Lightly oil a 15 x 10 inch jelly roll pan. Line bottom with wax paper or aluminum foil. Oil paper or foil and set aside. Sprinkle a clean cloth or tea towel liberally with confectioners' sugar. Cake will be turned out on the towel after it is cooked.

BATTER:

4 eggs, room temperature
3/4 c. sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
3/4 c. sifted all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. nutmeg
1 tsp. cinnamon

In a large mixing bowl, beat eggs until light. Continue beating, adding sugar gradually until mixture becomes thick and light in color, about 5 minutes. Stir in vanilla. Sift dry ingredients together. Fold lightly into egg mixture. Turn batter into oiled pan. Bake at 400 degrees (hot) oven for 10-12 minutes. Don't overbake or paper will be difficult to remove. Remove cake from oven and run a sharp knife around the edges to loosen the cake. Turn cake out onto sugared cloth and immediately and carefully remove paper.

Cut off crisp edges of the cake. Roll cake, rolling cloth up in the cake so the cake won't stick to itself. Cool on a wire rack for 10-15 minutes. Unroll and spread with date-orange filling. Roll the cake up again, cover with cloth and let stand until completely cool before removing to a platter or cutting. Makes about 8 servings. May be served with whipped cream but is delicious as is.

DATE - ORANGE FILLING:

Blender style: 3/4 c. orange juice

In saucepan, heat orange juice until bubbly. Pour over dates and mix well. Place 1/3 of mixture in blender and puree. Using rubber spatula, remove from blender. Repeat twice more until all dates are used. Makes about 1 3/4 cups date jam or filling.

Microwave Style: 1/2 c. orange juice

Mix dates and orange juice and microwave on high for 1 minute in a tightly covered dish. Stir and microwave 2 minutes more. Stir well and break up dates with a wooden spoon.