Yael Cobano's Date Pudding Cake

Yale Cobano is the president of the Jewish Community of Madrid.  Author and editor of The Rosh Hashanah Seder Cookbook, Sara Gardner shares this excerpt and Cobano's recipe from her new book.  Click here to read more about Sarah's journey into the Spanish Jewish world as it is today while she studied its history as a fulbright scholar.

This sweet, booze-infused cake offers your guests a sweet finish to their meal as well as a reason to prolong the Rosh Hashanah joy.  The funny side note to the origin of this recipe, ironically, is that Yael, to whom its credited, found it in a book of recipes from Spanish convents. As many of the monks and nuns of early modern Spain (the early 16th and 17th centuries) were often descended from Jewish families that had voluntarily or been forcibly converted to Catholicism leading up to and during the Inquisition, it seemed appropriate to include it in this book. On a more technical note, make sure to not rush the syrup infusion process, the slower the syrup soaks into the cake, the more evenly the flavor diffuses into it.