Gingerbread Sticky Toffee Pudding

This gingerbread sticky toffee pudding combines a spiced ginger loaf cake with a classic sticky toffee pudding. Served with a rich toffee sauce & a scoop of ice cream.

This comforting dessert combines a spiced gingerbread loaf cake with a classic sticky toffee pudding. As the name suggests, it’s a ginger sponge served with a rich toffee sauce!

Instead of a traditional date sponge, this sticky toffee pudding is made with a spiced gingerbread date loaf cake that’s full of warming spices, brown sugar & treacle. It’s got a rich flavour and a squidgy texture thanks to the date puree. If you’ve got some, I’d recommend adding some crystallised ginger into the batter as well, for double the flavour!

I’ve kept the toffee sauce the same as usual as it works perfectly with the spiced sponge. This is an all in one style sauce that’s got a buttery, caramel flavour. It’s incredibly easy to make and can also be served with ice cream, churros & loads more.

To cut through all of the sweetness and richness from the sponge & sauce, I’d highly recommend serving this dessert with something creamy like a scoop of ice cream or a drizzle of pouring cream. If you like sticky toffee pudding & gingerbread, this is the dessert for you. It doesn’t get much better!

For more pudding inspiration, check out our ever growing collection of dessert recipes! There’s a wide range of desserts here, from classic crumbles, pies, homemade ice creams & lots more…

Ingredients For Gingerbread Sticky Toffee Pudding

This dessert is basically a gingerbread loaf cake served like sticky toffee pudding. The cake batter is made with dates like a regular sticky toffee, as it adds flavour and makes the sponge extra squidgy and moist.

• Dates – Like most sticky toffee puddings, this one uses pitted dates. I used Deglet Nour dates but Medjool dates will also work. Sometimes supermarkets dates are just labelled as “pitted dates”, these are also fine to use.
• Spices – We’re using classic gingerbread spices including ground ginger and cinnamon. I also added crystallised ginger to the date puree for a stronger flavour but feel free to leave this out if you’d prefer.
• Butter – Unsalted butter works best for this recipe, as it allows us to control how much salt is added.
• Buttermilk – Buttermilk adds moisture & richness to the ginger sponge. It’s best to use room temperature buttermilk as it will mix into the batter more evenly.
• Eggs – We’re using large eggs for the ginger cake batter. Each egg should weigh around 50 grams out of the shell.
• Cream – The toffee sauce is made with double cream (heavy cream), to give it the richest flavour.
• Sugar – There’s light brown sugar in the sponge & dark brown sugar in the toffee sauce. Feel free to just use dark brown if you’d prefer.
• Treacle – Black treacle is added to the cake batter for richness & a subtle molasses flavour. If you haven’t got any, use regular molasses instead.
• Golden Syrup – The toffee sauce is made with golden syrup as it has a rich, buttery caramel flavour. This is available in most supermarkets or online.
• Flour – We’re using plain flour for the sponge then adding in raising agents ourself. This allows us more control over how the cake rises in the oven.
• Raising Agents – You’ll need both baking powder & bicarbonate of soda for this pudding. The baking powder goes into the cake batter & the bicarb is used to make the date puree. Adding bicarbonate of soda to the soaked dates, helps break the dates down, making a smoother puree!
• Salt – Salt brings out the flavours in both the ginger sponge and the toffee sauce.

How To Make Sticky Toffee Gingerbread

The sponge for this sticky toffee pudding variation is a spiced gingerbread loaf cake that’s made with a date puree like a classic sticky toffee is. I’d highly recommend letting the sponge mature overnight before serving, as it will vastly improve its flavour.

Gingerbread Loaf Cake

Before making the sponge, you’ll need to preheat an oven to 170°c/338°f line a 2lb loaf tin with baking parchment or a loaf tin liner.

Step 1 – Soaking The Dates

First, you’ll need to soak the dates to make a puree for the gingerbread cake. To do this, roughly chop up pitted dates & crystallised ginger then place into a bowl with bicarbonate of soda & boiling water. Leave this to soak for 10-15 minutes, whilst you make the batter.

Step 2 – Making The Cake Batter

To make the gingerbread cake batter, beat softened butter & light brown sugar in a stand mixer until it is light & fluffy. Then beat in the eggs and by black treacle.

Next, blitz the soaked dates up with a stick blender to make a smooth puree. You’ll also need to sift together the flour, baking powder, salt & spices before the next step.

To finish the batter, add in half of the flour & half of the date puree, mix until just combined then add in the rest along with room temperature buttermilk then mix to combine. The batter then gets poured into your lined loaf tin & a line of softened butter is piped down the middle (this controls where the cake will crack whilst it’s baking).

Step 3 – Baking

As the batter contains bicarbonate of soda, it needs to go into the oven straight away. It gets baked for 45-50 minutes, until it is well risen & a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean. Your ginger loaf will have a neat split down the centre.

Once baked, let the cake cool in the tin for 10 minutes before carefully transferring it to a wire cooling rack. As I mentioned earlier, it’s best to let the cake mature overnight before serving to improve the flavour. This is super easy to do, simply wrap the loaf in clingfilm (or place in an airtight container) then chill in the fridge.

Classic Toffee Sauce

A classic toffee sauce is super easy to make! Simply place double cream, dark brown sugar, butter & golden syrup into a saucepan then set over a low heat & cook until the butter & sugar have melted and dissolved. This will take around 5 minutes.

Once the sugar has dissolved, increase the heat to medium-high, bring to the boil then cook for 2 minutes to thicken. Then to finish, take the pan off the heat & stir in sea salt & vanilla paste. This is the method that I use to make my toffee sauce for all of my sticky toffee pudding recipes as it’s just so easy & tasty!

Sticky Toffee Gingerbread Tips & Tricks

• Let the gingerbread mature overnight in an airtight container. This amplifies the ginger flavours, making this dessert even better!
• Cover the slices of cake in toffee sauce before reheating to make it extra sticky.
• Blitz crystallised ginger into the date puree, for extra ginger flavour.
• Make sure not to over bake the sponge. Once cooked, a skewer inserted into the middle will come out clean. This will take around 45 minutes in the oven.
• Pipe a line of softened butter down the centre of the cake batter before baking, to control how the cake cracks on top.
• Stir sea salt & vanilla paste into the cooked toffee sauce, for extra flavour!

How To Reheat Sticky Toffee Pudding

To warm the ginger sponge up, you can either use an oven or a microwave. Using an oven is best when you want to reheat several portions at once whereas a microwave is best for individual portions.

To reheat the pudding in an oven, place gingerbread slices into an ovenproof dish then add a spoonful of toffee sauce on top of each one. Cover the dish with foil then bake at 170°c/338°f for 5-10 minutes, until piping hot.

To use a microwave, place a slice of sponge into a bowl, spoon toffee sauce on top then microwave on high for 30-40 seconds. To warm any extra toffee sauce up, either heat it up in a saucepan, over a medium heat or microwave on high, in a jug. Make sure the sauce is piping hot before serving.

What To Serve With Sticky Toffee Gingerbread

You can eat sticky toffee pudding on its’ own but I’d recommend serving it with a scoop of ice cream, a drizzle of double cream or even a dollop of clotted cream. This addition of extra dairy helps cut through the sweetness of the sponge & toffee sauce.

When making this recipe, I served mine with a scoop of my homemade vanilla ice cream.

Frequently Asked Questions

More Dessert Recipes To Try!

• Brown Butter Sticky Toffee Pudding
• Sour Cream Chocolate Cake With Dark Chocolate Sauce
• Brown Butter & Bourbon Pecan Pie
• Profiteroles With Chocolate Sauce
• Dark Chocolate Mousse
• Greek Yogurt Panna Cotta With Poached Rhubarb

If you have enjoyed this gingerbread sticky toffee recipe, it would mean a lot if you could leave a review & rating. And if you’d like to stay up to date with future recipes, follow us on Instagram & TikTok or subscribe to our newsletter!