Mary Berry's Sticky Toffee Pudding - My Gorgeous Recipes (2024)

Published: Sep 10, 2022 · Modified: Feb 6, 2023 by Daniela Apostol · This post may contain affiliate links · 5 Comments

Mary Berry's Sticky Toffee Pudding with butterscotch sauce and served with vanilla ice cream, one of the finest British desserts that is surprisingly really easy to make with very little prep and a few very simple ingredients. This tray bake sticky toffee pudding has no dates in it, its sweetness coming from the black treacle and light brown sugar.

I am rather ashamed to admit that it was the very first time I baked a sticky toffee pudding. 7 something years of food blogging, and many others of being a cooking and baking fan, and it never before crossed my mind to make it at home.

This is seriously the best sticky toffee pudding ever; it has absolutely everything you can wish for in a dessert: a warm moist soft sponge, luscious rich toffee sauce, all served with a generous scoop of vanilla ice cream. What a treat!

And bonus point, it is adapted from Mary Berry's recipe, so you know that this is a failproof dessert. Absolutely every single one of her recipes are a big hit with us, they are simple, but incredibly delicious, and they don't break the bank. A win win every single time.

I know where are variations of his dessert that use dates for added sweetness and the sticky factor, but this recipe does not use dates, and it's as good. The treacle and light brown sugar are a great combo that works perfectly fine here.

My Christmas variation of this delicious dessert - Christmas Sticky Toffee Pudding is a great festive dessert that is full of amazing flavours.

Ingredients needed to make Mary Berry's sticky toffee pudding

• flour - I used self-raising flour, but plain flour could also work
• light brown sugar - adds sweetness, colour and a slightly toffee touch
• black treacle - or molasses in the US
• eggs - make sure they are at room temperature
• butter - I used unsalted, salted also ok, the butter has to be soft, but not melted
• milk - full-fat milk is the best, semi-skimmed can be used if you don't have full fat
• bicarbonate of soda and baking powder

Easy swaps

Treacle works amazingly well in this recipe to give a dark colour to the sponge of the cake, and it also gives that toffee taste. If you don't have treacle or molasses, you can try substituting it with golden syrup, although without the benefit of the darker colour.

Step-by-step photos and instructions

To make the sponge

1. in a large bow, use a hand mixer to beat together the soft butter with the light brown sugar, until it's creamy
2. add the eggs one by one, beating well after each addition (see photo 2)
3. sift in the flour, add the baking powder, bicarb of soda, treacle and milk (see photo 4) and mix everything well to get a smooth batter
4. butter a baking dish ( mine is 28x 21 cm, 11x8.5 inches) then spread the batter over

5. bake in the preheated oven at 180 degrees Celsius (350 Fahrenheit) for 35 minutes until well risen, and a skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean
6. leave it to cool for 10-15 minutes before adding the sauce to it

To make the butterscoth

The sauce is very easy to make, I used it for my Pumpkin Bread Pudding and it was an absolute delish. We only need a few ingredients:

• double cream - or heavy cream
• light brown sugar
• black treacle - or molasses
• vanilla extract - it can be omitted, but I find that it adds a lovely subtle flavour
• butter - salted or unsalted

1. Cube the butter and add it to a pan set over a low to medium heat
2. Add the light brown sugar, and allow the butter to melt
3. Pour in the milk, add the treacle and vanilla extract, and whisk well to get a smooth sauce
4. Allow it to come to a boil, leave it to bubble up for a minute, and remove it from the pan

1. When the cake has cooled for 10-15 minutes, pour half of the sauce over it, and reserve the rest of the sauce for serving the cake with

Expert tips

Individual sticky toffee puddings might look posh, but a tray bake cake is always easier to make, as you only have to deal with one dish, and very little effort. Make sure you butter the dish very well, otherwise the sponge will stick to it, and it will be harder to remove without it breaking.

The butter used for the sponge has to be really soft, otherwise the batter will be lumpy, and won't rise well. Plus, it will be rather hard to beat it with the sugar, without having buttery sugar flying everywhere - been there, done that!

Pour the toffee sauce over the sponge while it's still warm, so it can be soaked better. Even if you serve the cake with extra sauce, topping the sponge it it will ensure a moister, softer sponge.

Recipe FAQs

Other dessert recipes by Mary Berry

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