Sticky toffee pudding

Sticky toffee pudding is an English dessert consisting of a moist sponge cake covered in a toffee sauce, often served with a vanilla custard or vanilla ice cream.^[1] It is widely served in the Lake District in northwest England, where it is a culinary symbol.^[2]

Sticky toffee pudding

Sticky toffee pudding, served with sauce and vanilla ice cream
Alternative names	Sticky date pudding
Type	Pudding
Course	Dessert
Place of origin	England
Region or state	Northern England
Main ingredients	Sponge cake, dates, toffee
Media: Sticky toffee pudding

Composition

Sticky toffee pudding has two essential components, sponge cake and toffee sauce. The first is a moist sponge cake which contains finely chopped dates.^[2] The sponge is usually light and fluffy, closer to a muffin consistency rather than a heavier traditional English sponge, and is often lightly flavoured with nuts or spices such as cloves.^[2][3] The toffee sauce is usually made from double cream and different dark sugars (brown sugar, jaggery, molasses sugar, muscovado, panela, peen tong).^[3]

Sticky toffee pudding is most commonly served with custard or vanilla ice cream, the vanilla flavour of these complementing the richer flavours of the pudding.^[3] It may also be served with single cream.

Origins

The pudding was invented in 1907 by the landlady of the Gait Inn in Millington, East Riding of Yorkshire, but was popularised in the 1970s by Francis Coulson and Robert Lee, who developed and served it at the Sharrow Bay Country House Hotel in Cumbria.^[4][5]

A take-home version to heat, either in oven or microwave, was developed in 1989 by the owners of the Village Shop in Cartmel, Cumbria.^[2][6] Their dish became popular, and by the late 1990s was being sold in supermarkets across the UK.^[6] The dish is today widely available in England from multiple manufacturers to bake at home.^[7]