Upside-Down Date Pudding

Another date recipe? 

Yes, indeed. Grandma’s love for dates is well documented here and here. And my love for them might even surpass hers. I don’t think I ever saw Grandma pick up a date and eat it plain. Maybe because the dates available back in her day came in a compacted block, already diced, and were as hard as the brick they reassembled. It wasn’t until I was in my twenties, living in a foreign country, and was handed a fresh date that I understood how tasty they could be. 

Now, I buy them whole for cooking and as an occasional snack.

They’re especially good with a little nut butter stuffed in the middle. 

But I digress. 

I was intrigued by this recipe from Grandma’s box because it looked like a self-saucing pudding-–you know those ingenious desserts that separate into a cake and a sauce? Devil’s Float is one of those and so is this Hot Fudge Cake in my digital box. I like them because they're quick and easy, and it's convenient to make both sauce and cake at once. Would this one be good enough for my digital box? 

Only a test would tell.  

How to Make Upside-Down Date Pudding

I began by cutting the dates. The pits came out with one push, and scissors made the rest of the task simple. 

If you use whole dates and pit them yourself, make sure to take off the hard little nub at the end. 

I placed the cut-up dates in a bowl and poured a cup of boiling hot water over the top. 

While they cooled, I melted the butter and beat it together with the two sugars. The ratio of butter to sugar wasn’t high, so the mixture was only just moist.

Once I added the egg, the mixture became much creamier. 

I sifted the dry ingredients and added them in. When beaten together, the mixture was crumbly and dry, but I wasn’t concerned. I knew that when I added the water and date mixture, I'd have a nice batter.   

How did I know this? Déja vu suddenly struck me as I realized I had made a similar recipe before. It was called Sticky Toffee Pudding. 

In case you’ve never had or heard of Sticky Toffee Pudding, I have to pause and offer some advice. If you ever find yourself in a pub or a restaurant in the UK and you see that particular dessert listed on the menu, just order it. When they bring it to you, you’ll see that it’s a cake topped with a sauce and usually a custard, cream, or ice cream. And it’s heavenly. 

Anyway, there I was in my kitchen, far from the UK, and I suddenly realized I was making something that could end up very much like Sticky Toffee Pudding, only the cake and the sauce would be forming at the same time.    

Whose brilliant idea was this? 

I added the date-and-water mixture to the dry crumbles, and sure enough, after a bit of beating, things smoothed out.

I added the nuts, then poured the batter into a baking dish.  

Next, I combined brown sugar, butter, and hot water to create the brown sugar sauce. 

I then poured that hot liquid over the top of the batter. 

Because I’d made self-saucing puddings before, I knew not to stir it. I stuck it into the oven as it was because that’s where the magic takes place. The cake would rise to the top and a sauce would form at the bottom--at least, that was the hope.  

When the timer rang, I took it out and saw that it probably should have come out five minutes earlier. Or, I should have gone with my instinct and baked it at 350 instead of 375. As you can see below, it was quite brown. 

However, the only way to know if it was okay–-and if it was anything like Sticky Toffee Pudding–-would be to taste it. After it cooled for a minute, I cut it into pieces and flipped it onto a plate so that the sauce was on top. 

A scoop of ice cream followed. Did it taste as good as it looks?   

The Verdict

I’ll just end the suspense and say, yes, it tasted a lot like that favorite British dessert. If you don’t think you’ll like it because you don’t care for dates, think again. The hot water soak softens the dates so much they practically disappear. You’re left with a caramelly cake and sauce that’s out of this world.  

You’ll want to try this one. To download and print it out, click on the link below the recipe card.