Sticky Toffee Pudding from Vicki Delany

Sneak peek! In next years (2025) Tea by the Sea book, TEA WITH JAM AND DREAD, Lily and the gang go to England for Lady Frockmorton’s 100^th birthday celebrations. Always on the lookout for new and interesting things to serve in her own tearoom, Lily enjoys a traditional sticky toffee pudding. Not quite suitable for an afternoon tea menu, it still makes a great dessert. And it’s even more perfect as it contains tea.

I set about finding a recipe to use in the new book, and I adapted this one from The Great British Bake Off.

In Britain, pudding usually just means dessert, and this is more a cake with sauce than what we consider a pudding in North America. 

STICKY TOFFEE PUDDING

INGREDIENTS:

For the cake:

200g dates

150ml hot tea, made with 1 tea bag

150g unsalted butter, softened

200g light muscovado sugar

3 eggs, at room temperature

200g flour

1 ½ tsp baking powder

¼ tsp salt

1 tsp bicarbonate of soda

 

For the toffee sauce:

100g unsalted butter

200g dark brown sugar

150ml double cream

 

DIRECTIONS: 

Preheat the oven to 180°C/160°C fan/350°F/Gas 4. Butter and line 20cm square deep cake tin

with baking paper.

Chop the dates into small pieces then add to the hot tea. Put to one side to soak for 15 minutes while you make the sponge.

Cream together the softened butter and sugar in a large bowl with a wooden spoon (or use a hand-held electric mixer) until pale and light. Scrape down the sides of the bowl once or twice to ensure all of the mix is beaten. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well between each addition.

Sift the flour and bicarbonate of soda onto the creamed mix and then fold in with a rubber spatula until all of the flour is mixed in. Fold in the dates, along with any tea that hasn’t soaked in, until you have a creamy cake batter.

Pour into the prepared cake tin and bake for 35–40 minutes, or until the pudding is a deep golden brown. To check if it is cooked, insert a skewer into the sponge; if it comes out with just a few moist crumbs the pudding is ready.

While the pudding is in the oven, make the toffee sauce. Melt the butter in a small pan, then add the sugar and cream and cook over a low heat, stirring every now and then, until the sugar has dissolved. Once the sauce is smooth, increase the heat and let it bubble for a couple of minutes.

Leave the pudding to cool for 5 minutes in the tin before turning out and cutting into squares. Serve warm with the hot toffee sauce.

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Now available for pre-order. The fifth Tea by the Sea mystery, Trouble is Brewing. Coming July 23 from Kensington Books.