Both had a lot in common. Dark, difficult to resist, tender yet coarse on the lips, and coped well under intense heat and pressure. Satisfying. Now, my partner and I have an agreement - we're both allowed to experiment. I like spontaneity, whereas my partner is more calculated with his choices. So I tentatively approached him with the news. How does one bring up the fact they're involved with TWO at the same time?!
Well, he got that handful of caution and threw it to the wind! He joined in! This is how things got a little ... sticky. But stickiness is difficult to avoid when cream and butterscotch sauce are involved.
Neither lasted long; though that comes as no surprise considering we've both got a track record of leaving no trace of the dental-caries-inducing desserts I bake. Especially considering sticky date pudding is one of our favourites...
What? Dessert -- pudding -- food? What did you think this post was about?!
Us.
Here's some SFW evidence of the dark and saucy sticky date puddings I laboured over. The first is (supposed to be) a Sticky Date Roll from p196, the second is a Chocolate Sticky Date Cake from AWW Bake p50.
The sugar crystals are there because, for some reason, the recipe stipulates rolling the cooked cake in sugar before icing. The obesity epidemic is a myth.
Butterscotch - it is the best of sauces, it is the blurst of sauces
The chocolate was better, because woman opinion. The butterscotch cream is high on the list though.
As recommended:
- Don't process the dates completely; I left the pits to be a bit chunkier second time 'round, and the date flavour was more pronounced.
-Don't bother using the expensive Cadbury's cocoa. Coles brand cocoa is a tad bitter, but that's fine in sugar-rich recipes like these.
- Make sure your blender is big enough to process the mixture. Though having hot-eggy-date mix spewed at you with impressive alacrity and precision makes a good story... if in doubt, divide the batch in two and process separately.
- You can freeze this cake in individual wedges for later. It'll keep for three months in the freezer, or a few days covered in the fridge. Microwave it for 30-40 seconds.
- You can keep the butterscotch sauce for up to a month, although it will solidify in the cold fridge. Just stir it every few days to, er, freshen it up/spread around the bacterial growth. Ahem.
- For the roll, use a proper pan. I didn't (HAVE YOU SEEN HOW EXPENSIVE SWISS ROLL PANS ARE THESE DAYS?!) use one; instead opting for a regular slice pan. It wasn't thin enough and didn't roll. Hence why the photo is decidely not roll-like.
- Don't drink the butterscotch sauce. More a snippet of good life advice than a recipe recommendation really.
The chocolate sticky date recipe is available from AWW's website here.
INGREDIENTS
1 1/3 cups (200g) coarsely chopped dried dates1¾ cups (430ml) water
1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
80g butter, softened
2/3 cup (150g) caster sugar
2 eggs
1 cup (150g) self-raising flour
1/3 cup (35g) cocoa powder
2/3 cup (70g) roasted pecans, chopped
Butterscotch sauce
1¼ cups (280g) firmly packed brown sugar
80g butter
300ml cream
HOW TO MAKE FRIENDS (Or simply, how to bake this cake)
1. Preheat oven to 180°C/160°C fanforced. Grease deep 22cm-round cake pan; line base with baking paper.
2. Combine dates and the water in small saucepan; bring to the boil. Remove from heat, add soda; cover, stand 5 minutes. Blend or process until smooth.
3. Beat butter and sugar in small bowl with electric mixer until combined. Beat in eggs, one at a time (mixture will curdle at this stage). Transfer mixture to large bowl; stir in sifted flour and cocoa, then stir in nuts and warm date mixture, in two batches. Pour mixture into pan.
4. Bake cake about 1 hour. Stand cake in pan 10 minutes; turn onto serving plate.
5. Make butterscotch sauce; serve hot sauce with cake and whipped cream,
Butterscotch sauce
Stir ingredients in saucepan over heat, without boiling, until sugar dissolves. Simmer, without stirring, 3 minutes.
Devour.
Don't overfill it like this. Trust me.
Whipped cream + a few tbs butterscotch sauce
Use a Swiss Roll pan. This is not a Swiss Roll pan.
Half-blend the dates for more texture.
Try not to eat it raw. Or do. I know I did - I mean, what?
FUN FACT: Most dates sold in Australia come from Iran. Iran ranks second in the world for production of dates.
Any other tips (or fun facts) to add?
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