Sticky toffee pudding

Let me put it this way: when you tread on ice you can end up on your… Yes, you can fall over. That’s the politically correct way to put it. So I’m afraid I’m treading on ice today. Kaja’s third guest recipe. For the one you see below, as well as the vegan fritters and the date purée, Kaja has started writing introductions. Yes, of course her favourite character is a certain Mr J. That part doesn’t worry me. But what if she takes over my blog?

Guest appearances are pretty common at concerts. Still, you don’t let the guest sing for half the show, do you? Take Kult’s unplugged gig, which I’ve been listening to lately (as I mentioned in the vegan fritters post). Dr Yry comes on stage and starts his intro as if he were commander-in-chief of Kazik’s army. He even takes the liberty of commenting on Kazik’s looks. It sounds great. It goes something like this: before inviting him up, Kazik says the show is being filmed and he’s been told to look left and then right so the cameras get him full-face. Then Yry comes out and says, “They said I could look wherever I like… I’m better-looking!” (compare the two gentlemen’s looks here).

And that’s the thing. You’ve probably noticed that Kaja is much younger than me (almost a decade), so she writes in a language even kids in junior high can probably understand. Plus she writes healthy recipes (on Prymitywna Kuchnia, no less!). Above all, though, she takes better photos of her dishes. That’s the little dig at me. So Kaja, here’s my plea. I’ll gladly invite you back onto the Prymitywna Kuchnia stage many more times, but please, just once, just one single time, take an ugly photo of one of your dishes. You nearly managed it with the vegan fritters, but that doesn’t count. The photo was fine. It was the fritters that were burnt :p

And do keep writing about Mr J. The stage is yours, Kaja.

Oh, and I must distance myself from that half-marathon. The word alone tires me out, so I took it out of the recipe title. Such is the prerogative of Primitive Censorship – sorry, Kitchen.

“Last year I ran the Warsaw Half Marathon. I like to celebrate occasions like that. I thought I’d make a really good cake to mark it, so I went looking online for ideas and came across sticky toffee pudding. Apparently it’s a traditional British bake. Perfect, I thought, for replacing all those carbs I’d used up. The cake is at its best while it’s still warm (so the internet said), so I decided to save the pleasure of baking for after the race.

For anyone who doesn’t know, let me remind you that the 8th Warsaw Half Marathon was held in March, at minus 5 degrees! My fingers were frozen and so were my eyeballs (at least the cold made me run faster, and I finished in 2 h instead of my planned 2:10). At the finish line there was a little dish specially prepared by Ms Gessler waiting for me: frozen pasta with sun-dried tomatoes and an apple, also frozen.

So when I got home I accepted the congratulations, took a warm shower and got to work. The cake was delicious! It’s one of those cakes that absolutely everybody likes. Also one of those you can’t resist and can’t stop eating (proof below).

I’ve made it on a few more occasions since then, including my 26th birthday (the one I just celebrated J). Well, let’s just say the guests licked the tin clean (literally). One of them was on a diet and asked for some cake to take home for his family. Of course I packed him 4 pieces. I like as many people as possible to try my baking. I rather expected a text that night full of praise and thanks, but nothing came. Nothing the next day either. Later it turned out half the cake had disappeared on the drive across the Siekierkowski Bridge. The rest was hidden at the back of the fridge and polished off the next day. The family were never meant to find out there’d been any cake…”

At a glance: 

Preparation time: 30 minutes

Baking time: 40 minutes

Oven temperature: 180 degrees Celsius

Cooling time: that’s the beauty of it, you can eat it straight from the oven

Serves: hmm, plenty. This makes a medium tinful. Enough for a small party.

Calories: more of a teracalorie affair

Ingredients for getting your energy back after the Warsaw Half Marathon:

• 200 g dried dates
• 300 ml water
• 100 g butter (at room temperature)
• 100 g dark muscovado cane sugar (it has to be this one! Light won’t do. You’ll find it in most shops, certainly at Alma)
• 2 eggs
• 200 g wheat flour
• a pinch of salt (chefs always tell you to add it, supposedly it brings out the sweetness)
• 1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
• 2 teaspoons baking powder

Sauce:

• 250 ml whipping cream (yes, the 36% fat kind)
• 300 g dark muscovado cane sugar

Recipe (for sticky toffee pudding):

Start with the dates (they need to cool before they go into the batter). Put them in a saucepan with the water, add the bicarbonate of soda and boil for 10 minutes. Blend together with the cooking water until smooth and leave to cool (20 minutes should do it).

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees (Celsius – note from Prymitywna Kuchnia).

Meanwhile put the sugar (100g) in a bowl and beat it with the butter until smooth. Add the eggs one at a time and beat well again. Add the flour, baking powder and salt and beat again. Finally pour in the date mixture and once again… mix. Done. Pour the batter into a medium baking tin lined with baking paper (I used a traditional rectangular one, as in the photo). Bake for about 40-45 minutes (there’s a bit more to it than that, as I’ll explain in a moment).

While the cake is in the oven, heat the cream with the remaining sugar in a saucepan. It only needs to boil briefly. After 25 minutes of baking, the cake should have risen. Open the oven a little, prick the cake all over at fairly close intervals with a skewer (a kebab skewer will do), and pour some of the sauce evenly over it. Half is ideal, but don’t let it overflow. Continue baking and pour on the rest of the sauce after another 10 minutes. Bake for a few minutes more. In the end the cake should look as if it’s covered in lava (the sauce should coat it).

Warm, it’s perfect with good vanilla ice cream. But if anyone can hold out that long, it’s delicious cold too! Enjoy!