Sticky Toffee pudding

The moist sweet cake is covered with a sticky toffee sauce, Making this the perfect pudding for a cold winters evening! Comfort food at it’s best! And do you know what’s even better? It takes around 20 minutes to prepare this pudding and it bakes with in 30 minutes. O yes, did I mention that it is super easy to make?

The secret to this pudding is soaking the dates in hot tea for around 15 minutes. I use “Rooibos” tea. Which is my absolute favorite tea. This tea is busting with flavor and antioxidants. The name directly translates to “Red Bush”. The leave has a reddish look to them making a reddish tea.
Read a little bit more about this amazing tea here: Rooibos tea wonders

If you no access to this kind of tea, you are more than welcome to use any other flavor.

Hope you enjoy this recipe…. Let me know what you think.

Ingredients

200 g dates. pitted
150 ml Hot tea, Made with 1 teabag (I use Rooibos tea)
150 g Butter, Softened
200 g Brown Sugar
3 Eggs, room temperature
200 g All purpose flour
5 ml Baking powder
5 ml Bicarbonate of Soda

For the Toffee sauce:
100 g Butter
200 g Brown sugar
150 ml Double cream

Directions

Preheat the oven to 180˚C
Grease a 20 cm deep cake tin, and set aside.

Soak the dates for 15 minutes in the hot tea. Once soaked use a food processor and chop the dates fine. ( If you do not have a food processor, rather first chop the dates and then soak them)

In the meantime cream together the sugar and butter until light and fluffy. Remember to scrape down the sides in between mixing to ensure the mixture in beaten evenly. Now add the eggs, one at a time and mix well after each addition.

Sift the flour, baking powder and bicarbonate of soda together and then fold into the mixture until well mixed.
Now add the dates along with any tea that has not been soaked up. Mix well until a creamy cake batter has formed.

Pour the mixture into the prepared cake tin and bake for 30 minutes or until done. To check if the pudding is done, insert a skewer into the sponge. If it comes out with just a few moist crumbs then the pudding is ready.

While the pudding is baking, make the sauce.
Add the butter to a sauce pan and melt over low heat. Then add the sugar and cream and cook over low heat. Stirring every now and then, until the sugar has dissolved. Once the sauce is smooth increase the heat and allow the sauce to boil for a couple of minutes, stirring often.

When the pudding comes out of the oven, Poke holes in the cake and slowly pour half of the sauce evenly and slowly over the pudding. Allowing the sauce to be absorbed after each pour.

Serve the pudding hot with the remainder sauce and some whipped cream or Ice cream.

Enjoy!