Dates chocolate cake

Dates are an obvious choice for a lot of sweet preparations. But when I used dates in any dish, I feel it has a little vagaru taste or mildly astringent (cross between sweet and bitter taste) unlike other sweet fruits.. So this time I wanted a combination of chocolate and dates...Though dates taste was slightly overpowered by chocolate, this cake came out too good as expected...

INGREDIENTS:
Makes about: 8 pieces
1/2 cup pitted Dates(About 15-18 soaked in water for 2-3 hours or overnight)
1/4 cup Water used for soaking dates (or microwave for few seconds get dates soften)
1/2 cup Milk (use for grinding dates to smooth paste)

1/4 cup melted Butter
1/2 cup Sugar

1 cup minus 2 tbsp AP Flour
2 tablespoon Cocoa powder
1 teaspoon Baking powder.
3/4 teaspoon Baking soda.

PROCEDURE:
1. Preheat the oven to 350F
2. Dry ingredients mixture:
Sieve together flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder together.
3. Wet ingredients mixture:
In a bowl whisk butter, sugar and add dates paste together till well blended.
4. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients in batches and stir. Batter comes out very thick.
5. Spread the batter evenly in the prepared tin and bake it for 20 minutes. Lower to 160 degree celcius and bake for another 10 minutes. A skewer inserted in the middle of the cake will come out clean.
6. Let it cool down completely before slicing.

NOTES:
1. The original recipe is here - jyotibabel.com