutes until soft. Save the water.
Add dates to a powerful blender and blend, slowly adding in the water you soaked them in. Continue adding water until you achieve desired consistency (I use about ½ cup water).
The longer the dates are soaked, the smoother the consistency
Chris
For those of you whining about the date syrup, they have a new thing out. Perhaps you've heard if it? It's called the Internet, and you can find and order many great things on there, including date syrup! Heck, you could just hop in your car and tote your butt to a Middle East grocer or the international aisle of the grocery store. Or you can even look up recipes for date syrup online!! Imagine that! Still don't like my ideas?? Then MAKE A BOX CAKE instead of a NYT recipe!
dimmerswitch
Date syrup is a staple in my kitchen, along with pomegranate molasses, tahini, dates, sumac and all kinds of other Middle Eastern ingredients. I'm Anglo, my husband Italian. We love cooking Middle Eastern food and most ingredients easy to source either via ME markets or CoOps or even places like Cost Plus locally. Online otherwise. With respect to those "impatient" with recipes using ingredients new to them, isn't the point that it is fun to try new things as cooks?
APK
Any suggestions for a substitute for the date syrup?
maestra
This is our new #2 favorite use for overripe bananas. I made two cakes. In one, I cut the dates more finely than called for. The cake with bigger chunks won; I won't bother dicing the dates next time. I also used non-Mejool dates. I added orange zest to one cake. It was good both ways. I never got around to making the frosting, but it sounds delicious. My #1 favorite use for old bananas, by the way, is a white miso and banana bread that can be found on the Food & Wine website.
cook
THANK YOU for baking the cake and delivering a useful comment, instead of nattering endlessly about ingredients beforehand as so many seem to have done here.
Dona
Kalustyan's has many options for date syrup in the shop and by mail order- kalustyans.com
STACY- I AGREE!! I'm surprised to see so many NY times readers fretting over a SMALL ingredient that's just a garnish!- not at all necessary to make the actual cake!!
Ciel
You can make your own by soaking dates in warm water for about 30 minutes and then blending at high speed until smooth. Press through a fine sieve. Or it can be ordered from Amazon or even Walmart.
Jayne Avery
No one... I get very impatient with recipes that call for very obscure (or nonexistent, thus needing to be concocted) ingredients and no explanation.
Kole
I made this for a dinner party I had over the weekend, it was a big hit.
My advice: keep an eye on the doneness of the cake. I wish I had checked on it sooner during the second half of the baking process. I did a toothpick test at 18 minutes after I placed the foil and it was already done. If I do it again I will check sooner!
Rachel
I find that tahini can be overpowering, but I followed the cake recipe exactly and the flavours of date, banana and sesame were well balanced. For the icing, I cut the quantity of tahini by about half, which for me was perfect. I left out the date syrup (ran out of steam!) and didn't feel I was missing out. My caramelised bananas were so soft though, even when cooled - I was expecting almost-crunchy slices to top it with? Overall, the cake went down very well and I'd make it again.
Barbara
I guess the assumption is that if you have the dates for the cake, you can make it. Here is one recipe..http://www.ohladycakes.com/how-to-make-date-syrup/
Mary
This is excellent! The flavors meld beautifully. Using Middle Eastern rather than more astringent Mediterranean tahini, I didn't find the recommend amount overwhelming at all. A springform pan in not necessary. I used a 2" deep, 8" cake pan, buttered and lined with parchment as recommended. The cake released easily. I agree with the reviewer who found that the cake baked more quickly than the recipe indicated - mine, too, was done @ 18 minutes after I covered it with foil.
Helga Arlington
Middle Eastern shops? My local store in Auckland NZ stocks it!
avita
Baking time is excessive in my case, my springform pan or oven may get hotter than their test oven. I loved the caramelization from the high temp, but it did burn some spots. Keep your eyes on it after you tent it with foil, don’t trust that it’ll take more than 15 more minutes.
Stacy
Really enjoyed this cake, tender crumb and not too sweet flavor wise. Followed the recipe as written but only had a 10” springform pan so baked it in that. Mine was fully baked at the 30 minute mark.
Christina
This is delicious. I used 3 bananas in the batter. I accidentally poured too much molasses making the brown sugar. I covered after 30 min and it was ready in another 15, at 375. Very moist. I will absolutely do this recipe again
marie
This is fantastic. Ignore all the negative comments and make this now. I lowered sugar to 100 gms.
Cecile
Easier to make than it may seem. Checked the cake after 30, knive came out clean and dry already. PUlled the cake out but it did overbake and is dry. Dont regret making it, but wont make again. The icing is nice, ended up with some extra that will be great on pancakes!
AK
Glad so many others loved this but it didn’t do a lot for us. The flavors seemed diluted, nothing really shined in this cake. It was fun to make once but won’t make it again.
hannah
I’ve made this as muffins so many times with no frosting, they always turn out great. Today I tried subbing lemon juice for orange juice bc I didn’t have any oranges…would not recommend. Maybe if I would have used diluted lemon juice it would have worked better (that would have been the smarter thing to try); in the finished product all I taste is lemon.
Megs
It might be heresy to the recipe and the region these flavors are pulling from, BUT I was out of tahini and used almond butter instead. I only subbed for the cake recipe and it was so good. I have to try it again with tahini but I imagine most nut butters would be a good sub solution. I bet sunflower seed butter would be delicious. I improvised with the frosting and just did a vanilla cream cheese/mascarpone frosting and added softened butter until it was to the consistency I wanted.
Razzeph
Delicious cake, made it with 2/3 the sugar and just 2 tbsp of tahini in the icing. It turned out a tad over baked and dry, next time I will keep an eye on at the tail end of baking and take it out a bit sooner. This time, we ended up using an orange soak to make it more moist.
Brie
I'll start by saying that I didn't make the cream cheese-tahini topping, so this will be entirely about the cake. This one didn't wow me. The banana was the strongest flavour in the mix, overshadowing the other flavours. The tahini didn't come through, nor did the sesame, which was also disappointing. I don't think I'll be making this one for myself again, but it's a good way to use up any leftover dates you have.
Emily
Absolutely lovely. >banana bread, imo. Cake is only barely sweet so it's perfect for breakfast/snack. I love the balance of a sweeter icing with it. The tahini in the icing was subtle and perfect. Didn't have extra bananas to caramelize so I made a quick stovetop honey & sesame seed candied hazelnut topping and the added texture was nice. Made me want to try nuts in the batter next time. Hand-stir the dry ingredients to avoid over mixing. Don't let the edges get very brown or it'll be dry.
Britt
This is so delicious, a new favorite of the family. In the cake batter, I added a couple of dishes of dried sumac, because why the heck not???
Lindsey
As a few others have mentioned, my cake came out a tiny bit dry! I would check on the cake after 10 minutes under foil. I’d also add a bit more butter… can never go wrong with more butter! I also used black sesame seeds instead for a poppyseed look!
DNA
I baked it for 20 minutes with the foil, instead of 25-30 as written. It still was a bit overcooked on the bottom, so I'll do 15 minutes next time. My oven is normally fine with suggested temps. Otherwise, it's a really good cake. Thanks for the notes about baking time.
Tia
This is delicious! I had been wanting to make this forever and it did not disappoint. HOWEVER, the NYT needs to fix the cooking time. Luckily I read the other comments. After tenting the cake, it was done in about an additional 14 minutes and not 25-30. It would have been so dry if I had followed the recipe. Also, I made my own date syrup and while it was not difficult, it was time consuming. I don't regret it though!
Karen G
I used a 10" springform so it was thinner and it cooked a bit drier. Overall, the recipe is great. Next time I might add a little more liquid (yogurt or sour cream to the batter).
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