ELLY McCAUSLAND makes a sticky cake to get stuck into

THIS spiced sticky date, pecan and coffee cake is essentially sticky toffee pudding in cake form.

It has all of that gorgeous treacly, butterscotch flavour, with crunchy dates and a gentle undercurrent of warm spice, but much less effort and rather less butter.

It’s adapted from Paul Hollywood’s How to Bake, with a couple of tweaks. The coffee is subtle, but gives a lovely slight bitterness that contrasts well with the chunks of gooey dates and the caramel topping, which soaks into the cake and makes it deliciously moist and crunchy.

This would be a decadent pudding served warm with vanilla ice cream, or a perfect pick-me-up with an afternoon cup of tea (or coffee, for a double hit!)

Spiced sticky date and coffee cake

(serves 8-10)

Ingredients:

150g pitted dates

250ml hot strong black coffee

70g butter

90g golden caster sugar

1 egg

Zest of 1 orange

175g spelt flour

2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp ground cinnamon

½ tsp ground ginger

¼ tsp ground nutmeg

For the glaze:

50g butter

40g light muscovado sugar

50g dark muscovado sugar

2 tbsp water

Pecan nuts, to decorate

Method:

Put the dates in a bowl with the coffee and leave for 20 minutes. Meanwhile, beat the butter with the caster sugar and egg in a large bowl using an electric whisk, until thick and creamy. Drain the dates and beat the coffee into this mixture.

Pre-heat the oven to 180C. Grease and line a 20cm springform cake tin.

Sift the flour, baking powder, orange zest and spices into another bowl and make a well in the centre. Pour in the coffee mixture a bit at a time, whisking constantly, then beat to combine. Pour into the tin, then arrange the dates on top of the batter.

Bake for 35 minutes. Meanwhile, make the glaze: melt the butter in a pan over a low heat, then add the sugars and bubble until smooth. Add the water and stir to make a smooth, syrupy sauce, then set aside. When the cake comes out of the oven, immediately pour the glaze over the top, then arrange the pecans over the cake. Leave to cool.

Read more of Elly's recipes on her blog nutmegsseven.co.uk