Old Fashioned Date Pudding features a date cake with a rich, sticky caramel sauce that separates to the bottom while cooking. Serve warm with the sticky sauce poured over top and a dollop of whipped cream. One whiff or bite will take you back to Grandma’s kitchen.

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Old Fashioned Date Pudding Recipe

I love a challenge, especially with an ending that puts a big bowl of warm date pudding cake in front of me. My friend, Patty asked if I could find a Date Pudding like the one her mom used to make. Now, Patty is the woman behind our favorite French Onion Joes recipe, so I knew that if I could find this recipe, it would be one that I would want for myself too.

While sticky date cake isn’t something that I had ever eaten previously, it is now one of my favorite old fashioned desserts.

Sticky Date Loaf Cake Ingredients

Water
Brown Sugar
Butter
Vanilla
All Purpose Flour
Baking Powder
Salt
Granulated Sugar
Dried Dates
Chopped Nuts (optional)
Milk

Old Fashioned Date Pudding features a date cake with a rich, sticky sauce that separates to the bottom while cooking. Serve warm with the sticky sauce poured over top and a dollop of whipped cream. One whiff or bite will take you back to Grandma's kitchen.

Sticky Date Pudding with Caramel Sauce

Patty remembers her mom making this vintage recipe around Thanksgiving or Christmas. In her words, “this recipe is special.” This is exactly what I love about recipes. One smell or one bite can instantly take you back in time.

Patty described her mom’s date pudding recipe as a kind of traditional bread pudding where you spoon the sauce over the top after you dish out a portion on the serving plate. So I set out on the hunt for a sticky date pudding recipe. Turns out, I didn’t have to look far. I found not one, but six different versions of this pudding in one of my favorite cookbooks.

Date Pudding Cobbler

The star of this recipe is the dates, and dried dates are easy to find at least during the Thanksgiving and Christmas holiday seasons. I bought a big box of California Figs from Costco and chopped them myself for this recipe. If you use whole dates, watch out for the seeds. You’ll want to remove them before adding to the pudding, or buy pitted dates or the ones pre-chopped.

If you’ve never tried a date, you are missing out. They are very sweet because they are high in sugar, but they are also high in fiber and protein. So watch out, don’t eat too many at once.

How to Make Sticky Date Pudding

Step by Step Instructions

For the sauce, boil water, brown sugar and butter for three minutes; add vanilla and take off heat to cool slightly.
Meanwhile, mix sugar, flour, baking powder and salt in a separate bowl; add in chopped dates, nuts and milk and stir to form a sticky pudding batter.
Spread the batter in a bread pan sprayed with cooking spray; pour sauce over top.
Bake in a 300 degree F oven for 1 hour or until the center is not gooey.
Serve with the sticky sauce poured over top (it falls to the bottom) and whipped cream.

Storage Instructions

Let leftovers cool. Cover tightly with plastic wrap or transfer to an airtight container, and store in the refrigerator.

For the full recipe steps and ingredient amounts for this old fashioned date pudding recipe, scroll to the bottom of this post.

Can you refrigerate sticky toffee pudding?

I recommend you do refrigerate sticky toffee pudding to extend it’s shelf life.

Recipe FAQs

This sticky date pudding has two parts – a fudge-like cake layer and a sticky butterscotch sauce that falls to the bottom.
To serve, spoon the butterscotch sauce from the bottom of the pan over top the date cake. Homemade whipped cream is the perfect complement, so try this recipe from Vintage Tin.
Swap margarine for butter if needed or desired.
This old fashioned date pudding cake calls for 1 cup chopped dates, but you can add a little more if desired. Try a heaping cup!
Either buy the dates pre-chopped or chop your own, but be sure to remove the seeds while chopping.
This date pudding recipe takes about an hour in the oven, but if the center looks wet and not completely cooked, leave it in the oven for 5 to 10 more minutes until it matches the rest of the cake. However, you don’t want to overcook, it is supposed to be sticky – just not wet.
We love old fashioned desserts. Try Grandma’s Cherry Fluff, Apple Pudding Cake, and Rhubarb Cake.

The Best Old Fashioned Desserts

Lemon Meringue Pie

Rhubarb Crunch

Old-Fashioned Apple Cake with Caramel Sauce

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