When The Girl and I took the British Baking Classics class at King Arthur Flour last month, hands down, this recipe for sticky toffee pudding was our favorite thing that we made.
The sticky toffee pudding was so good, I knew I wanted to recreate it at home, but with one small change.
When we made this in class we boxed up the cakes and the sauce separately and then froze both the cake and the sauce to enjoy at a later date.
The original recipe says to cut the cake into slices and then drizzle a little sauce over the top just before serving. But I suspected {as did my husband} that the cake would taste better if the sauce had more time to soak into the cake.
Extraordinary goodness
So when I recreated this recipe for sticky toffee pudding at home, I did just that… and the results were out of this world!
After my husband ate his slice of {soaked} cake , he then declared “You couldn’t improve on this. It’s perfect.” And I agreed. 🙂
This is the type of dessert you’ll not only want to make for yourself {the slices freeze beautifully!} but one that you’ll want to keep and pull out around the holidays to give to neighbors and friends or bring to any function where a dessert is needed.
It’s perfect!
Make this! You’ll be so glad that you did.
~Mavis
Cute little dessert boxes with lids
Parchment squares
Little sauce cups
How to Make the Sticky Toffee Pudding
Sticky Toffee Pudding
Ingredients
Cake
- 1 ½ cups {225 grams} pitted dates, chopped
- 1 ¼ cups {296 grams} water
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ¼ cup {57 grams} unsalted butter at room temperature
- 1 cup {198 grams} sugar
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 large eggs
- 1 ½ cups {180 grams} all-purpose flour
Sauce
- 2 ⅓ cups {500 grams} brown sugar
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 cup {237 grams} heavy cream
- ½ cup unsalted butter {113 grams} at room temperature
- 2 tablespoons {30 grams} brandy
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions
Cake
Preheat oven to 350 F
In a medium saucepan, combine the dates and water and then bring to a boil over medium high heat.
Remove the date mixture from the heat. Stir in baking soda. Set the mixture aside to cool to room temperature.
In a large bowl, mix the butter, sugar, salt, baking powder and vanilla extract until combined.
You now add the eggs, one at a time and mix until combined.
Next is half the flour, then half the date mixture, mixing well to combine.
Repeat with the remaining flour and date mixture until combined.
Grease a 10-cup Bundt pan with butter or cooking spray. Pour the batter evenly into the bundt pan.
Bake the cake for 40 – 45 minutes or until the edges pull away from the side of the pan and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
Cool the cake in the pan on a wire rack for 20 minutes, then invert it onto a wire cooling rack to cool completely.
Sauce
In a medium saucepan, heat the sugar, salt, cream and butter over medium-low heat stirring just until the sugar is dissolved.
Once the sugar is dissolved, increase the temperature to medium and bring the mixture to a boil.
Lower the heat and allow the mixture to simmer, without stirring for 3 minutes to reduce.
Remove the sauce from the heat and then stir in the brandy and vanilla.
Let the sauce cool for 20 minutes.
*Spoon ⅓ of the sauce over the cooled cake. Give the cake about 5 minutes to absorb the sauce, then spoon another ⅓ of the sauce over the cake.
Use the remaining ⅓ of the sauce to drizzle over the cake just before serving. {Making sure to reheat the extra sauce just before serving.}
* When spooning the first 2/3rds of the sauce over the cake, it’s best to do this with the cake sitting on a wire rack over a baking sheet or sink. It will be messy! 🙂 You’ll want to have something to catch the extra sauce as the excess sauce drips off the cake.
Brianna says
I love King Arthur baking recipes and they almost always turn out fantastic. I am making two today for my twins’ Birthday as they always each get their own dessert and celebration, one at lunch and one at dinner. The classic Carrot Cake and a challenging and labor intensive Gesine’s Chocolate and Strawberry Cream Puff Cake. It would have been cheaper to buy cakes rather than make them this year, but I always make my kids their cakes.
Carolyn Rust says
Looks amazing. Did you freeze the individual servings in the square boxes or are these just for storing for a few days?
Mavis Butterfield says
The boxes are for storing for a few days. To freeze I just put the slices in a gallon freezer bag.
Carol says
Looks like a new dessert for my Thanksgiving menu.
Jules says
That looks delicious! Thank you for sharing!
Mary says
Could one leave out the brandy or is there a nonalcoholic substitute?
Mavis Butterfield says
Yes, just know that the sauce will have more of a brown sugar taste to it. 🙂
Aunt Diane from Streator says
Fantastic recipe! I used prepared caramel sauce and added 1 T of rum. (No brandy on hand.) Very tasty!
Jeri says
I have always thought that toffee had nuts in it, so I assumed that this recipe would be ruled out due to a nut allergy in our home. I’m so happy that this is a safe, nut-free recipe I can make for our family!
Thank you for sharing