Sticky Toffee Cake

The king of desserts cakeified 🤎

I am a firm believer that sticky toffee pudding (STP) is the best thing to come out of this stupid little rainy island. It’s everything I want in a dessert so it’s only natural that I tried to turn it into a cake. This was actually one of the first cakes I developed when I started getting into layer cakes, I’ve tweaked it since but the base elements have always stayed the same; sticky date cake, brown butter Swiss meringue buttercream and caramel. I really love this cake, it’s a crowd pleaser without being too boring, the brown butter adds depth of flavour that works so well with the caramel the sticky toffee sponge. The sponge itself is adapted from a standard sticky toffee pudding recipe and it’s so easy, if I’m making the cake for someone else I often double the sponge and caramel measurements and proceed to stuff my face with STP morning, noon and night, preferable with a large portion of vanilla ice cream.

Variations

A quick note on variations before we start, all of my recipes can be customised to suit your personal preferences but if you’re stuck and want to try something new here are a few suggestions.

• Add chopped nuts into the sponge or between the layers, I used roasted pecans in this cake! I find the nuts help to balance out some of the sweetness.

• If you’re a fan of sesame add 100g of tahini to the buttercream.

• Leave out the caramel if you want it less sweet.

• Make in an 8 inch tin if you don’t feel confident building a tall cake, you might have to bake it for an extra 5-10 minutes so keep an eye on it!

• Use light brown sugar instead of dark brown sugar if you prefer a lighter, less treacly flavour.

Ingredients

Sticky Toffee Sponge

220g chopped dates

220g boiling water

1tsp bicarbonate of soda

100g butter (80g brown butter)

80g dark brown sugar

2 large eggs

150g plain flour

2tsp baking powder

2tsp mixed spice (optional)

1/4tsp salt

Brown Butter Muscovado Caramel

200g caster sugar

50g muscovado sugar

250g double cream

100g butter (80g brown butter)

5g salt

Brown Butter Buttercream

200g dark brown sugar

100g egg whites

150g soft butter

200g butter (180g brown butter)

Pinch of salt

Method

• Because every element of this recipe uses brown butter, I find it easiest to brown all of the butters at once and then divide it. Start by browning 400g of butter, if you want to know more about brown butter, click here. Once the butter is browned weigh it out for each recipe, it should be the right amount but if you’re slightly short, just top it up with some regular butter.

Sticky Toffee Sponge

• While the butter is browning, soak the dates in the boiling water with the bicarbonate of soda, leave them to soak for about 5 minutes.

• Line two 6 inch tins with baking paper and set the oven to 160°C.

• Once your dates are soaked and cooled slightly add the melted brown butter, sugar and eggs and blend, this can be done in a machine or with a hand blender.

• Add the dry ingredients and blend again until there are no lumps of flour.

• Divide evenly between the two tins, mine were 400g per tin.

• Bake at 160°C for 35 minutes, until a skewer comes out clean.

• Remove from the tins when cool enough, cling film and leave in the fridge until ready to use.

  

Brown Butter Muscovado Caramel

• Next, make the caramel. Start by setting aside the 80g of brown butter and weighing the sugars separately.

• Heat the cream either in a pan or the microwave, it needs to be just below boiling. If you have an old, empty vanilla pod hanging around, chuck it in, if you don’t, don’t worry!

• To make the caramel add a small amount of caster sugar to a pan, just enough to cover the base of the pan, put on a medium-high heat and heat until all of the sugar crystals have melted and its started to turn golden brown, add a little more caster sugar and heat until it’s all dissolved and there are no lumps.

• Continue this process until all of the caster sugar has been added.

• Once all of the caster sugar is in cook the caramel until it’s a rich amber colour and it’s starting to smoke, this is where all the caramel flavour is coming from so make sure it’s nice and dark, don’t be afraid to turn the heat down if you’re worried about burning it!

• Add the muscovado sugar, it will bubble a bit, don’t worry. Cook until the muscovado sugar has completely dissolved. At this point I like to switch to a whisk to help break up any lumps.

• Remove from the heat and add the warm cream whilst whisking continuously, it will boil loads and create a tonne of steam so watch your hands. whisk vigorously until the cream is fully incorporated and there aren’t any lumps.

• Add the salt and the brown butter, leave to cool.

Brown Butter Buttercream

• Set aside 180g of brown butter.

• Combine the dark brown sugar and the egg whites and heat over a pan of just simmering water until the sugar has dissolved and the mixture has reaches 70°C.

• Transfer to a stand mixture and whisk until stiff peaks have formed and the meringue is cool.

• Add the regular softened butter first and whisk until combined, followed by the brown butter, the brown butter should be somewhere between liquid and set when you add it in, if it’s got too cold, just pop it in the microwave for a few seconds.

• Continue whisking until the butter is fully incorporated and you have a nice smooth buttercream.

Assembly

• Make sure all of your components are chilled and the right consistency before starting.

• Cut the hump off each of the sponges and enjoy as a little snack - you deserve it!

• Cut each sponge in half so you have four evenly sized layers.

• Spread a layer of buttercream, making sure theres extra at the edges to hold the caramel, I weighed my buttercream for each layer, for a 6” cake I used 90g of buttercream.

• Add a layer of caramel and nuts if using.

• Repeat until all the layers have been used. If you notice it starting to slip at any point refrigerate for at least half an hour before continuing.

• Once the cake is fully constructed, chill before adding the finishing layer of buttercream.

• Add the final layer of buttercream and decorate how you like! I used a large open star tip to pipe a buttercream dam and create a caramel river.