Ingredients
200g dates
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
150ml boiling water 
1 tsp vanilla extract 
85g butter 
100g light muscovado sugar 
40g caster sugar
2 eggs 
175g self raising flour 
100ml milk  
2 tbsp black treacle

Butterscotch Sauce 
175g light muscovado sugar 
50g butter 
225ml double cream 
1 tbsp black treacle

Method
Heat the oven to 180c. 

Stone and cut the dates small.  Put the dates in a bowl and add the bicarb then mix through the boiling water. Leave for 30 minutes to soften and then mix and mash with a fork. Stir through the vanilla extract.

In a stand mixer, beat the butter and sugars for a couple of minutes until soft and creamy.  Add the eggs one at a time, thoroughly mixing after each.  Add the treacle and dates and mix again.  Put in one third of the flour and very briefly mix then add half of the milk and again briefly mix through. Repeat with the flour, milk, flour.

9 times out of 10 the mixture looks slightly curdled at some point during in this process, don’t fret though it comes back together and still turns out perfectly.

I like to use 180ml pudding basins which I butter and then coat with flour.  Butter each pudding tin, put 2 tbsps of flour in one tin, you then want to move the flour around the edges coating them while tipping the flour into the next tin this is what stops the little puddings sticking.

Tip the batter into the little moulds, taking care to clean the edges if you get batter on them.

Put them on a baking tray and cook until golden which is 20-25 minutes depending on your oven.  They should be risen and a cocktail stick or skewer should come out clean.

Meanwhile make your toffee sauce.  Put the sugar, butter, half of the cream and the black treacle into a small saucepan and gently cook until the sugar dissolves.  Once the sugar has dissolved you want to bubble the sauce for 2 minutes.  Remove from the heat and stir in the rest of the cream.

When the puddings are cooked, cover them in the sauce and serve!

If you want to make these in advance then they become more sticky the longer you leave them. These heat up perfectly either in the oven for 15-20 minutes until bubbling and hot or in the microwave for a minute.

- Original recipe by Angela Nilsen and taken from The Ultimate Recipe Book