I made a date cake minus the dates

6 December, 2025

You read that right. I am the formidable genius that baked a date cake without the dates.

It was a beautiful, pleasantly cold winter morning. The kind where you feel like tugging the cold blanket over your head, never to wake up again.

I resisted the tempting urge to do so, woke up and decided to bake a cake.

I love baking loaf cakes. I love the whole drama and drumroll of overturning the stained aluminium loaf tin over a steel plate, knocking my fist on its back giving it a spank, spank and finally revealing the edible rectangular masterpiece with light brown edges.

I began the ritual by soaking the dates in warm milk. Diligently covered it with a plate, leaving it to soak and soften before the noisy blending wakes up half the building.

However, as is normal for a mother of a one-year-old, changing diapers to feeding the tumultuous monster led me to leave my cake unattended. Juggling tasks like a clown without the wicked crimson smile is as normal as drinking tea without sugar because of the hurrying hustle of a mother with 28 opened tabs in her ever/bustling brain.

I resumed baking the cake by following the recipe on YouTube, pausing it on and off to test baking on merit of my memory. I passed, more or less. Or so I thought.

Get blender. Pop in the eggs, all ingredients. Big mixing bowl. Pour. Mix. Mix. Okay, not so much. “Avoid over-mixing at all costs”, say the baking gods. Waterfall the batter into the greased cake tin. Pop into oven. Set timer. Check. Check.

A little backstory of my cooking style. I have measuring spoons, but I always cook without following set instructions. Meaning? I like to cook knowing the rough directions but wielding my own way as I go along.

Much like setting on a journey to a destination whose way is known yet not following Google Maps to avail the freedom of unexplored pathways, detours and wrong turns to be surprised by a magical mundane break in routine.

As I was playing sous chef to my chef alter ego in my infinitesimal Bombay-sized kitchen, I realised while mixing, my batter was too thick.

I went over the recipe in my mind - step by step - part by part, only to arrive at the conclusive end that the lumpy batter was courtesy my creative liberty of substituting whole wheat flour (which happens to soak liquid more) for all purpose flour (the sober soaker). I left it at that.

Ting.

Cake baked. Popped out. Left to cool. Sliced. Boxed.

We sat to eat. Each took a slice. Delicious goodness. Blessed sweetness. Then, we moved on.

Until my mother came out 2 hours later showing me the dates soaked in milk, unused, untouched, ungarnished in the recipe demanding dates.

So, that’s why my batter was thick.

So, that’s why I felt like something essential was missing.

So, that’s why multitasking is not as efficient as one assumes it to be.

Of course, we laughed it off and put the date mixture in the refrigerator for future use when I bake a date cake incorporating the prestigious dates without fail or forgetfulness.

Why did I have a mini episode of the wretched and accursed dementia? I cannot help attributing it to living in my phone more than reality.

Unhinged device usage is making our entire generation go whacko. We plug in our earphones to go get milk. We open Instagram more times a day than we breathe. We keep texting our close ones because texting our mind seems easier than face-to-face discussing how f*cked our generation is, in the present and most definitely the fathomless future.

Is there a solution?

To my cake, yes. It turned out just fine minus the dates because I added cane sugar and white sugar to the batter along with crushed, crunchy walnuts.

To my mind, I don’t know. Unless I don’t stop using this perilous pet in my palm all night, noon and day, my mind may just be a memory, and my memories may just be gone.

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💌 This write-up (and hopefully more to follow) is part of my monthly blog, an initiative where I transform via words an everyday mundane occurrence into an insightful mental rumination. I may also post poetry, random thoughts, short snippets, just about anything that keeps my creative venom flowing.