The only way to bring in the new year or the holiday season in general is sticky toffee pudding! I had my first taste of this sweet gooey goodness was at a craftfair where a burly Scottish brute of a man decked in full kilt attire shoved an enormous mouthful of the stuff in my face. When a big burly scotsman shoves pudding in your face, you don’t say no! But I fell in love instantly…with the pudding, not the scotsman haha!
So I rushed home to search for a recipe that would capture the intricate mix of flavours I tasted in that pudding for the satisfaction of my enjoyment all year round. But most of the recipes I found were brown sugar-based but I wanted the deep and intense flavour of molasses. Admittedly some recipes did have some molasses but only a tablespoon or 2 in the whole recipe which in my opinion…is just weak sauce.
So I made my own and adapted it from a few different recipes.
Sticky Toffee Pudding Recipe – Scrapaperdoll Edition
Cake
1 cup chopped dates
2/3 cup hot water
1/4 cup butter – softened
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 large egg – room temperature
4 tablespoons dark molasses
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup cake flour (very important to use cake flour, not all purpose flour)
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
Sauce
1/4 cup brown sugar
2 tbsp butter
2 tbsp dark molasses
pinch of salt
1/2 cup heavy cream – heated slightly so as not to be as cold as the fridge
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F. Butter 4 small baking cups. I recommend the Michaels ceramic baking dishes.
- Add hot water to chopped dates to soften the dates. Set aside.
- Cream butter and brown sugar using a spatula until well combined.
- Beat the egg, add the molasses and vanilla. Combine with the butter mixture.
- Sift Flour, baking powder, salt and baking soda in a separate bowl. Mix well. Gently fold the flour mixture with the butter/egg mixture until the batter is just combined.
- Use a blender or food processor to purée the dates and hot water. It doesn’t have to be the consistency of butternut squash soup, just smaller pieces with a few chunks is fine. The chunks add a bit of texture differences in the cake but not too much so that it interferes with the normal chemistry of the cake-baking.
Fold the dates into the cake batter. - Pour batter into the ceramic baking dishes and set the baking dishes onto a baking sheet. Pop into oven and bake for 25 minutes or until the a toothpick inserted in the top comes out clean.
- While the cake is baking, make the sauce. Add the brown sugar, butter, salt and molasses to a sauce pan and cook the sugar mixture on medium heat with gentle stirring every 30 seconds until the mixture thickens. It’s difficult to tell when the sugar caramelizes because it’s already dark coloured but use your nose. You can smell when it begins to caramelize but be sure not to burn the sugar.
- Once the mixture thickens to your liking, gently stir in 1/4 cup of the warmed cream. Reserve the other 1/4 cup. Don’t use cream directly from the fridge because it may cause the sugar to sieze. Heat the cream in a separate sauce pan slightly to bring it to room temperature.
Gently add 2 more tablespoons of cream after a few minutes from the reserved 1/4 cup. Once the mixture has thickened, bring it off the heat and let it sit until the cake has finished baking.Troubleshooting: If the butter separates from the mixture, gently stir in more of the reserved cream on the stove one tbsp at a time until the butter incorporates into the sauce and it thickens again.
- When the cake is done baking, invert while still hot onto a plate and generously pour the hot sauce over the cake. Serve with a piping mug of coffee…or spiced rum haha!
This cake is the softest moistest cake I’ve ever made, even without the toffee sauce, this is an amazing cake, the sauce just pushes it over the edge! I can definitely use the cake with a glaze or ganache. It is just so flexible! Instead of dates, I can even use figs or cranberries as well.
Enjoy and leave your comments below!
Scrapaperdoll 