Sticky Toffee Pudding Recipe-Perfect for Christmas

Hello again, friends. It’s recipe day! Since I haven’t done any holiday baking thus far, today I’m going to do just that. I’ll be trying my hand at Sticky Toffee Pudding, a recipe by my blogging friend and fellow lover of Scotland, Cristine Eastin.

To we Americans, Sticky Toffee Pudding is not a pudding as we know it.  It is actually a date cake topped with a delicious toffee sauce.

Cristine is a sweet and talented author who has published two works of fiction as well as a book of Scottish recipes – A Wee Scottish Cookbook (all available on Amazon).  It was in her cookbook that I found the recipe for Sticky Toffee Pudding.  As Cristine points out, this dessert is a relatively new concoction.  And although its origination may have been in England, the Scots have embraced it as a holiday tradition as well.

Click on any of the links above, and you’ll be redirected to Cristine’s beautiful blog.  I hope you’ll check it out!

---

Sticky Toffee Pudding

Ingredients:

Cake

1 ¼ cups (224 g) pitted dates, finely chopped

1 cup (236 ml) boiling water

2 tablespoons instant coffee granules, or 2 teaspoons espresso coffee powder

1 teaspoon (6 g) baking soda (bicarbonate of soda)

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1 ¾ cups (219 g) all-purpose (plain) flour

1/2 teaspoon (2 g) baking powder

1/2 cup (113 g) unsalted butter, room temperature

1 cup (213 g) packed brown (demerara) sugar, light or dark

4 large eggs, room temperature

Sauce

2 cups (472 ml) whipping cream (double cream)

1 cup (220 g) packed dark brown (Demerara) sugar

1/4 cup (56 g) unsalted butter

optional- 1 tablespoon Drambuie

---

Directions:

Cake

Place chopped dates in a small bowl.  Pour boiling water over dates.  Add coffee granules, baking soda, and vanilla.  Stir to dissolve.  Let cool about an hour.

Preheat oven to 350° F (180° C, Gas Mark 4).

Butter pan 8x8x2 inches (20x20x5 cm).

Mix flour and baking powder and set aside.

Using electric mixer, beat butter and sugar in large bowl.  Scrape sides of bowl often during mixing process.

Add 2 eggs, one at a time, beating well after each.  Add half of flour and beat to blend.  Add remaining 2 eggs, one at a time.  Add remaining flour and beat until blended.

Fold date mixture into batter with a spoon and mix well.

Pour batter into prepared pan.  Level batter.

Bake 50 minutes to 1 hour until tester inserted into center comes out clean.

Let cake cool in pan.  Run a knife around the sides to loosen.  Poke holes all over cake with a skewer.

Sauce

Let the cake cool before starting the sauce.

In a medium saucepan, bring cream, brown sugar, and butter to a gentle boil over medium-high heat, stirring frequently.

Reduce heat and simmer sauce, stirring occasionally, about 15 minutes.  Sauce should reduce and thicken a little.

Remove from heat.  Add optional Drambuie.  Let cool a few minutes.

Pour half of warm (not hot) sauce over level cake (see NOTES).  Cool to room temperature, then refrigerate.  Do not cover.  In about an hour, when sauce is firm, cover pan with plastic wrap and refrigerate if not serving immediately.

Reserve remainder of sauce.

To serve, cut servings and heat in microwave until caramel melts.  Warm reserved sticky toffee sauce and pour it on.  Top with whipped cream or vanilla ice cream.

Notes:  (In Cristine’s words)

“After the cake cools, you may need to carefully remove it from the pan and get it level by slicing off the high spot on the top, otherwise, when you pour on the sauce you’ll get a puddle of sauce around the edges with an island mound of cake in the middle.

That said, I couldn’t safely get the cake out of the pan to level it.  I settled for running a long bread knife flat across the top edge of the pan, slicing off the cake dome.  Then I poked lots of holes in the cake to let in the caramel.”

---

Okay, so what is my verdict?  Well, in the words of Mr. C., BEST CAKE EVER!!

Well, that’s it for today, my friends.  Let me know if you make this.  I would love to hear your feedback.

Merry Christmas to you!

Cheers,