Lemon-ginger cake with Medjool dates

As a Father's Day gift, on Friday night I decided to bake my dad a cake involving Medjool dates, since he likes dates (he's actually planted date trees in the backyard at home) and since Medjools are fantastic.  I went back to Ina Garten's always-trusty lemon cake because I had several lemons in the fridge, and I also tossed in some ginger powder to add a spice dimension and further complement the dates.

I pitted and roughly chopped seven or eight dates and spread them in a layer over half of the batter, with the rest of the batter on top.  After baking, I poured on a lemon juice / ginger / sugar syrup.

In its lidded Pyrex baking dish, the cake did make it through security at LAX on Saturday afternoon, after two trips through the X-ray machine, a swab test, and a brief coaching session wherein the TSA supervisor taught another officer how to recognize a cake through the scanner.  At home in Davis, my parents and I enjoyed slices with green tea and a gorgeous array of peaches, cherries, and blackberries, all from the backyard.