{"id":8310,"date":"2026-10-19T15:18:54","date_gmt":"2026-10-19T06:18:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/parade.kyoto\/?post_type=sweetlore&p=8310"},"modified":"2026-10-31T19:09:47","modified_gmt":"2026-10-31T10:09:47","slug":"sticky-toffee-pudding","status":"publish","type":"sweetlore","link":"https:\/\/parade.kyoto\/en\/sweetlore\/sticky-toffee-pudding\/","title":{"rendered":"Sticky Toffee Pudding"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A warm date cake is soaked with a rich sauce of dairy and sugar, and more sauce is poured over it on the plate. Sticky toffee pudding is a British dessert in which fruit is blended into the batter. Unlike a custard pudding that is chilled until set, it is a warm, soft cake finished with sauce. Its history brings together a home cookbook, a restaurant\u2019s reputation and a village\u2019s take-home product, and the names of several establishments and cooks appear in it.<\/p>\n

Tea or boiling water: blending dates into the batter<\/h2>\n

Among methods that soften dates in tea, one example soaks pitted, chopped dates in strong hot tea and turns the softened mixture into a paste. Rather than being scattered through as large pieces, the fruit goes into the batter together with its soaking liquid, so it blends into the fine brown crumb. Dates not only add sweetness but also blend into the batter, soft flesh and all.<\/p>\n

That batter is made by mixing butter and sugar, combining eggs, flour and a leavening agent, then adding the dates and baking. The toffee sauce is made separately by heating butter, brown sugar and rich cream. Because the process involves dissolving the sugar and then simmering, simply sprinkling sugar on the baked surface will not produce the same texture.<\/p>\n

In a method that adds molasses and softens the dates in hot water, molasses is added to the brown sugar in the batter, and the fruit is pur\u00e9ed with hot water and mixed in later. Baking powder goes into the fat mixture and baking soda into the fruit-and-water pur\u00e9e, so the two leavening agents are combined at different stages. The batter is divided into a fat-based portion and a fruit portion with a high moisture content, and the two portions are combined at the end.<\/p>\n

\n\"Sticky\n
Sticky toffee pudding at The Roundhill pub (September 24, 2023, location unknown). According to the author\u2019s description, it is served with miso caramel and vanilla ice cream. Photo: Andy Li \/ Wikimedia Commons<\/a> \/ CC0<\/a>. Reduced-size version obtained from Commons. Released under CC0 by the photographer. We have not altered or cropped the content.<\/figcaption>\n<\/figure>\n

There is also a method of slowly steaming the batter in a mold set in a pot. The dates are softened in hot water, combined with butter, eggs, flour and nuts, packed into a pudding mold and steamed. This is a home example in which the pudding is turned out of the mold and topped with sauce.<\/p>\n

Sauce soaked into the cake and sauce poured on top<\/h2>\n

When part of the sauce is soaked into the baked cake and the rest is served at the table, the sauce absorbed inside and the sauce left on the surface can be enjoyed together. There is also a method of poking holes and pouring in sauce so that the liquid reaches the interior. The way of eating it has been handed down: a baked cake containing dates combined with a separately made sauce of dairy and sugar, served warm.<\/p>\n

For a sauce that begins with caramel, sugar, butter and salt are heated to a deep amber before cream is poured in, and the sauce is simmered until thick enough to coat a spoon. Unlike the method of simmering brown sugar and cream together from the start, the heating that develops color comes before the dairy is added.<\/p>\n

\n\"Sticky\n
An example served at the Post House Cafe in Brighton (January 28, 2024). It is paired with rum butterscotch sauce and vanilla ice cream. Photo: Andy Li \/ Wikimedia Commons<\/a> \/ CC0<\/a>. Reduced-size version obtained from Commons. Released under CC0 by the photographer. We have not altered or cropped the content.<\/figcaption>\n<\/figure>\n

Warm cake and cold ice cream<\/h2>\n

Adding ice cream or cream brings contrasts in temperature and richness. Unlike a baked good handed over wrapped in paper, this dessert is complete only when it is plated and the sauce is poured over it. Even as you eat, the temperature and the way the sauce soaks in keep changing.<\/p>\n

In versions baked in individual ovenproof cups, there is no large cake to cut; each pudding is cooled in its container, turned out and topped with sauce. King Arthur also introduces a version that uses figs instead of dates. The dessert is not limited to a large date cake; it is also made with other fruits or in other baking containers.<\/p>\n

Mrs Martin\u2019s formula in a cookbook and the Sharrow Bay refinement<\/h2>\n

British cook Simon Hopkinson recalls that he learned of the recipe (the proportions of ingredients and the method) of Mrs Martin, who ran the Old Rectory in Claughton, Lancashire, from The Good Food Guide Dinner Party Book, published in 1971. In that recipe, the dates are softened in boiling water, and baking soda is added before they are used in the batter. A sauce of brown sugar, butter and cream is poured over the baked cake. His account of making it at his own restaurant in 1975 also shows one route by which the dessert passed from a home cookbook to a restaurant.<\/p>\n

Sharrow Bay Hotel in the Lake District was another place that spread the dessert\u2019s reputation in the 1970s. The chef at Sharrow Bay was Francis Coulson. In Hopkinson\u2019s comparison, Coulson\u2019s batter used more eggs and less flour than Mrs Martin\u2019s recipe, and the sauce in particular was different. It greatly increased the dairy cream and used demerara sugar and black treacle. The depth of the treacle and the generous amount of dairy were refinements that gave the sauce a distinctive richness as well.<\/p>\n

Two stories of a recipe passed on by a Canadian friend or airman<\/h2>\n

A connection with Canada is also told. Cubitt House, a present-day pub company, relates a story that Coulson\u2019s business partner Brian Sack received a handwritten recipe from a Canadian airman he met in the air force during the war, and that it contained maple syrup. The company also links this story to the similarity with Quebec\u2019s pouding ch\u00f4meur<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Hopkinson writes that he heard about a \u201cCanadian friend\u201d from Mrs Martin\u2019s son. Both Mrs Martin\u2019s dessert, which spread through a cookbook, and the hotel\u2019s history are accompanied by stories of a cook from across the ocean.<\/p>\n

\n\"A\n
Sticky toffee pudding cheesecake from Caff\u00e8 Nero (December 11, 2025, location unknown). A different dessert that incorporates the original warm pudding; according to the product description quoted by the author, it layers a biscuit base, sponge and a caramel cheese filling. Photo: Andy Li \/ Wikimedia Commons<\/a> \/ CC0<\/a>. Reduced-size version obtained from Commons. Released under CC0 by the photographer. We have not altered or cropped the content.<\/figcaption>\n<\/figure>\n

Carried from Cartmel to the home table<\/h2>\n

Cartmel Village Shop in Cumbria relates in its own history that it began baking the pudding in the kitchen behind the shop and selling it at the counter in front. Even after orders grew and the kitchen moved, it continued making the pudding by hand in small batches and expanded its sales to farm shops and grocers. This is an example of the dessert becoming established not only as a restaurant dish but also as a product to take home.<\/p>\n

The shop offers sizes ranging from individual portions to puddings for a family to share. Not being fixed to a single form is also a characteristic of this dessert. Whether the dates are softened in tea or in hot water, whether it is cut from a square pan or baked in small portions, and whether the sauce is soaked in or served separately all change how a warm pudding of the same name turns out.<\/p>\n

Glossary<\/h2>\n

Dates<\/strong>: The fruit of the date palm. The dried fruit is softened in hot liquid and added to the batter.<\/p>

Simon Hopkinson<\/strong>: A British cook and cookbook author. He also made, at his own restaurant, the dessert he had learned of from a cookbook.<\/p>

Mrs Martin<\/strong>: The cook who ran the Old Rectory in Lancashire and whose recipe was included in a 1971 cookbook.<\/p>

Francis Coulson \/ Brian Sack<\/strong>: The chef and the business partner associated with Sharrow Bay Hotel.<\/p>

Sharrow Bay \/ Cartmel<\/strong>: The former is a hotel in the Lake District; the latter is a village in Cumbria that popularized a take-home product.<\/p>

Demerara sugar<\/strong>: A brown sugar with coarse crystals and a molasses flavor.<\/p>

Pouding ch\u00f4meur<\/strong>: A Quebec dessert that combines a baked batter with a sugar sauce.<\/p>

Toffee<\/strong>: A confection made by heating sugar with butter, cream or similar ingredients. In this dessert, it is made into a sauce that stays fluid.<\/p>

References<\/h2>\n

  1. \u30fb\u3068\u3053\u304b\u3057\u3053\u306e\u304a\u83d3\u5b50\u4f5c\u308a\u306e\u65e5\u3005\u300c\u82f1\u56fd\u83d3\u5b50\u30b9\u30c6\u30a3\u30c3\u30ad\u30fc\u30c8\u30d5\u30a3\u30fc\u30d7\u30c7\u30a3\u30f3\u30b0\u306e\u5473\u306b\u9b45\u305b\u3089\u308c\u3066\u300d (Japanese blog: \u201cCaptivated by the Taste of the British Sweet Sticky Toffee Pudding\u201d)<\/a> \u2014 Lines 51\u201353, 63\u201397 and 107\u2013136. A home example made by the blogger, in which their own date batter is put in a mold, steamed in a pot and topped with toffee sauce.<\/p><\/li>

  2. \u30fbBBC Radio Berkshire, \u201cSticky Toffee Pudding\u201d<\/a> \u2014 A formula baked in a square pan; poking holes and pouring in sauce.\n\u30fbBBC Three Counties, \u201cWeekend Kitchen 1 February 2015\u201d<\/a> \u2014 Dates softened in tea; half of the sauce, and sauce served separately.\n\u30fbKing Arthur Baking, \u201cSticky Toffee Pudding\u201d<\/a> \u2014 Fruit and leavening agents, a sauce that begins with caramel, and the options of small cups and figs.\n\u30fbCartmel Village Shop, product information<\/a> \u2014 Product range from individual to family sizes.\n\u30fbThe Guardian \/ Simon Hopkinson, \u201cMrs Martin\u2019s moment of genius\u201d<\/a> \u2014 Mrs Martin\u2019s recipe in the 1971 cookbook that the cook himself read, and his own making of it in 1975.\n\u30fbThe Independent \/ Simon Hopkinson, \u201cFood: By George, it\u2019s good\u201d<\/a> \u2014 A 1999 report stating that the 1971 edition records Mrs Martin\u2019s establishment and the 1976 edition records Sharrow Bay\u2019s reputation. This is not a direct check against the original guides, and the places that popularized the dessert are distinguished from its place of invention.\n\u30fbCartmel Village Shop, history<\/a> \u2014 From in-shop production to expanded sales channels.<\/p><\/li>

  3. \u30fbCubitt House, \u201cSticky Toffee Pudding: The Quintessential British Dessert & Sunday Lunch Staple\u201d<\/a> \u2014 The story presented by the company of Sack, a Canadian airman, a handwritten recipe and maple. The actual handwritten recipe and its contents have not been verified. The \u201cCanadian friend\u201d that Mrs Martin\u2019s son told Hopkinson about and Sack\u2019s story of the air force airman are kept as separate traditions.<\/p><\/li><\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    In sticky toffee pudding, a brown sauce envelops a warm baked cake. This British dessert is not a custard pudding chilled until set. It is a dish of soft cake made with dates and a rich toffee sauce.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":7022,"menu_order":65,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_parade_sweetlore_meta":{"en":"Sticky Toffee Pudding","subtitle":"A British sweet of warm date cake topped with toffee sauce","topics":"Dates \/ Warm baked cake \/ Toffee sauce \/ Pudding","country":"United Kingdom","show_toc":true,"ingredients":["fruit"],"texture":[],"occasion":[],"method":["baked"],"season":[]},"footnotes":""},"sweetlore_category":[164],"class_list":["post-8310","sweetlore","type-sweetlore","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"acf":{"sweetlore_related_products":null,"sweetlore_related_faqs":null,"sweetlore_related_voices":null,"sweetlore_related_mode":"manual","sweetlore_related_articles":[8325,8272,8273,8280,8281,8282,8290,8322]},"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t