weekend baking \\ sticky date pudding

last night, the Chans and the Chaus came over for hotpot. winter hotpot used to be an annual affair but we didn't host one last year because both boo and baby Chan were still too young for dinner outings. 

 

what better desserts to make to share with our friends on a winter's night than a sticky date pudding? i made one ages ago using a recipe by Jill Dupleix. the recipe was originally collected  from one of the weekend papers but i somehow misplaced it. lucky there are other people on the blogosphere who likes the same recipe so i managed to find it. i shall keep the recipe on my blog so i never have to worry about misplacing it. 

ingredients \\

180g dates, pitted and chopped

1tsp baking soda

1 cup boiling water

50g butter

150g brown sugar

2 eggs

180g self raising flour, sifted

 

toffee sauce \\

150g brown sugar

250ml single cream 

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1tbsp butter

 

preheat oven to 180 c. grease and line a 18cm round springform baking tin

 

mix dates with baking soda and pour over boiling water and set aside

 

cream butter and sugar together and add the

 

fold in the sifted self raising flour gently, add the dates mixture (liquid and all) and mix thoroughly

 

pour mixture into the prepared cake tin and bake for 30-40 minutes

 

for the toffee sauce, mix all ingredients together in a small sauce pan and bring to a boil. simmer for 5 minutes or until the sauce has thickened nicely. 

 

we served the pud with Connoisseur's classic vanilla ice cream and it was delicious. i haven't made sticky date pudding for so long i've forgotten how good it tastes. everyone went back for seconds. now i can either make another one before winter is over or wait till winter 2014.