Recipes from "A Week on the Water": Sticky Toffee Pudding

Founder of Boutique Hotel Barges and "A Week on the Water" author, Hazel Young, is a graduate of the French National Cooking School in Beaune. She has run numerous cooking seminars and culinary cruises aboard her former barge Fandango, and planned the boutique barge's extraordinary menus for over two decades.

STEP ONE Cake Batter

• 175 g (6 oz) dates, chopped in mixer
• 2 cups of water
• pinch of salt
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 175g (1/2 cup) white flour
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 50 g (2 oz) butter
• 150 g (6 oz) sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Put water into a saucepan with salt, add dates and bring to a boil, simmer 2 minutes.
Remove from heat and set aside to cool.
Add baking soda.
Mix butter, sugar, eggs, flour and vanilla into a smooth paste.
Blend into cooled date mixture.
Bake in oven (375ºF190ºC/Gas 5) oven until brown and risen, approximately 35 minutes

STEP TWO Butterscotch Sauce

• 125 g (5 oz) butter
• 2 cups sugar
• 250 ml (1 1/2 cup) cream
• 2 tablespoons icing sugar
• 6 mint leaves for decoration

Put butter and sugar in saucepan, stir constantly so it doesn’t burn, caramelize until a nice light brown color
Add cream carefully so it doesn’t splutter, bring back to boil and simmer for 2 minutes. Turn off heat, set aside.
To serve, ladle the sauce onto dessert plates, cut squares or circles out of the cake and place onto the warm sauce. Sprinkle with a little icing sugar and place a mint leaf on each.
Serve warm.