Sticky Toffee Pudding

So if you’ve had this before, you’re most likely glazy-eyed and drooling. If you’ve never had this before, you might wonder why this not particularly fancy looking dessert would make a person glazy-eyed and drooling. Well, you’d just have to try it to understand. Is it some secret new gourmet trendy thing? Nope, it’s a very old recipe in fact, though I had never even heard of it until I moved overseas.

I think it’s crazy that we don’t have this here, I mean right alongside chocolate cake and apple pie on every diner menu here. If I had to choose between this and chocolate cake, this would win most of the time. Actually, I’m glad we don’t have this so readily available here, I’d weight 500 lbs! Yes sir and/or madam, it’s that good. Also, even though it’s easy and relatively cheap to make, I tend to only make this around the end of year holidays. It’s super rich, as in one of those desserts that needs NEEDS the vanilla ice cream to calm it down.

Ok, I realize I’ve gone on and on about it and not actually said what it is. I’ve told you how good it is, and you should definitely make it, at least once, but as for what exactly it is, I’ll refer you to Wikipedia and hope that their description and photo don’t scare you off. However, I will say that the cake without the sauce is not that remarkable. I have seen where people have made this as a layer cake, frosted it and then poured the sauce over the frosting. I don’t see the point, how does the sauce get into the cake? The sauce needs to be soaked up by the cake to make it the dessert it is intended to be. So please don’t frost this cake, it’s perfect just the way it is… and so are you, you wonderful cake loving blog reader you!

Ingredients

Pudding Cake

• 8 oz of pitted Dates (225g) roughly chopped
• 2 tsp Baking Soda
• 2 cups Boiling Water
• 1/2 cup Butter
• 2 cups light Brown Sugar
• 4 Large Eggs
• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 TBSP baking powder
• 1 & 1/2 tsp kosher salt

Sauce

• 2 Cup light Brown Sugar
• ½ Cup Whip Cream
• 1 Teaspoon Vanilla
• ¼ cup butter

To Serve

• Vanilla Ice Cream or Whipped Cream

Instructions

Pudding Cake

1. Preheat the oven to 350f and greased or sprayed pan a 9×13″ pan (see notes).
2. In a food processor, blender or large measuring jug, mix dates with baking soda and pour over the boiling water. Soak for at least 10 minutes.
3. In a medium size bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder and salt.
4. In a large mixing bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter and brown sugar until well mixed and creamy. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.
5. Puree dates in the blender, food processor, or with an immersion blender.
6. Add flour mixture to the batter all at once and beat just until it is all moistened, then add the date mixture and beat just until mixed.
7. Pour into the prepared pan and bake for 35 to 40 minutes, or until a cake tester comes out clean.

Sauce

1. Combine all the ingredients except the vanilla, in a saucepan and bring to a boil (350f) while stirring.
2. Turn down to a simmer, and simmer for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.
3. Remove from the heat, cool for 5 minutes and then stir in the vanilla.
4. Let cool for a further 20 minutes before serving.

Serve with warm sauce poured over each slice and top each slice with a scoop of vanilla ice cream

Makes 16 Servings

Notes

• You can make this in a large bundt pan or 2 bread pans, but you’ll need to bake them for around 45 minutes.
• You can half this recipe and bake it in one 8 or 9-inch square/round pan. Bake for just 25 to 30 minutes.
• You can make individual servings in 12 to 24 cupcake wells. For standard size cupcakes bake for 18 to 22 minutes, for minis bake for 12 to 16 minutes.
• Store the sauce in an airtight container in the fridge and reheat in the microwave as needed, store the pudding cake in an airtight container at room temperature -OR- pour all the sauce over the cake in the pan and store covered tightly in the fridge. To reheat, either take out single portions and microwave them, covered, for a minute or two -OR- place the whole pan in a cold oven and turn the heat to 350f, bake for 20 to 30 minutes.
• You can make this with dark brown sugar, but it will change the flavor and make it a lot more “treacly” tasting.