Happy New Year! It’s the first day of 2026, and to welcome in the New Year we have a new recipe!
I feel like people generally dislike winter, but I love it. Fall is still my favorite, but winter is definitely runner up. There’s always the hope of snow, and I love the coziness of winter. Plus, I think winter is a great season for baking. For January and February I always try to make cozy and comforting recipes to warm you up during the colder weather. And sticky toffee pudding is a personal favorite!
I posted a sticky toffee pudding in January last year, and it still stands as one of my favorites. This version is flavored with more classic winter flavors, orange and spices. I feel like orange is most often used in the summer, but citrus is really a winter flavor, so I never pass up the opportunity to use citrus in the winter.
Describe this Pudding to Me
Taste: The pudding itself is infused with orange flavor from the zest, which compliments the sweet dates and vanilla. The toffee sauce is flavored with warming spices like cinnamon, ginger, cloves, and cardamom which bring out the cozy, wintery flavor.
Texture: The pudding has a soft, fluffy texture on top, while the bottom is gooey and sticky where the toffee is baked into the cake. This pudding is served warm, so the two different textures work together perfectly, especially if you top the pudding with more warm toffee sauce.
Ease: This pudding is pretty simple to make, although it does generate a good amount of dishes. We start by making the toffee which comes together by bringing all of the ingredients to a boil on the stove. Then we move onto the pudding which comes together with three parts; the dates, the dry ingredients, and the wet ingredients. Once all of that gets mixed together, all that’s left is to bake the pudding on top of a bed of toffee.
The Toffee Sauce
The toffee sauce is what makes this dessert so cozy and comforting, and the great news is that it doesn’t take long to throw together. All it is is heavy cream, brown sugar, molasses, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, cardamom, vanilla, and a pinch of salt, boiled in a big pot on the stove. Unlike a custard, there’s no tempering or delicate structures so it’s very simple but oh so delicious.
The Pudding
This pudding comes together from three parts, the date mixture, the dry ingredients, and the wet ingredients. We start by cooking the dates slightly in water with a little baking soda, which softens the dates and lets them melt into the batter. Then the rest of the batter is much like a cake, a mix of dry ingredients, followed by wet ingredients. We mix all of that together with the dates and bake it on top of the custard.
Spiced Orange Sticky Toffee Pudding
Ingredients
Spiced Toffee Sauce
- 2 cups heavy cream
- ½ cup brown sugar
- 2 ½ Tablespoons molasses
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon ginger
- ½ teaspoon cloves
- ½ teaspoon cardamom
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- a pinch of salt
Pudding
- 6 ounces pitted dates chopped
- 1 cup water
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 ¼ cups all purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- a pinch of salt
- ¾ cup granulated sugar
- zest of one orange
- ¼ cup unsalted butter at room temperature
- 2 large eggs at room temperature
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
Instructions
- Grease a 7×11 inch baking pan with butter. Set aside. Preheat the oven to 350℉.
Make the toffee sauce
- In a medium sized saucepan, stir together the cream, brown sugar, molasses, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, cardamom, vanilla, and salt. Bring the mixture to a boil on high heat, then turn the heat down to medium low and simmer for five minutes stirring constantly. The sauce should thicken a little during this time, enough to coat the back of a wooden spoon. Remove from the heat and pour half of the sauce into the previously prepared baking pan, and the other half in a small bowl. Set the baking pan in the freezer so the sauce can firm up while we make the batter. Set aside the toffee in the bowl to be used as a topping later.
Make the pudding
- Heat the dates and water in a medium sized saucepan over high heat. Once the water starts boiling, remove from the heat and stir in the baking soda. Set aside to cool slightly while we make the rest of the batter.
- In a medium sized bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.
- Place the sugar and orange zest in a large mixing bowl, and rub them together using your hands to release the oil in the zest. Add the butter and, using a hand or stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, cream together the butter and orange sugar on medium heat until fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, mixing after each. Stir in the vanilla. With the mixer running on low speed add half of the dry ingredients into the butter mixture, mixing until almost combined. Add half of the date mixture, mixing until almost combined. Repeat with the second half of both mixtures.
- Remove the baking pan with the toffee in it from the freezer. It should be thickened, but not rock hard. Pour the batter on top of the toffee and spread into an even layer. It's ok if the toffee mixes with the batter a little bit, but try to avoid it. Bake the cake for 40-45 minutes or until an inserted toothpick comes out with only a few moist crumbs. Let the cake cool for 5 minutes before scooping into bowls and serving warm with a scoop of vanilla ice cream and a generous spoonful of the reserved toffee sauce on top. If the toffee sauce has thickened, microwave for 20 seconds or so until it reaches a pourable consistency.