Well my husband came home slightly intoxicated tonight. First question: Do we have any more pie? Me: haha no you ate it all last night. Hubby: (standing in front of fridge) I’m going to make sticky date pudding!! Me: (staring in disbelief) um, okay? Do you want me to make you something? Hubby: (guilty look) Yes please baby!!

Haha OK that is a slightly shortened version but he is really cute. And a huge fan of toothsome desserts with fruit. So we didn’t have very many dates, and I hugely improvised this recipe with amazing success

Pudding:
100g dried dates (pitted)
150g sultanas – you can vary the quantities of the sultanas/dates as long as they add up to 250g.
1 tsp baking soda
250ml/1 cup water

125g butter at room temp
1 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 eggs
1 3/4 cups flour

Coconut Caramel Sauce:
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup water
1 cup coconut cream

Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius. Place dates, raisin and baking soda into a bowl. Pour over boiling water. Using an electric mixer, beat butter, sugar and vanilla until pale and creamy. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Fold through date mixture and flour until just combined.

Spoon mixture into casserole dish or cake pan. Bake for 30 to 40 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Pierce holes in top with a skewer and then pour some of the syrup over the top.

To make the sauce: place sugar and water in a heavy based saucepan. Heat over medium heat until dissolved, stirring often with a wooden spoon. Once all the sugar is dissolved, stop stirring and heat until mixture turns golden brown. This will take about 8 minutes, but I looked away and mine burnt slightly.

Once it is brown, pour in coconut cream. It will bubble and sizzle like crazy but stir it anyway for about 3 minutes until all incorporated and thickened. Remove from heat and store leftovers in a jar in the fridge.

Adapted from “Ladies, a Plate” by Alexa Johnston..

shortcake:

170g/6oz butter
115g/4oz sugar
1 egg
250g/2 cups flour
1 tbsp cocoa
1 tsp baking powder

caramel filling:

390g/1 tin condensed milk
100g/4 tbsp golden syrup
115g/4oz butter
1/2 cup sugar
vanilla to taste

icing:

120g/1 cup icing sugar
2 tbsp cocoa
1 tbsp butter

Preheat the oven to 400F/200C and line a 12×8 tin. Make the filling by combining filling ingredients in a saucepan over low heat until all mixed together.

Cream the butter and sugar together and beat in the egg. Add the sifted dry ingredients and vanilla and mix to a dough. Divide in half and chill for about 15 minutes.

Roll one half out and place in the prepared tin. Pour over the caramel filling. Roll out the second half and place on top.

Bake for 20 minutes of until firm on top. Ice while hot with the chocolate icing, made by combining the icing sugar and cocoa with the butter (melted) and enough hot water to make spreadable. I think a better option would be melted chocolate.

My rolling skills are poor!!

Base cupcake: Almond cupcakes
Filling: Caramel (1 tin of condensed milk, 2 tbsp golden syrup, 30g butter – heat until thick then cool)
Icing: Basic Buttercream
Topping: Crispy M&M’s speckled eggs and coconut.

Recipe here. Just line mini cheesecake pans (with the removable bottom – mine are “Bakers Secret”) with a round of baking paper and grease sides.