Delicious Date and Apple Pudding with Toffee Sauce - Great for any night of the week!

What is it about winter's nights that leave us longing for warm comforting puddings? I've been looking for a good sticky date pudding for a while now, without much success. I adapted this one from a Countdown Food magazine recipe. The original recipe picture looked a little dry, so I adjusted some of the measurements and added some granny smith apples to make this little beauty.

The cake itself makes an excellent pudding served warm or a cake at any other time of the day. The caramel toffee sauce is really easy to make and could be used as an accompaniment for all sorts of pudding options.

Date and Apple Pudding with Toffee Sauce

200g dates - chopped

3/4 cup boiling water

1 teaspoon ground ginger

1 teaspoon baking soda

2 granny smith, or similar cooking apple

150g butter

150g brown sugar

3 eggs

250g flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

Toffee Sauce

50g butter

250g brown sugar

250ml cream

Preheat the oven to 175deg. C and line a large cake tin with baking paper.

In a small bowl combine the chopped dates, boiling water and ground ginger. Stir and set aside to cool and soften.

Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs, at room temperature, one at a time and beat after each addition.

Peel, core and chop the apples. This step needs to be done quickly so the apples don't start to brown.

Stir the sifted flour and baking powder into the creamed butter and sugar. 

Then add the baking soda into the dates and fold into the batter with the chopped apple pieces.

Pour the batter into the cake pan.

Bake for 25 to 30 minutes until a skewer inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean, the cake is golden in colour and springs back when pressed.

While the cake is baking make the Toffee sauce by combining the butter, brown sugar and cream in a medium saucepan. Stir until the butter and sugar are melted and simmer for about 5 minutes until the mixture thickens a little.

Allow the sauce to cool a little before serving as it will be molten hot. Pour the sauce into a jug or boat and let you friends or family serve themselves.

Let the cake cool for about 20 minutes before taking it from the tin as it will easily break while hot from the oven. 

Serve in squares with the toffee sauce, cream or ice cream.

This a quite a large cake so you might need to invite a crowd. Otherwise, the cake is equally delicious served cold in lunch boxes, or you can re-heat it in the microwave and have another round of pudding.

Happy baking!