Everyone’s Favourite Dessert: Sticky Toffee Pudding

Everyone’s favourite dessert — sticky toffee pudding is made from date-infused sponge cake and a thick sticky toffee glaze is utterly divine.

At home, I try to find creative ways to reduce food waste in my kitchen. Remember those bananas during the lockdown? Yes, I made so many varieties of banana bread, banana cake, and even banana ice cream. Quite frankly, I am tired of bananas and have even refrained from buying them in my weekly Ocado order. 

This week, I found some medjool dates in my refrigerator leftover from Diwali. I don’t typically eat dates on its own as it is too sweet for my liking. So what can I do with these dates? I’d hate for it to go to waste. As today is Remembrance Day, I thought it would be appropriate to make everyone’s favourite dessert: Sticky Toffee Pudding. 

Quintessentially British, Utterly Divine

Quintessentially British, this classic pudding of date-infused sponge cake is doused with toffee sauce. As if this dessert is not sweet enough, adding a scoop of vanilla ice cream or custard is optional. The origin of this pudding is often disputed. Whether it is from Cumbria, Lancashire, or Aberdeenshire, it doesn’t matter. All you need to know is that Sticky Toffee Pudding is wildly popular, often served after a pub Sunday roast. And most importantly, this gooey dessert is utterly divine. 

Effortless Cake

Sticky Toffee Pudding is relatively easy to make and doesn’t include any of the warming autumnal spices such as ginger, cloves or allspice. The key ingredients that gives Sticky Toffee Pudding its trademark dark colour is the combination of dates, muscovado sugars and black treacle (aka molasses for my American friends). This recipe is inspired by British food writer Nigella Lawson. 

To start, add boiling water and baking soda to chopped dates in a small bowl for about 10-15 minutes until soft.  Then, softened butter is creamed together with the black treacle and sugar until smooth and free of lumps. Two eggs are added one by one, mixing thoroughly between each addition. The dry ingredients of flour and baking powder are added to the wet mixture. Mash the dates before adding the dates and liquid to the batter. Pour into a prepared 9×9 dish and bake for 30 minutes. 

In the meantime, it is time to make the toffee sauce by melting butter and sugar over very low heat in a saucepan. Once melted, add the double cream and bring it to a gentle boil before removing from the heat. 

When the cake is done and out of the oven, prick the sponge cake all over with a toothpick and pour the toffee sauce all over the cake. Allow the sauce to absorb into the cake for about 30 minutes and then serve warm. 

As we enjoy this quintessential British dessert together on Remembrance Day, it’s time to honour individuals who lost their lives in the line of duty. Lest we forget. 

Print Recipe

Nigella’s Sticky Toffee Pudding

A quintessential British dessert, sticky toffee pudding is made from date-infused sponge cake covered with a thick layer of toffee glaze.

Ingredients

For the sponge cake

• 200 g soft dried pitted dates roughly chopped
• 200 ml boiled water
• 1 teabag optional
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 75 g unsalted butter softened, plus more for greasing
• 2 tbsp black treacle
• 50 g dark brown sugar
• 2 large eggs at room temperature
• 150 g plain flour
• 2 tsp baking powder

For the toffee sauce

• 150 g unsalted butter softened
• 300 g dark brown sugar
• 1 tbsp black treacle
• 200 ml double cream, plus more to serve

Instructions

• Preheat the oven to 180C/160C Fan/Gas 4 and lightly grease a 9×9 dish.
• Put the chopped dates, boiling water, tea bag, and baking soda into a bowl, stir and then leave for 10 minutes.
• Cream the butter and black treacle together in a stand mixer until well mixed, scraping down the sides as required.
• Add the brown sugar and mix until the mixture is free of lumps.
• Beat in the egg one at a time, scraping down the side until well mixed.
• Add the flour and baking powder and gently mix until the batter is thick and smooth.
• Using a fork, discard the teabag and mashed the dates before adding (dates and liquid) into the batter. Mix together gently.
• Pour batter into a the prepared 9×9 baking dish and bake for 30-35 minutes, or until a toothpick (insert in the middle of the cake) comes out clean. Once out of the oven, prick the sponge cake all over with a toothpick.
• To make the toffee sauce, melt the butter, brown sugar and black treacle in a heavy stainless steel saucepan over low heat, stirring gently until the sugar is melted.
• Add the double cream and turn up the heat, stirring constantly. Once the toffee sauce is bubbling, take it off the heat.
• Pour about half the toffee sauce evenly over the sponge cake and let it stand for 30 minutes.
• Keep the remaining toffee sauce warm in the sauce pan.

Notes

This recipe is inspired by Nigella Lawson except I added a teabag to give the sponge cake an extra depth.