Chocolate sticky toffee pudding cake

Birthday season in the Caked Crusader family is well upon us; this week marks the halfway point and it’s the turn of the CCM (Caked Crusader’s Ma). I asked her what flavour she would like her cake to feature and was surprised to hear the reply of “chocolate or toffee”. I would’ve bet anything on lemon!

Being a good daughter I know the importance of keeping the CCM happy so hunted for a recipe featuring both chocolate and toffee – and here it is! However good you think chocolate sticky toffee pudding cake will be, multiply that expectation by 10... and you’re still nowhere close!

The flavours are clean and identifiable which pleased me; often, when you combine robust ingredients they get lost and the overall taste is indistinct. On a blind tasting you would guess that this was a chocolate sticky toffee pudding. I have to keep typing that – it’s a wonderful collection of words!

I put the toffee sauce in the fridge - this is how thick it became:

Then, I whisked some of the toffee sauce into some whipped cream and piped it on top of the cake to add an extra element of naughty luxury to the dish. It worked really well – I feel that’s somewhat a redundant statement...like anyone would read that sentence and say, “well that must’ve been a disaster”!

I had to take a photo of the elaborate candle I got for the cake. You light the centre and a plume of sparklers shoot up and out lighting all the candles on the flower petals which open, and then rotate playing “happy birthday”. Classy? Perhaps not. Crowd pleasing? Oh yes! I think this photo really captures the speed of the rotating candles:

Happy birthday CCM

Footnote: anyone interested in acquiring their own "showstopper" candle can order it from the Talkingtables website.

Ingredients

For the cake:
300ml boiling water
150g stoned dates, chopped
150g dark chocolate – I used Green & Blacks 70%
100g unsalted butter, at room temperature
150g light brown sugar
3 eggs
225g plain flour
1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
1 teaspoon baking powder

For the toffee sauce:
275g golden syrup
275g light brown sugar
100g unsalted butter
225ml double cream
½ teaspoon vanilla extract

To serve: whipped cream

Method

Preheat the oven to 180°C/fan oven 160°C/350°F/Gas mark 4.

Line a 20cm round springform tin with baking paper.

Place the water in a saucepan and reduce to a simmer.

Add the chopped dates and leave for 10 minutes – still on a low simmer.

Melt the chocolate – I used a microwave – and put to one side.

Beat together the butter and sugar until paler and lighter. As it is brown sugar, it won’t go as whippy as if you were using caster sugar but you should notice the texture lightening.

Beat in the eggs one at a time.

Stir in the melted chocolate.

Fold in the flour, bicarbonate of soda and baking powder.

Stir in the dates and their liquid.

Pour the mixture (it will be runny) into the prepared tin and bake for approximately 50 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Mine took 55 minutes.

Leave to cool in the tin, on a wire rack. The cake will be very soft and trying to de-tin it too early may cause heartache!

Now make the toffee sauce: place all the ingredients into a saucepan (use a bigger saucepan than you think you’ll need as the sauce increases significantly in volume while it’s bubbling away) and heat, over a high heat, until the mixture comes to the boil. Stir regularly.

Let the mixture boil for approximately 5 minutes (still stirring) until the sauce is glossy.

Place the warm cake on the serving plate and pour some of the toffee sauce over the cake, putting the rest in a jug for people to serve themselves.

Alternatively, you can serve the cake at room temperature, also with some toffee sauce poured over the cake, and some whipped up with cream as a decadent extra treat!

Serve in generous slices.

Bask in the glory of the wonderful thing you have created.

Eat.

Iced Date and Walnut spice cake

This cake has been on my radar for a while and, as it strikes me as a more wintry cake, I thought I’d better make it pronto…yes, Spring is finally creeping in!

People are strange (that’s a good title – someone should write a song using it) and sometimes it’s all about how you pitch things. If I produced this for my family and said “ta da! Look at this delicious date and walnut cake” I’d get the following range of responses: “I don’t eat dates”, “I don’t like walnuts”, etc etc. However, producing a “Toffee and nut cake” is met with joyful anticipation.

What stops this being a sticky toffee pudding cake (not that there’s anything wrong with that – I loved the one I made) is the spice mix that also goes into the batter. It adds a bit of heat to the flavour which works well with the sweetness of the dates.

This rich dark cake is quite divine – it has crunchy nuts and that sticky, deep toffee-ness that only dates can add. The white icing calms it down and I would recommend using it. You can make it with lemon juice to add a tart contrast but you know my view regarding lemons.

I’ll admit that this cake uses a lot of ingredients but mostly they’re store cupboard staple items for a keen baker. The method could not be simpler – or quicker - so please don’t be scared off by the sheer number of ingredients!

One quick comment on the glace icing...it’s made with single cream rather than water. This produces one of the softest, most flavoursome and gorgeous icings ever – and I don’t give such praise easily. It reminded me very much of a cake from my childhood; Entemann’s used to make a traybake style carrot cake and the white icing was exactly like this. The only note of caution is that because it is made with fresh cream it won’t last as long as a more traditional glace icing.

Ingredients

For the cake:
175g dates, stoned and chopped (I find this easiest if you snip them with scissors rather than a knife)
1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
225ml boiling water
25g unsalted butter
1 egg
150g soft dark brown sugar
225g plain flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 ½ teaspoons mixed spice
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
½ teaspoon nutmeg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
75g ground almonds
75g walnuts, chopped

For the icing:
110g icing sugar
10g unsalted butter, melted
1 tablespoon single cream
1 tablespoon lemon juice (you can use water or more single cream instead, if you wish)

Optional decoration: approx 10 walnut halves

Method

- Preheat the oven to 180˚C/fan oven 160˚C/350˚F/Gas mark 4.

- Line a 20cm springform round tin with baking paper.

- Start by preparing the dates: place the chopped dates in a bowl and pour the boiling water over them.

- Add the bicarbonate of soda and the butter and stir until the butter has melted. Leave to one side to cool.

- Beat the egg and sugar together until well mixed.

- Add the cooled date mixture and all the remaining cake ingredients.

- Stir well to ensure the ingredients are combined thoroughly.

- Spoon into the prepared tin; don’t worry, the mix will be lumpy and rather unattractive.

- Bake for approximately 1 hour or until a skewer inserted into the cake comes out clean.

- Leave in the tin for 20 minutes before turning out and leaving to cool completely on a wire rack.

- Now make the icing: mix together all the ingredients until you have a glossy, thick yet still spreadable icing. You may need to add a little extra liquid to achieve this. You’re aiming for something thin enough to spread and run, but not so runny that you lose it all down the sides of the cake.

- Pour the icing over the cake and allow to run down the sides a little.

- After a few minutes, place the walnut halves on top of the cake. If you do this when the icing is at its runniest they may slide off the top!

- Bask in the glory of the wonderful thing you have made.

- Eat.

Sticky toffee cake

One of THE foods of Christmas must be the humble date. Big fat juicy medjool dates with the texture of fruit but the taste of toffee – heaven!

I have made a couple of versions of sticky toffee pudding but this is a sticky toffee cake. The difference is that instead of toffee sauce you have toffee buttercream. This is a seasonal cake without being obviously so – a nice option for those who are fed up with fruit cakes and mince pies.

The smell of the dates when you boil them is gorgeous. I made the cake on a freezing cold snowy day but inside my home it was paradise! Here’s the dates when they’ve broken down in boiling water:

Look what happens when you add the bicarbonate of soda – it’s alchemy!

What surprised me most about this cake, was the texture. It was light and spongy – just like carrot cake, but the flavour was unmistakably sticky toffee. It’s quite one of my favourite cakes that I’ve made recently.

Ingredients

For the cake:
225g stoned dates (I used Medjool)
300ml water
1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
115g unsalted butter, at room temperature
175g soft light brown sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
175g self raising flour

For the toffee icing:
90ml (6 tablespoons) double cream
80g soft light brown sugar
25g unsalted butter
25g golden icing sugar

Optional decoration: toffee nuggets

Method

- Preheat the oven to 180°C/fan oven 160°C/350°F/Gas mark 4.

- Line a 20cm square loose bottomed tin with greaseproof paper.

- Using scissors (I find this the least messy way) snip the dates into pieces – about the size of a small grape.

- Place the dates and the water in a saucepan. Pick a large saucepan because the mix will bubble up considerably when you stir in the bicarbonate of soda.

- Bring the dates and water to the boil and then boil, uncovered for 10 minutes.

- Remove from the heat and stir in the bicarbonate of soda.

- Leave to cool.

- Cream together the butter and sugar until smooth, pale and airy. Don’t skimp on this stage.

- Beat in the eggs and vanilla extract.

- Fold in the flour and the dates.

- Spoon into the prepared baking tin and level the surface.

- Bake for approximately 35 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre of the cake comes out virtually clean – it won’t be perfectly clean because of the gooey dates.

- Check the cake 10 minutes from the end to ensure that the top is not burning – the dates can catch. If necessary, cover the cake with foil for the last 10 minutes.

- Leave to cool in the tin until you can comfortably handle the tin and turn the cake out. Leave to cool completely on a wire rack.

- For the icing heat the cream, brown sugar and butter over a gentle heat until the sugar dissolves i.e. you cannot see the granules on the back of the spoon.

- Bring to the boil and cook, uncovered, for 4 minutes until it turns golden. Do not stir. If the mixture darkens too quickly simply remove it from the heat before the 4 minutes is up.

- Leave to cool.

- Beat the icing sugar into the icing until smooth.

- Spread over the top of the cake – you might find this easier with a wetted palette knife.

- Decorate as required.

- Bask in the glory of the wonderful thing you have made.

- Eat.

Individual sticky toffee puddings

Whenever there are polls in magazines or on TV shows to find Britain’s favourite dessert you can always bet that sticky toffee pudding will nab a place on the podium. As it should– it’s divine!


A lot of people don’t seem to realise that what gives the pudding its luxuriant, rich toffee flavour is the humble date. But if you eat a date and really concentrate on the flavour it suddenly seems obvious! Dates are just like toffee but, as they're fruit, you can pretend they're healthy.

This recipe is particularly nice as you can make the puddings and sauce a couple of days in advance and leave the puddings to steep in the thick creamy sauce. The puddings are luscious and airy and I’m certain, that if they could talk, they would sweetly call “eeeeeeaaaatttt meeeeeeeeee”.


I’ve made this recipe before and posted it on my site but in the very early days when my readership comprised of family and a couple of friends. You can find the recipe by clicking here.

Would it be naughty to confess that I have had one of these puddings each day over the weekend?

Sticky toffee pudding

I have made individual sticky toffee puddings before but this is a larger version and the sauce recipe is quite different.


There seems to be something about Christmas-time in Britain that makes everyone wildly over-estimate the amount of dates their guests will wish to eat. Most of us can happily get through the year without thinking much, if at all, about eating dates but, come December we’re buying boxes of the things as if Christmas would be ruined without them. I can hear the CCM (Caked Crusader’s Ma) bristling whilst reading this so I’d better confess – it was me who grossly over-bought dates this year. But who could blame me - aren’t they beautiful?


This was my thought process: it’s colder than Antarctica in England this week and I need to get rid of lots of dates. Voila! Sticky toffee pudding. If there was ever a better reason to stock pile dates I’m interested to hear it!

Here’s the cake fresh from the oven:


I can’t even try to argue any health benefits on this one; it’s as sinful as pudding can be. The sweet, light sponge is dotted with dates, releasing their beautiful toffee flavour in every mouthful. Add to that the thick, creamy sauce stoked up with brown sugar and black treacle and it’s an assault on the taste buds! Yum.

A piece of cake....


...only truly becomes sticky toffee pudding once the sauce is added:


Ingredients:
For the cake:
175g stoned and chopped dates (I used Medjool)
300ml water
1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
50g unsalted butter
175g caster sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 eggs
175g self raising flour

For the sauce:
300ml double cream
50g Demerara sugar
2 heaped teaspoons black treacle


How to make:

- Preheat oven to 180°C/fan oven 160°C/350°F/ Gas mark 4
- Grease a 22cm square tin.
- Boil the dates in the water for 5 minutes until the dates are soft. Make sure you use a large saucepan – larger than you think you need.
- Stir in the bicarbonate of soda. It will bubble up a lot, hence the need for a large saucepan. Put to one side until needed.
- Cream together the butter and sugar until well combined. It won’t become light and fluffy because the sugar far outweighs the butter.
- Beat in the vanilla extract.
- Beat in the eggs one at a time.
- Stir in the flour.
- Pour in the contents of the saucepan i.e. dates AND liquid.
- Stir until well combined. The batter will be very runny so don’t panic.
- Pour into the prepared tin and bake for 35-40 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre of the sponge comes out cleanly.
- Leave to cool on a wire rack.
- Now make the sauce: put all the ingredients into a saucepan and stir, over a low heat, until smooth.
- Bring to the boil.
- Cut the sponge into squares and ladle the sauce over the top. Serve with either ice cream (my favourite) or custard.
- You can make both the sponge and the sauce in advance and re-heat when required. I re-heated the sponge, still in the tin, in a fan oven temperature of 130°C . The sauce can be re-heated in a saucepan on the hob – simply stir until smooth and then bring to the boil.
- Bask in glory at the wonderful thing you have made.
- Eat.

Sticky Toffee Puddings

Having recently enjoyed a work trip to the Middle East I pondered what I could make to reflect the sights I had seen – how to capture the essence of my travels. If you have been to the Middle East you will very quickly pick up two themes on which a lot of the tourism and merchandise is focused – camels and dates. I didn’t fancy using any camel products – whilst out there I tried the camel’s milk rice pudding and can vow that it will never pass my lips again. Strange that the milk can actually taste camel-y.

So that left dates. And what better use of a date than sticky toffee pudding? Here is my packet of the plumpest, juiciest, biggest dates I have ever seen. These are from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia but all the Emirates also seem to produce dates – I bought quite a selection.


Without a doubt, these are the biggest, most succulent dates I have ever had the good fortune to come across. Look at the size of them (missus!):


Sticky toffee pudding, to me, is up there as one of the greatest comfort foods; what I love about this recipe is that you get the sweetness but the little puddings are not stodgy – quite the opposite in fact. I think this is because they are baked rather than steamed.

The batter is lumpy and loose and that’s how it should be! Don’t panic.


While these can be made and served straight away, they are much better if left to stand for 1-2 days as they soak up the sauce and seem to get even more squidgy. There is no need to refrigerate them while they are maturing, covering the dish with foil is adequate.


I like to serve them warm with ice cream but purists may prefer custard. I defy you to eat one without smiling! And try not to think about the calories......


This photo captures the light spongy texture:


Ingredients:
For the puddings:
225g stoned dates
175ml boiling water
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
175g self raising flour
1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
2 eggs, beaten
85g unsalted butter
140g Demerara sugar
2 tablespoons black treacle
100ml milk (whole or semi-skimmed)

Custard or ice cream to serve

For the toffee sauce:
175g light brown sugar
50g unsalted butter
225ml double cream
1 tablespoon black treacle

How to make:

- Chop the dates quite small and put them into a heatproof bowl. Pour over boiling water and leave to stand for 30 minutes until cool and soft. Mash lightly with a fork (leave some lumps as this gives a nice texture to the finished puds) and add the vanilla.
- Preheat oven to 180°C/fan oven 160°C/Gas mark 4 and grease 7 mini pudding tins. They should have a capacity of approx 200ml. Sit them on a baking sheet.
- Cream the butter and sugar together until well combined. Because the sugar is gritty you won’t be able to get the mixture smooth.
- Add the beaten egg gradually beating well between additions.
- Beat in the black treacle.
- Weigh out the flour and add the bicarbonate of soda to it.
- Measure out the milk.
- Using a metal spoon fold about a third of the flour into the butter and egg mix. Then fold in a third of the milk. Then a third of the flour etc until all the flour and milk has been added.
- Stir in the soaked dates, including any liquid in the bowl. The mixture will now be soft and lumpy.
- Spoon it into the pudding tins and bake for approximately 25 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean. Allow to cool in the tins as, initially, the puddings are very soft and will tear if you try to handle them at this stage.
- Meanwhile, make the sauce. Put the sugar, butter and 125ml of the cream into a saucepan and bring to the boil over a medium heat, stirring all the time, until the sugar has dissolved. If you see grains on the back of the spoon the sugar has not dissolved.
- Stir in the black treacle and turn the heat up slightly. Let the sauce bubble for three minutes stirring occasionally to ensure nothing is sticking or burning. Take care as the sauce is very hot – it won’t spit or do anything nasty but you could hurt yourself if careless.
- Take the pan off the heat and stir in the remaining 100ml of cream.
- You can now assemble the puddings and sauce and serve now if you wish, but I recommend letting them mature for a couple of days.
- Pour half the sauce into a deep ovenproof dish, then stand the turned-out puddings on the sauce. I invert them for stability and look.
- Pour the rest of the sauce over the puddings and loosely cover the dish with foil. You don’t have to refrigerate them.
- When ready to use, warm the puddings in the oven 180°C/fan oven 160°C/Gas mark 4 for 15-20 minutes or until the sauce bubbles. To keep them moist when re-heating, keep the dish covered with foil.
- Serve with ice cream, custard or cream.
- Bask in glory at the wonderful thing you have made.
- Eat.