Sticky toffee pudding is a longstanding British favourite. This dessert is consisting of a dark, very moist sponge cake made with chopped dates and covered in a toffee sauce.
Often served with vanilla ice cream or vanilla custard. Literally, a sugar hit but if I'm honest if you take one bite of this delicious dessert will have you hooked for life.
Exactly what happened to Carl. Honestly, wherever and whenever we go out for dinner, his pick for dessert is always this sticky spongy cake with the hot toffee sauce on top.
Even though I'm not a massive fan of anything too sugary, I like to have a bite during the cold winter months.
As Carl's birthday just gone by the decision for a birthday cake flavour was super easy.
Even though the flavour pick was straightforward, I literally had no clue how actually make it happen. I didn't know how I could make this pudding into an actual cake. Every birthday cake has frosting however sticky toffee literally contains none of that. So, of course, to stick to the real deal and make sure that flavour is actually like sticky toffee, I only used a small amount of it. This classic British dessert is famous for the drizziling sticky toffee sauce from the top so since that's the main component of this dessert I needed the toffee drizzle for decoration. Honestly, I was so clueless about how it's going to work or how I am going to decorate it. So I did what I always do when I'm out of ideas. Turned to Pinterest.
I love, and literally, this is my place of inspiration for everything. I love just searching around to things that interest me.
Anyway, back to this recipe. So I searched for sticky toffee pudding cakes, and you know what I was shocked by what I found. I found max about 3 recipes.
So that's it, that was my only source of inspiration for this cake.
However, I found thousands of sticky toffee pudding recipes. I have no clue of the original recipe however I found a way to many sticky toffee pudding alternatives and sticky, gooey toffee sort of cakes. I was shocked and started to doubt myself. If there are no more recipes on Pinterest for this cake, then it looks like people just prefer the traditional way of this sweet dessert.
But I knew that Carl would love this cake, so I had no choice than looking deeper to find the perfect recipe for me.
This is how I found livforcake's recipe. I ended up tweaking it slightly myself just to fit for my needs.
If you would like to read her original recipe, just click the link at the end of this post.
Interesting fact of this dessert before I put my aprons on and make a complete mess in my kitchen.
The original recipe for this sticky pudding is attributed to Francis Coulson.
It was developed for the Sharrow Bay Country House Hotel in the Lake District in the U.K. in the 1970s.
So that's said let's get started and convert Great Britain's most iconic and beloved dessert into a delicious layer cake.
Ingredients
Cake
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 cup unsalted butter room temperature
1 1/4 cup dark brown sugar packed, I used demerara
2 large eggs room temperature
4 Tbsp molasses
2 tsp vanilla
Dates
about 18 whole pitted Medjool dates chopped
250 ml cup water
3/4 tsp baking soda
Toffee sauce
1 cup heavy cream
1 cup dark brown sugar
1/2 cup unsalted butter
small pinch of salt
1 teaspoon quality pure vanilla extract
Buttercream
4 large egg whites
1 cup granulated sugar
1 1/2 cups unsalted butter room temperature
1 tsp vanilla
1 dash of milk, if needed
Decorations
Caramel chocolate,
Ferrero Rocher,
Popcorn
Edible 24carrat golden sheets/flakes
Directions
Dates
Place the dates with 250ml water into a saucepan and bring up to the boil.
Reduce the heat and simmer for 2-3 minutes. Remove the pan from the heat.
Stir the baking soda into the date mixture. Blend with a stick blender until the date mixture is thick and soupy.
Sponge
1) Preheat the oven to 190C/375F/Gas 5.
2) In a medium-sized bowl, whisk together the flour and the baking powder. Set aside.
3. Now, use a stand mixer to beat the butter and the sugar on medium-high speed for about 2-3 mins. Once that's done reduce the speed and break the eggs one at a time into the bowl, stirring well after each one. Add the molasses and the vanilla. Beat until combined.
4) Add flour mix then add in the hot mashed dates. Beat until combined.
5) Pour the mixture evenly into the prepared cake tray and bake it about 40-45 mins.
6) Once the sponge is done, let it cool in pans on a wire rack for about 10mins.
Turn it out onto wire racks to cool completely.
Toffee Sauce
1) While the cake is in the oven, it's time to make the Toffee sauce.
2) For the sauce combine all the ingredients except the vanilla exact in a saucepan and simmer over medium heat, frequently stir until the sauce thickens and turns dark amber, about 10-12 minutes. Remove from the heat and add in the vanilla extract.
If you thicken the sauce too much just add a little extra butter and/or heavy cream and reheat it. Plus, you can also store this sauce in the fridge for up to a month.
Buttercream
1) To make the buttercream, place the egg whites and sugar into the bowl of a stand mixer, whisk until combined.
2) Place the bowl over a double boiler on the stove and continuously whisk until the mixture is hot and no longer grainy.
3) Place the bowl back on your stand mixer and whisk on med-high until the mix is stiff and completely cooled.
4) Once the mix is cooled, slowly add cubed butter and mix until it is completely smooth.
Let's step, add the vanilla and whip the cream until smooth.
I'd love to hear about your favourite dessert- share in the comments below.
P.S.: Modified recipe from livforcake.
Like!! Thank you for publishing this awesome article.