Sticky toffee date pudding is a classic British dessert that is traditionally served warm with a scoop of vanilla ice cream or a dollop of custard or cream.
Update Nov 2024: I have updated my original recipe to be a tad less sweet and with simplified ingredients based on reader feedback 😊.
This vegan version consists of a moist sponge cake sweetened with brown sugar, with medjool date paste folded through the batter before baking. While warm, the pudding is covered in sticky toffee sauce.
Comforting, rich, and nostalgic, this is the ultimate dessert for special occasions like Christmas Day or for your next dinner party!
🧾 Ingredients
Here's everything you need to make this delicious vegan toffee pudding recipe:
Ingredient Notes
Find the complete list of ingredients, quantities, and instructions in the recipe card at the bottom of this post.
Dates: You can use either fresh or dried dates, but I strongly recommend using Medjool dates for the best results. They truly have the best flavor, and when stored in the fridge, they retain a juicy texture, which adds moisture and stickiness!
Light brown sugar: I use light muscovado, however, you can swap this for regular soft brown sugar, unrefined cane, and soft dark brown sugar.
Vegan buttermilk: This homemade buttermilk recipe is a quick mixture of soy milk and apple cider vinegar. You can use another dairy-free milk, like oat or almond milk, if needed.
Vegan yogurt: For an incredibly moist sponge, I use Greek-style yogurt, but you can also use vegan sour cream or coconut yogurt.
Molasses: This sticky toffee cake calls for cane molasses, not blackstrap, as it is too bitter. You can also use black treacle or maple syrup. Golden syrup may also work, but I haven't tried this yet!
Vegan butter: You'll need block-style butter, not spreadable margarine, as the water content is too high.
Dairy-free cream: Either coconut cream or non-dairy single cream, like oat or soy cream, is fine.
Ground cinnamon: While traditional sticky toffee pudding doesn't usually have spices, a hint of cinnamon adds depth of flavor.
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🔪 Instructions
Here are step-by-step images showing how to make this sticky date pudding recipe. Please refer to the detailed printable recipe card at the end of this page for full measurements and written instructions:
Start by soaking the chopped dates in boiling water - this is key to getting that classic sticky toffee texture. Once they've softened, mash them into a paste directly in the soaking liquid. Don't drain the water, as it adds moisture and richness to the batter.
For the pudding base, cream your vegan butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Then beat in the yogurt, molasses, and vanilla - these bring tang, depth, and that signature toffee flavor.
When it's time to add the dry ingredients and buttermilk, do it in two parts, stopping mixing as soon as you see just a few streaks of flour left. This helps keep the sponge soft and tender.
Gently fold in the date mixture until fully incorporated. Try not to overwork the batter: this can make the sponge dense.
Once it's baked to golden perfection (you'll know it's ready when a skewer comes out clean), poke holes all over the top with a skewer or fork. This is where the magic happens - the warm toffee sauce will soak right in.
Pour about three-quarters of the sauce over the pudding while it's still warm, and let it absorb fully. Save the rest of the sauce for serving, because more toffee is always a good idea!
💭 Recipe Tips
Make sure you remove the pits from the dates before adding them to any recipe. Seriously, the last thing you want is to bite into one of those.
Store fresh dates in the fridge to keep them juicy and plump. The harder the dates, the longer they will need to soak in water to make date paste.
For a variation on traditional date pudding, swap out half the dates for juicy raisins or sultanas and add half a teaspoon of ground ginger to the batter.
💬 FAQs
Once cool, wrap any leftover pudding with plastic wrap or place it in an airtight container and refrigerate for up to 5 days. Store the pudding and toffee sauce separately.
Let the cake sit out at room temperature for an hour or two before serving, and warm up the remaining toffee sauce before pouring it over. You can also reheat it in the oven or microwave until warm.
To check if the pudding is done, insert a skewer or toothpick into the center - it should come out with a few sticky crumbs on it.
If it appears to have some cake batter, give it a taste to make sure it's not just some date paste!
Medjool dates are best for this vegan sticky date pudding. They have a deep caramel flavor and juicy texture.
Sukkari dates are also a great option, especially if you can get them from the chilled section in the supermarket.
Absolutely! You can bake individual sticky toffee puddings in a muffin pan or individual ramekins. Reduce the baking time to 20-25 minutes.
Make sure you grease them well so that the puddings are easy to remove once cooled.
🍮 More Classic Vegan Recipes
Update Nov 2024: I have updated this recipe to be a tad less sweet based on reader feedback, with simplified ingredients and it now bakes up taller. If you loved the original version send me an email and I'll send it to you 😊
📖 Recipe
Vegan Sticky Toffee Pudding
Ingredients
Cake
- 250 g (1 ⅔ cups) medjool dates pitted *see note 1
- 200 ml (¾ cup + 4 teaspoons) freshly boiled water
- 300 g (2 ½ cups) all-purpose flour
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon optional
- ¼ teaspoon sea salt
- 1 batch (240 ml) vegan buttermilk
- 120 g (4.25 oz) vegan butter room temperature *see note 2
- 100 g (½ cup) light muscovado sugar *see note 3
- 120 g (½ cup) vegan Greek-style yogurt *see note 4
- 45 g (3 tablespoons) cane molasses or black treacle
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
Sticky Toffee Sauce
- 200 g (7 oz) coconut cream soy or oat cream
- 150 g (¾ cup) light muscovado sugar *see note 3
- 50 g (3.5 tablespoons) vegan butter
- ¼ teaspoon sea salt
Instructions
- Prepare: Preheat your oven to fan-forced 160°C/320°F or conventional 180°C/356°F. Lightly grease a 10.5 x 7.5-inch (3-inch height) baking dish or similar with some oil.
- Date paste: Roughly chop the pitted dates and add them to a bowl with the boiling water. Leave them to soak for 20-30 minutes (the harder the dates, the longer they will need to soften). Using a fork, mash the dates into a paste until smooth.
- Mix dry ingredients: Add the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, and sea salt to a bowl and whisk to combine, set aside.
- Cream the butter and sugar: Add the butter and sugar to a large mixing bowl, or the bowl of a stand mixer and whisk until light and fluffy.
- Add wet ingredients: Whisk in the vegan yogurt, molasses, and vanilla extract - Don't worry if it appears to be split at this stage"
- Make the batter: Add around half of the vegan buttermilk and half of the dry ingredients and whisk to combine. Repeat with the other half of the buttermilk and dry ingredients and stop whisking while there are still a few visible streaks of flour. Do not over-mix the batter.
- Fold in date paste: With a spatula, carefully fold in the date paste until just combined.
- Bake: Transfer the batter to the prepared pan and bake for 35-45 minutes. Meanwhile, make the caramel.
- Make the caramel: Add the cream, sugar, butter, and sea salt to a heavy-bottomed saucepan and bring to a simmer over medium-high heat. Once simmering, bring the temperature down to medium and continue to simmer and stir using a rubber spatula for 2-3 minutes, until slightly thickened. Remove from the heat and set aside.
- To check the pudding is done, insert a skewer or toothpick into the center, it should come out with a few sticky crumbs on it.Once out of the oven, poke several holes in the cake using a skewer or fork. Pour around ¾ of the toffee sauce over the cake while warm and allow it to cool for 30 minutes.
- Serve: Just before serving, pour the remaining toffee sauce over the pudding.
Notes
- Medjool dates: If your dates are on the drier side or a different variety, they may need to soak for longer.
- Vegan butter: Take this out of the fridge to sit at room temperature for 30 mins to 1 hour. Use vegan block butter NOT spreadable butter from a tub.
- Light muscovado sugar: Swap for unrefined cane sugar or soft brown sugar.
- Vegan Greek-style yogurt: I use Alpro, you can sub with vegan sour cream or thick coconut yogurt.
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I am going to try this!! My son loves it after he tastes in Turks…two questions, can we replace flour with whole wheat flour or spelt flour?
And can we swap vegan butter with almond butter?? Does the quantity stay same??
Hi Ramz,
Thanks so much for giving the recipe a try, I hope you enjoy it! I'm afraid it's not possible to sub the vegan butter or flour here, it needs to be all-purpose flour and block-style vegan butter for the recipe to work.
I loved everything about this sticky toffee pudding! It was the perfect wintertime bake—sweet, rich, and soft and gooey for days. Making the caramel was exceptionally fun; I need to make another batch of that asap. Thank you so much for this recipe, and happy new year!
Happy New Year Megan, and thank you so much for your wonderful feedback!
Made this and it was a crowd pleaser. Substituted 1:1 gluten free all-purpose flour. Delicious!
Hi Shana,
That's fantastic, thanks so much for your feedback. I'm glad it worked well with GF all purpose too 🙂
Can you bake the sponge ahead of time, like the day before?
Hi Grace,
I reckon you could bake it the day before. Let it cool completely, cover it with foil and refrigerate. Then gently warm it in the oven (with the foil covering it), and pierce/cover with freshly made warm toffee sauce before serving. I hope this helps!
Hello,
Greek-style vegan yogurt is not available anywhere near me. Would regular vegan yogurt work?
Hi Shana,
Yes you can, just try to go for a thick variety, like thick coconut yogurt.
This was a major hit and our annual midwinter Christmas, we couldn't get enough!
Hi Ron,
That's amazing, thank you so much for sharing!
Hello there,
I am going to be making this recipe during March break. Can you please confirm that the nutritional information is correct ? The recipe says that 1g serving has over 400kcal.
Thank you in advance for your response.
Hi Diya,
Apologies! That's for one portion, based on 9 servings!
This was a fun recipe to make and I love how light and fluffy the batter turned out. Just wayyyy too sweet. I actually didn't even end up using the toffee sauce that I made for that reason. I guess that is just personally preference, next time I will use less!
Hi Lydia,
Happy to hear you enjoyed the recipe. Yes, sticky toffee pudding is naturally a very sweet dessert. Do let me know how you get on next time x
Silly question maybe, do you drain the water from the dates? Or mix in together?
Hi Anna,
Not silly at all. The water is kept, you need it to create the date paste, so don't drain it off.
Can you substitute gluten free all purpose flour?
Hi Krystal,
I haven't tried GF flour, but yes I think GF all purpose would be your best bet if you're giving it a go!