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Mum's Sticky Date Pudding

Serves 16-20

Preparation Time: 10 minutes / Cooking Time: 70 minutes + cooling

 

My Good Irani Mum makes a wicked Sticky Date Pudding. The cake is moist and full of ‘datey’ goodness, and the syrup – well that is just plain naughty! This is a favourite dessert amongst our family and friends and a must try for dessert fans.  This does make quite a large cake, so you can halve the quantities, but be sure to reduce the cooking time for the cake too. Alternatively, you can freeze extra cake for a quick snack later on!

Ingredients

For the cake:

  • 620g pitted dates, chopped
  • 720ml water
  • 2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
  • 190g butter, softened
  • 500g brown sugar
  • 6 eggs
  • 450g self raising flour, sifted
  • 2 tsp vanilla extract

For the sauce:

  • 440g dark brown sugar / jaggery
  • 500ml thickened cream
  • 250g butter
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract

Method

  1. Put the dates and water into a 25cm non-stick pot. Bring to the boil. [NOTE – Ensure you use a pot, not a frying pan as the next step might lead to an overflowing of dates!]
  2. Reduce the heat and add the bicarbonate of soda. Stir and cook the mixture for 4-5 minutes, until the dates have softened and mixture has thickened. [NOTE – The bicarbonate of soda reacts with the water and dates to fizzle and puff up. This is normal.]
  3. Remove from heat and pour mixture into a separate mixing bowl to cool.
  4. Beat the butter in a cake/food processor for a minute or two until fluffy.
  5. Add the sugar and beat for a minute or two until light and fluffy.
  6. Add the eggs in one at a time, beating briefly only to incorporate each egg. [NOTE – The mixture might look ‘curdled’ during this step but don’t worry, that doesn’t affect the cake texture.]
  7. At this stage, preheat the oven to 160°C.
  8. Pour the egg and sugar mixture to a large mixing bowl.
  9. Add half of the flour and cooled date mixture to the egg mix and fold in by hand with a spatula or wooden spoon until fully incorporated.
  10. Add the other half of the flour and date mixture and fold again.
  11. Line a 26 x 36cm baking tin with baking paper and pour mixture into the tin. [TIP – If using smaller tins, ensure the cake is not too thin. Small, deeper tins will produce a nice, moist cake.]
  12. Bake for 60-70 minutes until inserted skewer comes out clean from the middle of the cake. Remove from oven and stand in tin for a further 10 minutes before turning out on a wire rack to cook.
  13. To make the sauce, add all sauce ingredients into a medium saucepan, heat on low and stir until sugar/jaggery has dissolved and mixture is dark brown.

This cake is served best warm, with hot sauce and cold whipped cream or my personal favourite – vanilla icecream!

Enjoy! GPW