Sticky Toffee Pudding Cupcakes

These sticky toffee cupcakes are the perfect marriage between the classic British dessert, Sticky Toffee Pudding, and the sweet, petite, handheld treat the cupcake! A moist and sticky brown sugar sponge studded with caramel dates and topped with a brown sugar buttercream and lashings of toffee sauce.

After how well my delicious Sticky Toffee Pudding Cake recipe went down a few years ago I couldn’t resist making a cupcake version this Autumn. I mean, who doesn’t love a cupcake? Make these babies for your next gathering and everyone is going to be singing your praises.

Why you’re going to love this recipe:

• Everyones favourite pub grub dessert in a neat little hand held portion.
• Super easy and super impressive. You can knock these cupcakes up in under an hour if you’re speedy.
• Perfect for little hands, let the tiny humans have a go at scooping the cupcakes or if all else fails, I’m sure they’ll be great at licking to bowl clean!
• Pure Autumn in a cake. If there’s one thing that encapsulates the British Autumn it’s sticky toffee pudding! Turn them into cupcake and you’ll find yourself in everyones good books.

What is sticky toffee pudding?

If you’re not familiar with sticky toffee pudding, I’m so sorry for you! STP, as it’s sometimes referred, is possibly the greatest dessert in the universe. There’s nothing that can finish off a roast like a piping hot slice of sticky toffee pudding with a scoop of ice cream, it’s warming, tooth achingly sweet and just perfection in a dish. There’s a lot of discourse around who originated the recipe, some say Yorkshire, some say Aberdeenshire but there’s one thing we can all agree on, it’s the bees knees! In layman’s terms, STP is a moist sticky sponge cake, studded with little pieces of chopped date and drenched in toffee sauce. You’re drooling right? I know I am!!

Here’s what you’re going to need:

• Dates – You can get packs of chopped dates in most supermarkets now or you can get whole dates and chop them finely yourself. If you have a texture aversion to dried fruit you can blitz the cooled date mix in a food processor before adding to the cake batter.
• Treacle – The black kind, not Golden Syrup. You can also use molasses.
• Dark Brown Sugar – Brown sugar adds extra moistness to the cake crumb as well as a deeper caramel flavour which is ideal for these cakes. You can use a 50/50 mix of brown and caster but the texture will be slightly different.
• Self Raising Flour – I always use self raising flour in my cupcakes as I think you get a better result than using plain with added raising agents. You can use plain flour with a tsp of baking powder but I’m not a fan of the results.
• Vanilla Extract – Use the best quality you can afford.
• Eggs – Always large, always free range.
• Butter – Room temperature, unsalted.
• Icing Sugar – Also known as confectioners sugar.
• Milk – Full fat.
• Fudge Pieces – You can buy small bags of chopped fudge pieces in the supermarkets, I use Cake Decor which are widely available.
• Caramel Sauce – Any store bought caramel sauce will work, or you can use homemade if you’re so inclined.

Tips for making sticky toffee pudding cupcakes:

• Can I use caster sugar instead of light brown sugar? – Yes you can but I don’t recommend it, you’ll miss out on all that deep caramel flavour.
• Can I use plain flour? – Yes, just add an extra teaspoon of baking powder to the flour.
• Can I make these gluten free? – Yes, you can use a gluten free flour blend, my favourite is Doves.
• Can I leave out the dates? – No! Sticky toffee pudding isn’t the same without dates! If you’re not a fan of the texture you can blitz the cooled date and water mixture in a food processor to make a paste before adding it to the cake batter.
• Can I freeze this recipe? – Yes, place the un iced cupcakes on a baking tray and pop in the freezer till frozen solid. They can then be wrapped in a double layer of cling film or placed in a freezer bag and frozen for up to 3 months.

More Autumnal Baking Inspiration:

Sticky Toffee Layer Cake // Pecan Pie Brownies // Maple Pecan Sandwich Cookies // Gilmore Girls Coffee Cake Cookies // Taylor Swifts Chai Spiced Cookies // Chai Spiced Cupcakes // Caramel Apple Cupcakes

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