Sticky Toffee Pudding Cake

Best sticky toffee pudding cake recipe! This super moist cake is made with brown sugar and dates and has a rich toffee sauce on top for the ultimate dessert!

I love sticky toffee pudding cake, and I look forward to making this cake each year around the holidays.

If you’ve never tried it, sticky toffee pudding cake is a super moist cake that is topped with a rich, buttery toffee sauce. All of which makes for an incredibly decadent dessert.

Give it a try, and it may become a holiday tradition at your house, too!

How to make sticky toffee pudding cake

This cake is really easy to mix up. There’s no need to get out the electric mixer for this recipe!

Step 1: To make the cake, stir the dates, baking soda, and boiling water together in a large heat-proof bowl. Let stand for 30 minutes, or until cooled to room temperature.

Step 2: Add the brown sugar, eggs, butter, and vanilla to the date mixture. Mix on medium for 2-3 minutes. The batter may look curdled.

Step 3: Add the flour, baking powder, and salt. Mix in on low for 1 minute, or just until combined, scraping the sides as needed.

Step 4: Pour the batter into the prepared baking dish. Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out with just a few moist crumbs.

Step 5: Set the cake in the pan on a wire cooling rack while you make the sauce.

Step 6: To make the toffee sauce, add the brown sugar, heavy cream, butter, and salt to a medium saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring regularly.

Step 7: Reduce the heat to low and simmer for 2 minutes, or until the sugar has completely dissolved. Remove from heat.

Step 8: Whisk in the vanilla. Let the sauce stand for 5-10 minutes to thicken before using.

Step 9: Optional: Poke small holes over the top of the cake. I like to use a bamboo skewer.

Step 10: Pour 1/2 cup of the sauce over the top of the warm cake. Let the cake cool in the pan for about 10 minutes.

Step 11: Serve the warm cake topped with the remaining sauce.

Tips

• Dates – Medjool dates are usually recommended for use in this cake. I’ve also used deglet noor dates, and they worked out well.
• Chopping the dates: Since dates are sticky, they can be difficult to chop.
  • You can give the blade of your knife a quick spritz of nonstick cooking spray to help with that.
  • Also, I like little bits of date in the cake, so I don’t chop my dates superfine. If you don’t like that, be sure to finely chop the dates.
  • Many stores sell chopped dates. If starting with chopped dates, use them as-is for a few pieces of date in the cake, or give them a quick chop for dates that blend into the cake.
• Brown sugar: You can use light or dark brown sugar in this recipe. Dark brown sugar will give the cake and the sauce a richer toffee flavor.
• Butter: I prefer using salted butter in this recipe. However, you can use unsalted if you like.

Serving suggestions

The cake is great served warm with the sauce drizzled on top. I do recommend drizzling the sauce onto each piece as you cut it so that you can store the extra sauce and extra cake separately.

I reheat the cake and sauce before serving the leftovers. You can also serve the cake with a dollop of sweetened (or unsweetened) whipped cream or even vanilla ice cream.

Storage

I recommend storing the extra sauce covered in the refrigerator. The cake can be stored, covered, at room temperature for up to 4 days.

More toffee recipes!

If you’ve tried this sticky toffee pudding cake recipe, don’t forget to rate the recipe and leave me a comment below. I love to hear from people who’ve made my recipes!

You can subscribe to receive my latest recipe newsletters or follow me on Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest for even more delicious food.