Rich, buttery, and delightfully scrumptious, this sticky toffee pudding cake is one sweet treat you’ll make over and over again! Consisting of a fluffy sponge cake filled with sweet dates and smothered in a delectable homemade toffee sauce then drizzled on top with cold cream or vanilla ice cream it is a dessert made in heaven! Easy, tried and tested recipe for perfect results every time!
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Last Christmas was different from our usual holiday celebration. More often than not, we go abroad to visit either our family in the Philippines or in England. Obviously, it was affected in 2020 by the coronavirus. As a result, we didn’t get the chance to travel at all. Like many other American families, we had to stay put.
It was quite sad in some ways because we were far from our families and could only connect with them through facetime. It was my Mom’s birthday on the 26th of December as well so it was difficult to be away from her as she’s already 81 years old and we wanted to spend time with her and dad as much as we could.
Thankfully, we still managed to see their faces even though only virtually. Still, I am thankful for this kind of technology – the only bridge we have during this difficult time.
As a way of making up for it or at least an attempt to make us not feel so lonely and homesick for a holiday with our loved ones, I’ve decided that we should celebrate Christmas by eating the food that we would have enjoyed if we were with our family.
I made a holiday menu that combined food from both England and the Philippines for both Christmas and New Year!
For the savory dishes, I went for the Filipino theme – some pansit (Filipino noodle stir-fry), rice (of course!), ham (we always have this for Christmas in Manila), and some of our favorite finger foods. For dessert, I surprised my husband by making him one of his favorite classic English dessert – sticky toffee pudding!
Sticky toffee pudding is a traditional English dessert. It consists of a light and fluffy sponge cake full of sweet dates that is smothered in a delectable homemade toffee sauce and often drizzled on top with cold cream or served with vanilla ice cream.
Read that again and picture in your mind how delicious it is! It made me hungry just reading its description!
This scrumptious dessert is often served during the holiday season in England and, in fact, what we had during the last Christmas we spent there!
It is a truly heavenly dessert. I cannot imagine a yummier treat for Christmas (except perhaps for Christmas pudding which is equally exquisite!!!). Oh, the English have perfected the best Christmas desserts, indeed.
It brought a lot of smiles to my hubby’s face and he confirmed that it tasted exactly like the one we had from England. I am so glad that it came out so perfectly!
I was afraid that because of the conversions in measurement and some ingredients, it won’t come out fine but we were both blown away at how crazy delicious it was!
But, it doesn’t have to be Christmas for you to enjoy this dessert. You can make this anytime. In fact, I’m planning to make it again very soon as it’s super yummy and truly one of the best desserts on the planet – it’s that good!
Despite what looks like a long list of ingredients – it’s not hard at all to make! If I could make it, so can you. Hope you try this soon and let me know how you like it!
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Manila Spoon
Rich, buttery and delightfully scrumptious, this sticky toffee pudding cake is one sweet treat you'll make over and over again! Easy, tried and tested recipe for perfect results every time!
4.78 from 9 votes
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Prep Time 15 minutes mins
Cook Time 30 minutes mins
Course Dessert, Desserts
Cuisine English, Great Britain
Servings 10
Ingredients
For the Sponge Cake
- 10 oz boiling water (about 275 ml or 1 1/4 cup)
- 1⅓ cups dates, coarsely chopped
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 3½ tbsp salted Butter,
- ¼ tsp salt
- ½ cup demerara or light brown sugar
- ½ cup molasses sugar (like muscovado sugar)
- 2 eggs
- 1⅓ cups self-raising Flour
- 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
- softened Butter, for greasing the baking dish
For the Sticky Toffee Pudding Sauce
- 8 oz double or heavy cream (about 250 ml or 1 cup)
- 6 tbsp salted butter
- 1/2 cup molasses sugar (like muscovado sugar)
For the Extra Sauce
- 10 oz whipping or heavy cream (about 300 ml or 1 1/4 cups)
- ⅓ cup molasses sugar (like muscovado sugar)
- 3½ tbsp salted butter
To serve
- cold double or heavy cream, for pouring or may be whipped first and place on top of the pudding
Instructions
For the Sponge Cake
Preheat the oven to 350F. Measure the hot freshly boiled water (straight from the kettle), pour into a large bowl and add the chopped dates. Stir and leave until lukewarm. Meanwhile, measure out all the other sponge cake ingredients, add to the dates and water and mix together. Put this mixture into the bowl of a food processor and process or pulse until smooth, but with a few tell-tale specks of date still visible.
Generously butter a baking dish of at least 2-litre capacity (9 x13) on all surfaces and pour in the sponge batter. (Note: It is important that the chosen dish will be filled no more than half-full by the mixture, as it rises a great deal during cooking and you will need room to pour over the topping.) Bake for about 30 minutes, or just until firm to the touch.
For the Pudding Sauces
Meanwhile, make both the sticky toffee pudding sauce and the extra sauce by heating the ingredients gently in individual pans, whisking regularly, until they briefly boil, and then smoothly amalgamate. You are making in effect two pans of butterscotch sauce. Set aside the extra sauce.
Pour the sticky toffee pudding sauce over the cooked pudding and place under a moderate grill or broiler just until bubbling and sticky looking, roughly 2-3 minutes. Watch this carefully as this doesn't take long.
To serve
Spoon into individual bowls and pour around the warmed up extra sauce.
The remaining cold double cream, even though you might think it redundant, offers a very nice, cooling contrast to all that hot, sticky sponge and sweet sauces. Don't leave it out. Simply pour the cold cream over the sponge cake or whip it first, if preferred, and place it on top of the pudding. Some add vanilla ice cream instead of the cold cream. Your choice. Enjoy!
Notes
TRICKS & TIPS:
Molasses sugar is a must for this recipe so you can achieve the authentic taste of the classic English sticky toffee pudding so don't substitute (if possible) with regular brown sugar. You may purchase this sugar online or at Asian stores (Taiwanese dark sugar is what I use) or use dark muscovado sugar which has hint of molasses in it.
Molasses sugar is a deep dark brown and moist granular sugar. It can be used interchangeably with muscovado sugar, but molasses sugar has a stronger taste as compared to muscovado. Its distinctive molasses taste is due to its high content of molasses. Molasses sugar is often used in chutneys, pickles, and marinades, as well as in Christmas cakes. (Wikipedia)
Salted butter is preferred to provide contrast and cut down on the richness and sweetness of the sugar and molasses.
Keyword Best Sticky Toffee Pudding Cake Recipe, caramel toffee pudding cake recipe, caramel toffee pudding recipe, classic english sticky toffee pudding, easy sticky date pudding, the best sticky toffee pudding recipe ever, tried and tested sticky toffee date pudding
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