Sticky Toffee ‘Pudding’ Cake

This is delicious and I can guarantee you it will not be around for long if you make it!

Ingredients

Cake

• 200g date (stoned and chopped)
• 250ml weak black tea
• 100g light muscovado sugar
• 25g dark muscovado sugar
• 15g golden syrup
• 2 large eggs
• 100g melted unsalted butter
• 1.5tsp mixed spice
• 1tsp vanilla extract
• 175g self-raising flour
• 1tsp bicarbonate of soda
• Pinch of salt

Toffee Sauce

• 50g light muscovado sugar
• 25g dark muscovado sugar
• 15g butter
• 1tbsp golden syrup
• 1/2tsp vanilla extract
• Pinch of salt
• 65ml double cream

Buttercream

• 100g soft, unsalted butter
• 200g icing sugar
• Half of the toffee sauce (cold)
• A splash of milk

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180C (160 Fan), Gas Mark 4.  Grease and line the base of two 8″ sandwich tins or alternatively a 2lb loaf tin.
2. Place the chopped dates in a saucepan with the tea and bring to the boil.  Once boiling, turn the heat down and simmer for 5 minutes.  Blitz the dates and tea in a blender until smooth.
3. Beat the eggs, sugars and syrup together in a mixer until pale and fluffy.  This may take some time as the mixture is quite runny to start with.
4. Gradually pour the butter in a thin stream into the egg and sugar mixture with the mixer still going.
5. Remove the mixer and stir in the dates and vanilla extract with a large spoon.
6. Sift all the dry ingredients over the top of the wet mixture and gently fold together.
7. Divide the mixture between the two tins and put into the oven for around 25-30 minutes.  The cake will begin to shrink away from the sides once it is ready and if you put a skewer into the middle of the cake it should come out clean.  If you are using a loaf tin, then the cake will probably need to bake a little longer, say 35-40 minutes.
8. Whilst the cakes are baking, make the toffee sauce.  Place all the ingredients (except the cream) into a pan and stir continuously over a gentle heat until the sugar has dissolved.  Bring the mixture to a rolling boil, remove from the heat and stir in the cream.
9. Remove the cakes from the oven once they are ready and prick them all over with a skewer and drizzle a generous amount of toffee sauce over the tops of them.  Keep back just over half of the sauce.  Leave the cakes to cool completely in the tins before removing them.
10. To make the buttercream whisk the butter until creamy and then add the icing sugar (you may want to do this in batches in order to avoid covering your kitchen in a very fine dust of icing sugar).  Add the rest of the cold toffee sauce (except for a couple of tablespoons)  and whisk together.  If the mixture is a little stiff, add a splash of milk to loosen it slightly.
11. Sandwich the two cakes together with half of the butter cream and spread the remaining over the top of the cake.  Drizzle the sauce you kept back over the top.
12. Enjoy!