Chop up the dates, make sure you take all the pits are out of the middle (this part is important!!).

Add them to the pint of water in a pan on the stove, turn on the heat (obviously) and bring to the boil, let them simmer very very gently as you don't want a lot of the water to boil off. The idea is to soften up the dates.

While that is doing its thing, add 120 grams (8 tbsp.) of butter and 320g (2 1/2 cups) of caster sugar to a bowl.

Cream together the butter and sugar until nicely blended.

Add 4 eggs (always crack the eggs into a bowl before adding in case you get shells in your eggs) and 320g of self raising flour (sifted).

Mix this well with a hand mixer or something like that, it'll be very thick and sticky.

Go back to your dates, they should be nice and soft now so take them off the heat.

Here's the fun bit, add two teaspoons of baking powder to the hot water and watch it foam up like mad as you stir it in.

Pour all of this into the bowl of yummy pudding mix.

Hand mix this all together well so it's evenly mixed up.

Pour into a baking pan (I used a spring form pan for this, easy to get the thing out after cooking).

Cook at 374F for 25-30 mins, if you stick it with a skewer it should come out sticky but not wet.

Now that the pudding is done, we want some Toffee Sauce!! For this you need: - One completed pudding (in the background) - Demerera Sugar - Thick heavy cream - Butter Like all cooking, this sauce is all about ratios. 2 parts cream, 1 sugar, 1 butter. In this I used 300ml (10 ounces) of cream, 150g (10 tbsp) butter, 150g (3/4 cup) sugar.

Add the sugar and butter to a pan.

Heat and melt it thoroughly, don't let it stick so keep stiring it all the time.

Add the cream and bring to the boil and let it simmer for a while, again keep stiring so it doesn't stick.

Pour over slices of pudding, add a teaspoon of thick cream on the top, serve immediately

Now that you have learned how to make sticky toffee pudding, please be sure to view these other pudding recipes.