Date Cake with Orange Blossom Syrup

After a couple of weeks of rest after the Christmas season, it was time to bake something. I had dates and orange blossom water left over from Christmas Baking. So, when I came across this recipe I knew it was next on the list to make.

Date Cake with Orange Blossom Syrup

HolidayBakerMan

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Ingredients

Orange Blossom Syrup

115 gram Sugar
1/4 cup Water
2 tsp Orange Blossom Water

Cake

113 gram Butter - Unsalted
170 gram All Purpose Flour
1/2 tsp Salt
2 tbsp Buttemilk Powder
1 tsp Baking Soda
1/2 tsp Cinnamon
115 gram Sugar
3 Eggs - Large, room temperature
1/2 tsp Vanilla Extract
1/2 cup Milk
1 cup Walnuts, toasted and chopped
1 cup Dates, chopped

Instructions

Syrup: In a small saucepan, bring sugar and water to a smiler, stirring until the sugar is dissolved. Remove from heat; stir in orange blossom water. Let Cool.
Cake: Preheat oven to 350°. Line a 9 x 5 inch loaf pan with baking paper and spray with spray oil. Alternately, butter and flour the pan.
In a small bowl sift the flour, buttermilk powder, salt, baking soda, and cinnamon together. In another bowl, beat butter and sugar together on medium speed (high speed with a hand mixer) for 3 to 4 minutes (at least 5 minutes with a hand mixer). Add eggs one at a time, mixing between additions. Add vanilla and mix again. Scrape bowl with a rubber scraper to ensure mixing of all ingredients. Fold in walnuts and dates.
Pour batter into the prepared pan. Bake until golden and fully baked. Check with a toothpick to ensure doneness. 40 - 45 minutes. Remove from oven; evenly pierce as many holes as you can in the top of the cake (all the way to the bottom) with a skewer. Then pour over syrup over cake. Let cool in pan - approx 2 hours.
Serving: Serve slices of cake with whipped cream dusted with cinnamon, and orange segments.

Bakers Notes:

My cake took 55 minutes until a toothpick came out clean
Creaming the butter and sugar is key to this cake. I have a very large kitchenmaid so creaming the small amount of butter and sugar in it would be difficult
Using the hand mixer meant i creamed the butter and sugar for a full 5 minutes
In error I added the orange blossom water to the uncooked sugar and water. I noticed afterwards. To keep the most flavour I was careful not to bring the mixture to a full boil and made just the sugar has just barely melted
When the cake comes out of the oven, make as many holes as you can. The syrup will have more of a chance to penetrate through the whole cake

I’ve added the process pictures below with out captioning them. Good thing or bad thing?