Name: Sticky Toffee Pudding
Prep time: 20 min
Cook time: 35 min
Total time: 55 min
Yield: 8 servings
Ingredients: 200 g dates (pitted, finely chopped); 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda; 50 g butter (softened, for cake); 150 g brown sugar (for cake); 2 eggs; 175 g self-raising flour; 1 tsp vanilla extract; 100 g butter (for toffee sauce); 150 g brown sugar (for toffee sauce); 200 ml heavy cream (for toffee sauce)

Dense, moist date cake drenched in warm toffee sauce. This British classic is the ultimate cold-weather dessert.

If you have never had sticky toffee pudding, you are about to have a religious experience. It is a soft, intensely moist cake made with dates, soaked in a warm toffee sauce that pools around the edges and soaks into every pore of the sponge. The dates are the secret weapon — they dissolve into the batter and give the cake this incredibly moist, almost caramel-like quality. You would never know they were there, but without them the cake would just be a regular sponge. With them, it is transcende