Name: Date Nut Snack Cake
Prep time: 15 min
Cook time: 45 min
Total time: 1 h
Yield: 16 Squares
Cuisine: American
Ingredients: 2 cups diced pitted dates; 2 cups chopped pecans; 4 cold eggs; 1 cup sugar; 1 teaspoon vanilla extract; 1 teaspoon baking powder; 1/2 teaspoon salt; 1 cup all-purpose flour

Home » Desserts » Date Nut Snack Cake

An old-fashioned recipe for chewy, chunky snacking cake squares made with pecans or walnuts, dates and simple ingredients!

Author: Mandy Rivers | Published: 6/28/26

This is a recipe I have loved my entire life. The texture is unlike anything else I've had... the cake to date/nut ratio is about even so every bite is chunky and chewy in the best way!

There's only one cup of flour in the batter but we get a sort of baked meringue thing going on from the eggs which also adds to the chewiness (I'll get into that in a minute).

Mama would keep these in the freezer to be pulled out if company stopped by or when any of us was craving something sweet. She had two mini bundt pans and would sometimes divide the batter between them. They were the cutest little things to set on a pretty plate.

Date Nut Snack Cake! An old-fashioned recipe for chewy, chunky snacking cake squares made with pecans or walnuts, dates and simple ingredients.

I think we might have called this a "Christmas cake" when I was growing up. Or maybe I just think that because we always had them around during the holidays?? They're a great stand-in for fruit cakes. They keep well and are sturdy but don't have all the candied fruit some folks don't like.

This was the thing we dropped off when somebody had a baby, someone passed away or other such occasions. Through the years, so many people have told me that having this cake to set out was worth 10 frozen casseroles because, even when we've just had a baby or a funeral, we Southern women still feel like we have to roll out the hospitality and be good hostesses.

I had no idea what I was doing when I brought Baby Girl home from the hospital. I was completely overwhelmed and, in hindsight, probably had some baby-blues going on. Mama had left me one of these and I would stand at the counter with tears in my eyes and carve off little squares because something about this cake just makes me feel cared for, like everything's gonna be OK. Yep, reading this back to myself, I 100% had post-partum depression... who cries while their eating cake??

The first time I made this myself, I had to ask Mama if her recipe was written down right because there's no butter or oil in it. Mama's notorious for writing recipes wrong so I had my doubts, but I made it anyway. I stood corrected, she had written it down correctly. The cake was exactly like I remembered it.

Her recipe also read to use a full POUND of dates and another full POUND of pecans. I didn't even bother asking her about that because I knew that couldn't be correct.

You have to watch her. Her "it's good enough", "too bad, so sad" personality comes through when penning recipes. I guess all those times she told me, "you better figure it out" paid off because I can, it seems, usually figure stuff out.

WHY THIS WORKS WITHOUT OIL OR BUTTER

As I learned when I first developed my Crackle-Top Fudge Brownies, whipping the eggs with sugar until they are glossy and pale yellow (called "foaming the eggs"), creates a base for batter that makes it moist and chewy. An added bonus is that anything you mix in the batter will stay put and not sink to the bottom (perfect for this recipe with all the dates and pecans!).

I also think there's plenty of fat in 4 whole eggs which is probably enough to work in a small batch recipe like this.

6 FAQ ON PECAN DATE SNACK CAKE

1. If starting with whole dates, how much do I need? One 10-oz carton of dried, whole dates yields 2 cups diced.

2. Can I substitute other nuts? Yes! Walnuts are amazing in this.

3. What if I don't like dates? Maybe don't make a date-nut cake?? Just kidding! You can use raisins, chopped candied cherries or dried cranberries.

4. Can I double the recipe? Absolutely! Bake in a 13x9 metal baking dish and cook the same amount of time.

5. Would it be OK to add coconut? Sure! I'd use 1 cup of sweetened flaked coconut.

6. Can I use a glass baking dish? Metal is always best for baking (see section below) but if you only have glass, reduce the heat to 300 degrees and cook 5 minutes longer.

WHY METAL IS BETTER WHEN BAKING

Uneven Baking: Glass and ceramic are better insulators than metal. It takes longer for the heat to transfer through them but when it does, it traps the heat in, overcooking the sides and bottom before the center can catch up.

Texture & Rise: Because the edges cook and harden so quickly, the center often domes up or collapses, resulting in an uneven cake structure.

Residual Cooking: Metal pans cool down quickly when removed from the oven, but glass and ceramic hold onto heat, causing cakes to continue baking and potentially dry out by the time they're cool.

Recipe for Date Nut Snack Cake

If you enjoy cakes like this, try my Pecan Pie Cake and Old-Fashioned Raisin Cake too!