I love a good sticky toffee pudding, don’t you? This date cake evolved from a sticky toffee pudding with a few substitutions. This is a recipe that we have worked on since our last family get-together (Family supper club). It is wonderfully moist and spongey with a familiar toffee flavour. We like it best served warm with vanilla ice cream, but it’s also great served plain as an afternoon treat for coffee (or tea) time. Feel free to omit the asian inclusions if you don’t have them on hand, but we thought they made a really nice pairing.

How can something so simple be so good? The answer is a thin layer of caramelized sugar on top of a perfectly cooked custard. A student of mine wanted to make this at home for his family, so we started testing some recipes. I usually get a few students a year wanting to do this, but often enough – either from using a random recipe from the internet or not having the know-how to reduce our chances of error – we don’t get good results. Crème brûlée is so simple, and if done correctly it will be super tasty. That didn’t happen the first (few) time(s) though, lol.