Well, that was fun sharing a bit about The Suburban Years. Now, back to my favorite subject: dessert. This Sticky Toffee Whole-Wheat Date Cake from Jessica Koslow and the fine folks at Sqirl gets the honor of being the first cake to break in our new oven. Thankfully, the oven was calibrated properly and the cake turned out perfectly—gooey, caramel-y, and in short, everything I want to eat.

For cake

• 14 tablespoons/200 grams unsalted butter (1 3/4 sticks), at room temperature, more for the pan
• 8 ounces/225 grams pitted dates, chopped
• 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
• ½ cup/80 grams dried currants
• 1 cup/130 grams whole­ wheat flour
• ½ cup plus 2 tablespoons/80 grams all ­purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• ½ teaspoon ground cardamom
• ¼ teaspoon ground ginger
• ¾ teaspoon fine sea salt
• ¾ cup/165 grams packed light brown sugar
• 2 large eggs
• ½ teaspoon vanilla extract

For sticky toffee

• ½ cup/170 grams agave nectar
• ½ cup/110 grams packed light brown sugar
• ¼ teaspoon fine sea salt
• 2 tablespoons/28 grams unsalted butter
• Fleur de sel

Make the cake

Heat oven to 325 degrees and butter an 8-inch square or 9-inch round cake pan.

In a small pot, combine dates, lemon juice and 3/4 cup/180 milliliters water. Bring mixture to a boil, then simmer gently until dates soften and start to fall apart, about 6 minutes. Add currants to the pot and set aside to cool completely.

While date mixture cools, stir together whole-wheat flour, all-purpose flour, baking soda, cinnamon, cardamom, ginger and salt.

Using an electric mixer, beat butter and brown sugar together on medium speed until light and fluffy, 3 to 5 minutes. Add eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition and scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed. Mix in vanilla and cooled date mixture, followed by flour mixture.

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