An easy to make one step vegan date & orange cake made in a sheet pan. Sticky, rich and packed with flavour there is no need to decorate.

Date & Orange Cake
The most popular post on Fuss Free Flavours is my store cupboard bung it all in, mix and bake easy peasy ginger cake. I make it on a regular basis and have never had it go wrong, or fail to impress. Because all the ingredients are from the store cupboard you need neither eggs or butter making it frugal as well as vegan, and thus suitable for those with either diary of egg allergies.
My original recipe is now five years old, so it is time for an update (and some better photography) and the current incarnation is a sticky orange and date cake; all the ingredients apart from the orange are from the store cupboard, and the cake is still egg and diary free and vegan.
My dates were ancient and very very dried out so I gave them a soak before using, if you shop more frequently, or have better quality dates than I do then skip this stage.
Date & Orange Sheet Cake (Vegan)
Ingredients
- 100 g dried dates (snipped into pieces and covered in boiling water and left to soak)
- 350 g Plain Flour
- 225 g Sugar (I use soft dark brown for colour and flavour but any would work)
- 100 g Cooking oil (Sunflower or rape/canola)
- Zest one large orange (finely grated)
- 1 tsp baking powder
- ½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
- Pinch salt
- 60 g golden syrup
Instructions
- Drain the dates, reserving the soaking water, make the volume of the date water up to 225ml.
- Place all the ingredients into a bowl or your stand mixer and whizz until you have a smooth golden brown batter.
- Pour into 8” square pan lined with greaseproof paper (if needed) and bake at GM4/180C for about 25 – 30 mins until risen and a cocktail stick inserted into the middle comes out clean.
- Cut into squares and dust with icing sugar.
Jayne
Lovely sounding cake! No eggs or butter either, I love a cake that doesn’t rely on softened butter!
Camilla @FabFood4All
No eggs or butter, well that’s a cake I’ve not yet made but from the ingredients and the photo I can see that this is a lovely sticky, moist and rich cake. A very tasty treat for Credit Crunch Munch where some of us have quite a sweet tooth:-)
Steph B
This cake looks delicious and I’m hoping to get time to bake it on Sunday. We’ve already got all the ingredients except the orange so there’s hardly any planning ahead – my favourite type of cooking!
Helen
Thanks Steph. Let me know how it goes!
Abby @ The Frosted Vegan
This looks lovely! Love the date and orange combo, so perfect!
Elizabeth
This sounds lovely, and for being a vegan cake it doesn’t look stodgy at all (my own limited experience with vegan cakes have usually yielded stodgy bakes). I will have to try it for myself!
the caked crusader
ooh – it looks so light and soft. I adore dates in anything so you’ve sold it to me!1111
bakingaddict
This cakes looks great given that it has no eggs or butter. I love mix all in one recipes too – definitely bookmarking this one for when I dont have eggs or butter or need a vegan cake. Thanks for entering AlphaBakes.
sue
Do you think I could successfully sub agave nectar for the golden syrup?
Lesley - Scottish Mum Blog
I really like the look of this. I think my kids would like it. Any excuse for cake is a good one.
Helen
Thanks Lesley. I agree any excuse for cake!
Sabine
This cake is delicious. I had to bake it twice within a week. Thanks for the recipe. My German version of it: http://hamburgkocht.blogspot.de/2015/05/veganer-orangen-dattel-kuchen.html
Helen
Thanks for commenting and linking up. Am delighted that you like my cake!
Andrea
Very nice and easy!