Fancy cake decorating has never been my thing. If this was made in the Great British Bake Off tent Mary Berry would likely describe it as "informal", but that's ok, my presentation standards aren't high. As long as it tastes good and I get to eat a bit, I'm happy. Worst comes to worst, just stick it on a pretty plate or a cake stand.
I baked this sticky toffee cake for my uncle's 60th birthday this week, so obviously I couldn't cut into it for photographs, but I did sample a cupcake and they were utterly delicious. Sticky and sweet with squidgy pockets of dates in a brown sugar sponge. There's no point being diet conscious here. Sometimes you need to give the calories the middle finger and shove a whole damn cupcake in your mouth and delight in all the sugar.
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Despite having used this recipe multiple times before (briefly mentioned here and here) it has never received its own blog post, so I thought it was high time I rectified the situation. The only change I made was to make my own toffee sauce for the topping and mixing into the icing instead of buying a tin of dulce de leche. It was incredibly thick and sticky to handle, bordering on unco-operative, but the flavour was definitely worth it.
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Despite having used this recipe multiple times before (briefly mentioned here and here) it has never received its own blog post, so I thought it was high time I rectified the situation. The only change I made was to make my own toffee sauce for the topping and mixing into the icing instead of buying a tin of dulce de leche. It was incredibly thick and sticky to handle, bordering on unco-operative, but the flavour was definitely worth it.
Look at that dripping toffee. Mmmmmmmmmmm.
Sticky Toffee cake cupcakes
Cake recipe is basically doubled quantities of Hummingbird Bakery's sticky toffee cupcakes from their "Cake Days" book. The mixture yields two 8 inch round cakes and 9 cupcakes.
Toffee recipe is from Edd Kimber's "The Boy Who Bakes" book, listed under "salted caramel sauce", although I omitted the sea salt.
For the sponge:
360g (13oz) pitted and chopped dates
360ml (13 fl oz) boiling water
160g (6oz) slightly salted butter, softened
300g (11 oz) soft light brown sugar (I subbed in some brown muscovado sugar as I didn't have enough soft light brown sugar)
4 large eggs
360g (13oz) plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
2 tsp vanilla extract
For the toffee sauce:
150g granulated sugar
10g salted butter, softened
125ml double cream
For the icing:
160g (5 1/2oz) unsalted butter, softened
500g (1lb 2oz) icing sugar
50ml (1 3/4fl oz) whole milk
100g (3 1/2oz) toffee sauce
Place the chopped dates in a bowl, pour over the boiling water and leave to soak for about 1/2 hour. Preheat the oven to 190C/375F/Gas 5. Grease and line two 8" round cake tines and line a muffin tin with cupcake cases.
Using a hand held electric whisk or a freestanding mixer with the paddle attachment, beat the butter and sugar together until soft and fluffy. Add the eggs in one at a time, scraping down the sides of the bowl and mixing well on a medium speed after adding each egg. In a separate bowl sift together the flour, baking powder and bicarbonate of soda. Add these dry ingredients in 3 batches to the other mixture, then mix at a medium-high speed until everything is fully incorporated. Lastly, mix in the vanilla and date mixture by hand, making sure the dates are evenly dispersed throughout the batter.
Fill the cake tins with the batter until roughly two thirds full. The remaining batter should fill approx. 9 cupcake cases. Bake the cakes in the oven for 25-30 minutes until risen and springy to the touch. The cupcakes should be baked separately as they're smaller and only take 18-20 minutes to bake. Leave to cool slightly before removing from the tins and placing onto a wire rack to cool completely before icing.
For the toffee, melt the granulated sugar over a medium heat in a medium sized heavy based saucepan on the hob until fully dissolved. Don't stir the mixture as it will crystallise, just give it a gentle swirl every so often. Once it has turned deep golden remove the pan from the heat and carefully pour in half the cream. Be careful as the sugar will bubble fiercely! Once the mixture has settled a bit, add the remaining cream and then the butter. If your mixture is lumpy (mine definitely was) then put the pan back on the heat and stir until smooth. (Mine took quite a lot of stirring and I added in a bit more cream.)
For the icing, mix together the butter and icing sugar on a low speed (or by hand) until sandy in texture. Gradually add the milk then increase the speed to medium-high and beat until light and fluffy. Finally add the toffee and beat it in thoroughly to ensure everything is well mixed. Use to generously fill and top the cakes and use the remaining icing to decorate the cupcakes. Swirl the toffee on top of the icing.
Baker's note: I felt the icing was quite slack, so it may be worth omitting the milk and only adding it at the end if you feel the icing needs it.
Baker's note: I felt the icing was quite slack, so it may be worth omitting the milk and only adding it at the end if you feel the icing needs it.