Sticky Toffee Pudding ~ Dad's Birthday

My dad is now a septuagenarian! He just turned 70, thank God! We're truly blessed! I've been busy this past two days preparing for and celebrating my dad's birthday.

I inherited many traits from my dad. His nose, his height, his huge veiny hands, his hair that grays early, his love for all things vintage (What 21 year old would love to listen to Elvis Presley, Jo Stafford, Connie Francis, Engelbert Humperdinck; to drive and gaze at vintage cars; to collect old cutlery and kitchenware?), his creativity, his resourcefulness, and his fiery temper! Just joking! He will be very mad if he reads this!!! Again, a joke!

We love to drive. On his birthday last year, I got my student license to learn driving. A year later, only 3 trips on the national highway; my license is already expired but I had a lot of learning. I already know the vehicle well though not as well as dad. He also maintains them well, all of our "cars" are 30+ years and still well conditioned ready to go head on with brand new models. They also have unique parts that allow them to travel on mountain paths and rough terrain.

Our International Harvester Scout 1972. This is where I first learnt to drive.


A jeep that dad himself assembled in 1978. This is my practice vehicle in the highway.


What trait I love most that I inherited from him and I think it really defines me as his son is his behemoth sweet tooth! We really love sweets! I remember when I was a child, we use to share a can of condensed milk for dessert! We also like sweet and rich desserts; other people will often tell that they will have a headache from the sweetness but it's fine for us!

We also love watching James Bond films. Watching it is our bonding aside from driving and making desserts. He loves the classic Bond films so his favorite is Sean Connery in Dr. No. My favorite is the latest Bond, Daniel Craig in Casino Royale. It also happens that it is the film where my favorite Bond girl appeared, Vesper Lynd! I really love how Eva Green played the character there. During his birthday we made a Pierce Brosnan marathon of Bond films.

Because we love sweets and James Bond is British (it's illogical, I know!), I planned to make a classic British sweet dish for his special day, Sticky toffee pudding! I really have a soft spot for British things. I also have a slight British accent when speaking English, just started about a couple of years ago which I must admit is a Harry Potter influence. The "standard" accent here is American but I sound like a drowning cat when trying so when I tried to apply the British pronunciation, I sounded smoother and it has become natural for me now. From watching a lot of British films, I have pretty mixed English vocabulary now but I still can't call fries chips, it will confuse my friends severely.

His best friend's son working in Saudi Arabia just sent us a pack of dates. It is one of our favorite dried fruits! Not sure what is the variety but it's perfect timing for the pudding!



We pitted the dates one by one and divided it among ourselves. Dad quickly packed half of it for him to snack on. Mom and I divided the rest between us. Though I want to eat them immediately, I really saved it for this day! I have to hide it from their prying eyes or my share will be eaten too!



I based this on many recipes online. Some call for mixed spice, coffee, and even malted chocolate drink such as Ovaltine! Ingredients common in all are flour, eggs, butter and sugar. I just noted their amounts and proceeded to work my magic in doing this without measurements. I used dark brown sugar for a lovelier colour and caramel flavor that complements the dates well. I creamed the butter well using just a spoon a bowl until fluffy. I added two eggs one at a time for easier mixing and mixed vigorously until mixture is super aerated. I folded in plain flour very gently at the very end.



The dried dates were softened in boiling water along with a bit of bicarbonate of soda. There's no other leavening agent in it other than that. It will react with the acid present in the brown sugar to produce a light sponge. Just after a few minutes and they're all soft and juicy!



I mixed it into the batter at the very last minute so as not to lose any of the carbon dioxide produced by the chemical reaction.





I deposit the gorgeous batter into greased and floured llaneras. For little cakes, I prefer to grease and flour my tins; not only does it makes the cake pop right out of the tin when unmoulded, I also love the slight crust it yields on the cakes.





I baked it in my pre-heated clay pot for 25 minutes until a skewer inserted in the center comes out clean. I also made a bigger one for lovers, really for my mom and dad to share and it baked for 35 minutes, the last 10 minutes over embers. Because my clay pot doesn't have a flat bottom and I do not have a rack that fits inside the pot, I have to put them on top of another llnaera so all cakes ended up being lopsided. Still pretty and yummy for us! It is already fortunate that there are no spills that burnt.



The cakes rose nice and high in the pot. I can't explain the bubbles that broke through the surface, it always happens when baking cakes in my clay pot. No worries! More poking will be done later! Their look reminds me of a Madeleine with it's signature hump!








Here's how it looks like when unmoulded. I didn't bother to unmould it onto a plate for a better presentation, it is meant to be homey and rustic. The llanera also serves as the bowl where you eat it, less mess and less dishes to clean!


After cooling a bit, you must poke a lot of holes to facilitate absorption of the lovely silky rich toffee sauce (Just simmered cream, brown sugar and butter. I used whole milk for my sauce instead of double cream because I couldn't find it.) that will turn this into sticky toffee pudding. My chopsticks are perfect for this! It's pretty therapeutic!






A bath of toffee sauce and we're sold. Love the sweet comforting flavor. A little bit of cream or custard won't hurt, ice cream too is a nice touch, even some flaky sea salt to offset the sweetness but we like as it is. At least, it's getting cooler, we're eating this comforting cold weather dessert at 81F. We're really feeling the cold for a week now because it's always 93F for two months. It's also starting to rain now.





The sides and bottom of each cake are crispy. The crumb is fine and soft and full of caramel flavor. The dates also come through but not much of a textural interest because I chopped them too finely, perhaps I will leave them whole next time. Dad really loved this because he loves dates, caramel and sweet and rich things! I'm excited to try more British sweets. What's next? Jam roly-poly? Spotted dick? Or Sussex pond pudding?







Here is the Lover's Sticky Toffee Pudding!





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A simple pork tongue stew for dinner. My dad and I really like tongue! It's our favorite organ meat / sweetbread.



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Some Dayang dayang. It's is dad's favorite among my original creations partly because he plays a huge part in it. He requested me to make some since he already made the coconut sweet. Here is my second time making it. The main change is I used plain flour for these for a softer texture which seemed counter productive. It didn't have the volume and lightness of the first batch because of the lower protein so it was denser and chewier.



I didn't fry it too dark this time so no bitterness, only coconut flavor.





Here is the coconut sweet I was talking about. Dad made this by himself over a wood fire for a good two hours.









Still the same. Lots of cake crumbs for coating. Very delicious!







Happy birthday daddy! I love you! Mahal na mahal kita!