Rich sticky date cake with buttery caramel sauce

What is it about the combination of sticky date cake and caramel sauce that’s just so damn good every time?! The beautiful thing about this recipe is that it’s easy to whip up, with the all the ingredients for the cake being thrown into one bowl and mixed together with a wooden spoon before being poured into the cake tin. The caramel sauce is ready in a matter of minutes and once the cake is done you can pour the warm sauce over the top of each slice. It’s great with a big scoop of vanilla bean ice cream or with a generous pouring of cream. Yum!

Ingredients

• 1½ cups pitted dates, chopped
• 1/3 tsp bicarb soda
• 80g butter
• 1 cup boiling water
• 1½ cups self-raising flour
• ¾ cup brown sugar
• 2 eggs, lightly beaten

Caramel sauce

• 1 cup brown sugar
• 100g butter
• ¾ cup single cream

1. Preheat oven to 180C and line a 20cm square cake tin with baking paper. Place dates, bicarb soda and butter in a bowl, add the boiling water and leave for 5 minutes.

2. Sift the flour into a separate bowl and add sugar. Stir in date mixture and eggs and mix until well combined. Pour mixture into prepared cake tin and bake for 40 minutes or until cooked when tested with a skewer.

3. To make caramel sauce, place all ingredients in a small saucepan over medium heat and stir until combined. Let it simmer for 5 minutes or until thickened slightly. Serve the cake with warm caramel sauce. Serves 10 to 12.