The Best Sticky Date Cake with Toffee Sauce
Who is Donna Hay? Donna Hay is Australia’s leading food editor and best-selling cookbook author. Her food, recipes and styling focuses on basic ingredients, simply prepared and beautifully photographed – hallmarks of her work which have set the benchmark for food publishing worldwide and inspired a whole new generation of cooks.
She is the editor of donna hay magazine, a highly acclaimed, top-selling bi-monthly food magazine with tremendous local success and far-reaching international appeal. Each issue of the magazine has over 384,000 Australian readers, has subscribers in 82 countries around the world and is the top-selling international food magazine in American bookstores Barnes & Noble and Borders. -Source Dona Hay.com-
She is my favorite food stylist and recipe developer, her magazine is a gem. Grab it if you see it. I guess she is one of my major inspiration, the style, the different cuisine from Asian to Italian to fast-healthy food…
I ate a wonderful Sticky Date cake with toffee on New years day at “Chez George” restaurant in la Jolla, CA.
It was served with homemade Vanilla ice cream and oranges segments. what a great combination.
I was so in love with this cake that I decided to make it and one day
I was just staring at one of Donna Hay magazines and spotted a gorgeous Sticky date cake with toffee sauce….so I made it and I am so glad I did.
Sticky Date Cake with toffee sauce
Adapted from Dona Hay Recipe
1 ½ cup (210g) chopped pitted Medjol dates
1 cup (250ml) boiling water
1 tsp baking soda
6 Tbsp butter, cubbed
¾ cup (135g) brown sugar
2 organic eggs
1 cup plain flour sifted with 1½ tsp baking powder + pinch of salt
double (thick) cream
Toffee sauce
7 Tbsp 150g butter, cubed
1 cup (250ml) heavy cream
1 ½ cup 133g brown sugar
2 drops vanilla extract
Preheat oven to 355ºF. Place the dates, water and baking soda in a bowl and allow to stand for 5 minutes. Place the date mixture in the bowl of a food processor with the butter and sugar and process until well combined. Add the eggs and flour and process until just combined. Grease a springform cake pan or a normal round cake tin with butter and pour the batter in it
Bake for 30–35 minutes or until cooked when tested with a skewer. Cool in the tin for 10 minutes. Cut into squares.To make the toffee sauce, place butter, cream, vanilla and sugar in a saucepan over medium heat and stir until butter is melted. Bring to the boil and cook for 5 minutes or until thickened slightly. Spoon over puddings and top with cream. Serves 6-8.
Once the cake is done, when its still warm, poke holes with a skewer and pour the sauce over, allowing the cake to absorb it. Serve slightly warm or at room temperature.
Do yourself a favor and bake this today Don’t skip the toffee sauce, the cake will definitely not taste as good without it… it was a big hit by everyone who tasted it. Will do it again…. soon. And well wrapped it can be delicious for a couple of days.
Nadia
I tried this donna hay recipe and it turned out so well! I cooked it in a steamer as I don’t have an oven and used about 180 gms dates as that’s all I had in hand and lessened the flour by about a half tablespoon or so. I also added a small handful of raisins which have been neglected on my counter for a while! My family just loved it.
Aysha Anderson
The thick double cream when do you use it.Is it for later to put on top of the sauce ????