My grandad’s favourite pudding is a sticky toffee pudding, for his birthday I made him a Sticky Toffee Cake, I have included a picture of Grandad’s cake at the bottom.  I have made a variation for you here.

Usually Sticky Toffee would call for dates, however my sister hates them with a passion and isn’t too keen on dried fruit, so in this cake I have used raisins and liquidized them to disguise the fact they are in there. You can use them whole, or use chopped dates or sultanas, all will be good.

I have used a Bundt tin to cook this cake, if you don’t have a Bundt then 2 x 18cm cake tins will work just as well, sandwich the sponges together with a butter cream icing and a layer of the toffee sauce, then drizzle the remaining toffee sauce over the top will make a perfect cake!

You will need:

• 200g Raisins
• 200ml Boiling water
• 1tsp Vanilla essence
• 1tbsp Coco powder
• 1 tsp Bicarbonate of Soda
• 100g Butter
• 160g Caster sugar
• 3 Eggs – beaten
• 180g self raising flour

Toffee Sauce:

• 100g Butter
• 140g Soft brown sugar
• 100ml Double cream
• 50g Walnut pieces

Method:

• Grease you Bundt tin and preheat the oven to 170degrees C
• Liquidize the raisins, boiling water, vanilla essence, coco powder and bicarbonate of soda together and leave to one side.
• Cream the butter and sugar together, until it becomes pale and fluffy.
• Add the beaten eggs a little at a time mixing well after each addition.
• Sift the flour and fold this in.
• Fold in the liquidized mixture; this will make the mixture quite sloppy.
• Pour the mixture into your prepared tin.
• Cook for about 30 – 35mins or until a skewer comes out clean when inserted in to the cake.
• Leave to cool in the tin for 5mins then turn out on to a wire cooling rack.
• While this is cooling you can make the toffee sauce.

Toffee Sauce:

• Put all the ingredients into a medium sized saucepan and heat over a low heat until the butter has melted.
• Gradually increase the heat and bring to the boil and boil for 2mins, stir occasionally to make sure the sauce mixture is not sticking to the pan.
• Make sure the cake is completely cooled before pouring the toffee sauce over.
• Put the cake on the plate or stand you are going to serve on, gently pour over the cake allowing the sauce to drip down both sides and fill the middle.
• Sprinkle the top with walnuts.
• Serve straight away for a sticky soft sauce or wait an hour for a firmer more set toffee sauce.