Classic sticky toffee bundt cake, served with a delicious, homemade toffee sauce. Keeps fresh for days, so great for making ahead.
Why you’ll love this sticky toffee cake
Whenever I want an easy, delicious and slightly indulgent dessert, this is the cake I turn to. This Sticky Toffee Bundt cake brings classic sticky toffee cake to your bundt pan. It mixes and bakes up easily and is make-ahead friendly.
Of course, the real magic happens when it’s served warm with a delicious toffee sauce poured over the top. It’s the ultimate comfort food dessert.
This is a great recipe to have on hand whenever you need an easy, but special dessert.
Ingredients and Substitutions
Dates – Use regular, pitted, dried dates for this cake, which can be easily found in the baking aisle of most grocery stores. You don’t want to use fresh dates, such as Medjool. As they are fresh (not dried), they will not perform/re-hydrate the same way as dried dates do.
Pantry Items for the cake – Butter, white sugar, eggs (4), vanilla, all-purpose flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt
For the Toffee Sauce – Butter, white sugar and heavy, whipping cream. Heavy cream is necessary for the richness, thickness and finished texture of the sauce. A lighter cream may not produce ideal results.
Baker’s Tips
- Be sure to grease or spray your bundt pan well, being sure to get in all the nooks and crannies and greasing the centre hole piece thoroughly.
- When it comes to removing cakes from bundt pan, the magic time is 10-15 minutes after removing from the oven. Too soon and it will be too soft to remove. Too late and it will weld itself to the pan as it cools. This recipe specifies 15 minutes of cooling before removing. I like to set a timer when I remove it from the oven, so I don’t forget!
- Although it’s tempting to pour all the toffee sauce over the finished bundt cake, it will simply soak into the cake and disappear. The best strategy is to cut a thin slice and pour the warm toffee sauce over the slice right as you’re serving. The thin slice allows the sauce to really soak the cake.
- If enjoying this cake over several days, you may find it easier to grab a slice and then just spoon some of the refrigerated toffee sauce on top. Pop in the microwave for 15-20 seconds to warm the cake and melt the sauce at the same time!
- If you don’t have a bundt pan and you still want to try this cake, a 9×13-inch cake pan would probably work.
Making ahead, storing and freezing
I find this cake is better after it has had a chance to sit a bit. When freshly baked, it doesn’t have quite the richness of flavour and tender texture as it does after it has had a chance to rest a bit. So don’t hesitate to cook this one ahead.
This cake keeps beautifully stored at room temperature for 4 or 5 days! Simply wrap the cup ends to keep the moisture in. The cake will also freeze well.
The toffee sauce can be made ahead and refrigerated. It will thicken in the fridge. To thin/heat, simply give it a warming in the microwave or gently rewarm in a small saucepan on the stove-top.
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Get the Recipe: Sticky Toffee Bundt Cake
Ingredients
For the cake:
- 13 oz. (375 g) dried dates, pitted (375g or about 2 cups) *see Note 1
- 2 1/2 cups water
- 2 3/4 cups (344 g) all-purpose flour, spooned and levelled
- 1/2 teaspoon salt, reduce to 1/4 tsp if you used salted butter
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 2 teaspoons baking soda
- 1 1/3 cups (267 g) white granulated sugar
- 1/2 cup (113 g) unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 4 large eggs
- 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
For the toffee sauce:
- 3/4 cup (170 g) unsalted butter
- 1 cup (200 g) white granulated sugar
- 3/4 cup (175 ml) heavy, whipping cream, 35% b.f.
- Pinch salt
- 1 Tablespoon brandy, optional, or 1 tsp vanilla
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350F. (not fan-assisted). Grease a 10-inch bundt pan well and set aside.
- Combine the dates and the water in a medium saucepan. Bring mixture to a boil over medium heat. Mash until smooth and set aside to cool. *Make sure your date mixture cools before starting your cake. Adding a warm mixture to your batter with lots of eggs risks cooking the eggs in the batter, which is not good.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, salt, baking powder and baking soda. Set aside.
- In a large bowl with an electric mixer or the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, add the softened butter and the white sugar. With the mixer on medium, cream together the butter and sugar until light, about 2 minutes. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well between additions. Scrape down the bowl, as needed. Add the vanilla and mix in.
- With the mixer on low, add the flour mixture and mix until well combined. Add the COOLED date mixture and mix until combined.
- Pour batter into prepared bundt pan (it will be quite liquid).
- Bake cake in preheated oven for 45-50 minutes, or until a tested inserted in the centre comes out clean.
- Let cake cool in the pan for 15 minutes, then place a plate over-top and invert to remove the cake to a plate. (*I like to carefully use a knife just along the top edge and around the centre tube to make sure it's nice and loose before inverting).
- Let cake cool completely before slicing. Can be made ahead and stored loosely covered at room temperature (in fact, I recommend making a bit ahead, as this cake tends to be richer and more moist if it has a chance to sit a bit).
- Cake will keep well for 4-5 days stored at room temperature. You can also freeze the baked and cooled cake. Prepare the toffee sauce (can be made ahead).
- Toffee Sauce: Melt butter in a saucepan over medium heat. Add the white sugar and cook, stirring, until the sugar dissolves. Continue cooking and stirring, until the sugar/butter mixture becomes a nice caramel colour, about 5 minutes (mixture will not be smooth at this point, but granular and may split at some point). Very carefully, standing well back, add the whipping cream to the pan (mixture will steam and splash up!) and stir vigorously, until the mixture is smooth again (adding the cool cream may cause your sugars to seize up temporarily). Continue cooking, stirring, until mixture thickens, about 3 minutes more. Remove from heat and stir in brandy, if using (1 tsp of vanilla is an alternate option here).
- Use toffee sauce right away or let cool slightly, then cover and refrigerate until needed. To rewarm, simply heat until warm in a microwave or in a small saucepan. Toffee sauce will keep in the fridge for 4-5 days.
- To serve, cut a thin slice of cake and pour some warm toffee sauce over-top. You can also add a dollop of whipped cream or a scoop of vanilla ice cream to the plate, if you like.
Notes
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Hi! I’m Jennifer, a home cook schooled by trial and error and almost 40 years of getting dinner on the table! I love to share my favourite recipes, both old and new, together with lots of tips and tricks to hopefully help make your home cooking enjoyable, stress free, rewarding and of course, delicious!
Hi Jennifer
I’ll be making this for a party next month, so it’s going in the freezer. Any make ahead suggestions for the sauce?
Thanks!
Hi Karen, you can easily cook up the sauce in the morning, to serve at night. Simply cover and refrigerate, then microwave or heat in a small saucepan to warm it (it will thin out again when it warms). Enjoy! (One of my favourite cakes!)