Sticky Toffee Cake
Ingredients
Cake
- 400 g of dates
- 480 ml of tea, black and fairly weak
- 200 g of light muscovado sugar
- 50 g of dark muscovado sugar, this gives it more depth, but you can substitute it for more light if you don’t want to mess about with two sugars
- 42 g golden syrup
- 4 large eggs
- 200 g of unsalted butter, melted
- 3 tsp mixed spice, heaped
- Vanilla extract, a generous splash
- 350 g of self-raising flour
- 2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
- 1 pinch of salt
Sauce
- 100 g of light muscovado sugar
- 50 g of dark muscovado sugar, or more light
- 30 g of butter
- 42 g golden syrup
- Vanilla extract, a generous splash
- 1 pinch of salt
- 125 ml of double cream, or condensed arla cravendale whole milk
Buttercream
- 200 g of unsalted butter, soft (take it out of the fridge when you start making the cake, so it’ll be soft by the time you make the icing)
- 400 g of icing sugar
- 1 dash of arla cravendale whole milk, if needed
Instructions
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Preheat the oven to 180 °C/gas mark 4.
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Grease and line two 9-inch sandwich tins To make the cake, place the dates in a saucepan with the tea and bring to the boil, then turn the heat down and leave to simmer for 5 minutes.
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You can, if you wish, blitz the dates and tea in a blender at this stage, for a smoother texture to your final cake, but it’s by no means essential Whisk the eggs, sugars and syrup together until pale and fluffy. Gradually whisk in the melted butter. Fold in the dates and vanilla.
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Sift all the dry ingredients over the top of the wet and fold together with a large metal spoon.
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Be careful not to knock the air out of the mixture Divide between the two tins and pop into the oven for around 35-40 minutes, or until an inserted skewer comes out clean While the cake is baking, make the toffee sauce.
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Place all the ingredients, except for the cream, into a saucepan and stir over a gentle heat until all the sugar has dissolved.
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Bring to a rolling boil, before stirring in the cream Prick the tops of your baked cakes all over with a skewer or cocktail stick before drizzling a generous amount of the toffee sauce over each cake (saving half for the buttercream).
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Leave the cakes to cool completely in their tins on top of a cooling rack, before turning out To make the buttercream, Simply whisk the butter until creamy and sift over and whisk in half of the icing sugar, before doing the same again with the second half (this stops it flying out of your bowl and covering your kitchen in icing sugar) Add the rest of the cold toffee sauce, reserving a couple of spoons’ worth to drizzle over the top, and whisk in.
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If the buttercream is too stiff, whisk in a little milk to slacken it slightly Sandwich the cakes together with half of the buttercream and spread the remaining on the top, before drizzling over the reserved toffee sauce
Notes
Imported from Mela.
