Sticky Date Pudding – you’re my favourite and always will be. Also known as Sticky Toffee Pudding, the simple trick that makes all the difference is to pour some Butterscotch Sauce over the warm cake when it comes out of the oven. It makes it ultra moist and gives it that intense dark colour. Plus, more sauce to serve, of course!
Sticky Date Pudding – a childhood favourite!
Who else has childhood memories of Sara Lee frozen Sticky Date Pudding??
It is the only store bought dessert my mother ever bought – and only on special occasions. And as much as I loved it, my one gripe was always that there was not enough Butterscotch Sauce to go around.
Never fear. You won’t have that problem with this recipe! 😂
I know this recipe is called Sticky Toffee Pudding by most of the world – other than Australia and New Zealand it seems. And given that dates are the key ingredient in the pudding, I would say we’ve got it right for this one!!
Dates are key
I am pretty sure this is the only recipe I use dates for. And I realise that the photo above of the date sludge may look thoroughly unappetising to some people, but rest assured even if you’re a date hater that you can’t taste it in the end result.
The dates contribute to the stickiness and moistness of the sponge, as well as giving it colour. Don’t ask me for a sub! (Oh wait, you can. Prunes. Pretty much the same thing! 😂)
Individual puddings – or a large one for sharing
I think it’s more common here in Australia to make one pudding cake that is then cut to serve. Sara Lee frozen dessert style. Whereas in the UK it seems more common to make individual puddings.
I might be wrong here. But either way will work fine, and I’ve provided cook times and directions for both.
Secret tip: Douse hot pudding with sauce
If you’ve ever made one of those cakes that you douse with syrup, you’ll know exactly what you’re in for with this trick!
It goes like this – as soon as the pudding comes out of the oven, poke lots of holes using a skewer (I find this strangely satisfying but let’s not read too much into this), then pour over some hot butterscotch sauce.
This makes the pudding intensely moist as well as staining the sponge to give it that signature dark brown colour, rather than being a pale golden colour which many sticky toffee pudding recipes are.
It also means this pudding keeps for days and days in the fridge and once reheated, it’s just like it’s fresh out of the oven.
The only question is – will you serve yours with cream or ice cream? I’m an ice cream gal, all the way!! – Nagi x
Watch how to make it
Hungry for more? Subscribe to my newsletter and follow along on Facebook, Pinterest and Instagram for all of the latest updates.
Sticky Date Pudding
Ingredients
- 280g / 9 oz pitted dates , roughly chopped (Note 1)
- 1 tsp baking soda / bi carb soda
- 1 cup boiling water
- 1/4 cup brown sugar , loosely packed
- 80g / 6 tbsp unsalted butter , softened
- 2 eggs , at room temperature
- 1 1/4 cups plain flour (all purpose flour)
- 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
Butterscotch Sauce:
- 1 cup brown sugar , tightly packed
- 1 1/2 cups thickened cream (heavy cream)
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- 70g / 5 tbsp unsalted butter
Serving:
- Ice cream or dolloping cream
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 180°C/350°F (160°C fan-forced).
- Grease 7 pudding moulds (Note 2) with butter or grease and line a 20 cm / 8″ square cake pan with overhang.
Mashed Dates:
- Place dates in a bowl, sprinkle over baking soda. Pour over boiling water. Stand 10 minutes, then mash well with a potato masher (or fork) until it resembles sloppy porridge (see video for texture / thickness). (Note 3)
Batter:
- Place butter and sugar in a bowl. Beat until combined and smooth.
- Add eggs, beat until incorporated.
- Add flour then sprinkle baking powder across the surface. Mix until flour is incorporated.
- Add dates, mix quickly until dates are well incorporated into the batter. (Note 2) Follow directions to make one pudding or individual ones.
One Pudding:
- Pour into cake pan, smooth surface. Bake 35 minutes or until skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.
- While still hot, poke about 40 holes all over the surface using a skewer. Pour over 1/2 cup Butterscotch Sauce, leave to soak for 10 minutes.
- Use overhang to lift cake out. Cut, serve warm with remaining warm sauce and ice cream or cream.
Baking Individual Puddings:
- Pour batter into pudding moulds, only fill 2/3 of the way up.
- Bake for 25 minutes, or until skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.
- While still hot, poke about 10 holes on the surface of the pudding. Spoon over 1 tbsp of Butterscotch Sauce per Pudding. Leave to soak 10 minutes.
- Turn pudding moulds upside down on serving plate. Serve warm with remaining warm sauce and ice cream or cream.
Butterscotch Sauce:
- Place ingredients in a saucepan over medium heat. Once butter is melted, stir, then bring to simmer.
- Simmer for 2 minutes, stirring once, then remove from heat. Serve warm.
Recipe Notes:
– This recipe probably makes more sauce than you need – but it’s better to err on the side of caution!
– An electric beater will make your life easier but a whisk + wooden spoon will work fine too without exerting yourself too much. Just make sure your butter is well softened and easy to mix by hand.
– Poking holes into the pudding and pouring the sauce over to soak stains the pudding sponge a darker colour as well as adding more moisture into the pudding.
– Sticky Date Pudding is indulgent and very sweet, from both the dates + sugar in sauce. If you don’t have a sweet tooth, this dessert is not for you! To reduce sweetness, you can skimp on the sauce. Or make a lighter, less sweet sauce as follows: Use half the sugar, butter and cream, make per recipe. When it simmers, add 1 cup low fat milk, then 2 tsp cornflour/cornstarch dissolved in 1 tbsp water. Simmer to thicken. 4. Make Ahead: Exceptional for reheating because it’s so moist. Poke the holes and soak with sauce, reserve remaining sauce for serving. Best way to reheat is in the microwave because it keeps the pudding moist. 5. Nutrition per serving, assuming 9 servings and that all Sauce is consumed, which it may not be. I like to ensure there is enough Sauce because running out is a disaster. Nutrition for 7 individual puddings is 703 calories per serving. They are very generous sizes with loads of sauce (because the sauce recipe makes enough for 9 servings for the pudding cake), so when I scale the Sauce down by 20%, it reduces to 606 calories. Calories per serve for lightened up sauce (see Less Sweet Sauce above) is 477 calories.
More cosy warm desserts for cold winter nights
Life of Dozer
If you look real close on the right side, you’ll see the tiniest glimpse of my hand as I desperately tried to hold Dozer back from doing a face plant into the Pupcakes…..
Hi Nagi,
Your recipe for sticky date pudding was fantastic. I did however want to share a little twist I did . I added cinnamon and star anise ( crushed to a powder. And a little blob of my home made fig jam on the top of the individual puddings prior to serving with plenty of the toffee sauce and ice cream. It was delicious!
I’ve always added cinnamon and nutmeg to anything with brown sugar in it but never star anise. Thanks for the idea. I’m assuming 1/8th of a teaspoon should be ok?
I have made this recipient a few times now, always a success, love it
I’m so sad. Recipes here have never failed me. So I can only assume it’s my fault. Why was my butterscotch sauce so ‘white’ and runny? It is nothing like the caramel-ly gooeygoodness like in the photos. 😞
I always think dark brown sugar is best for caramel sauce. I also made this one with ordinary brown sugar (it was all I had) and it was quite pale but still very tasty.
Further to my question re the runny caramel sauce.. it may not look right, but it was delicious. The ice cream helps to ‘set’ the caramel.
Can you use medjool dates?
I’ve made a few SDP recipes but I think this the best one. Very easy & so so delicious.
can these be frozen if made into muffins?
Hi Nagi
Is it possible to sub the light brown sugar for dark brown sugar? will it alter the texture of the cake?
Cooked this for a late lunch this week, it was absolutely beyond!
All our guests were raving – it was insanely moist and with the home made sauce just perfect with ice cream and double cream! It will be my go-to dessert from now on. Luckily we had some leftovers, it fed 8 adults.
I made it tonight with dark brown sugar and it was great! The sauce was just very dark and tastes stronger than usual but was very delicious!
Love 🥰 this recipe and I only made one change to the recipe and that’s the softening of the dates and as it’s almost winter in Sydney the boiled water got cool very quickly and the dates haven’t softened so I just bung them in the microwave and zapped them for a 1min and they were so easy to mash and I do agree that you do have a good amount of butterscotch sauce but hey we use it the next day on pancakes 🥞 yum
I had the same problem with the dates and was glad to see your solution to it. Thank you
Made this last night for the family. It was so good
Delicious! The perfect base recipe. For extra depth of flavour I added some cinnamon and allspice, as well as browned half the butter (which I used salted). I also blended the dates with warm milk which I think worked perfectly.
I bought a1kg of date and I’m compelled to make this but also don’t want to be a fat bastard.
Easy and excellent recipe. It turned out well and super delicious.
I love this desert !! made it a few times.
Can I prepare it the day before and warm up the next day ?
Amazing, so simple, fool proof and so good, thanks Nagi 🙂
This is the worst recipe I have ever made. I truly wonder why people who writes recipes lies about them, this is not the first one.
I have looked up different sticky date recipes and I decided to try this one. I have to say that it was amazing and very moist. The texture and flavour were perfect!
Thank you for sharing!
This is the best sticky date dessert I’ve ever had!!
Thank you for your recipes
Oh my goodness! How delicious! I’m a huge fan of sticky date… I usually make GF and all I hear is how delicious it is… today I had to make three due to requests 🤣🤣🤣
Hi Stacey did you just swap the flours ? Also what brand of gf flour did you use ?
Thanks 😊
Thanks for this great recipe Nagi – another winner! I just wanted to understand the options for cooking ahead (without freezing).
1. Do you poke the holes and put on the sauce before you put in the fridge?
2. For reheating, I have the option of microwave, combi steam oven or oven. Which would you suggest and what time would you suggest for reheating in either the large slab or ramekins? Thanks so much.
I made it and it was great but I added half teaspoons of ground cardamom, ground cinnamon and freshly grated nutmeg for an added depth of flavour