First up, pre-heat your oven to 180°C/160°C/Gas mark 4 and grease and line an 8” square baking tin. Pop your chopped dates in a small bowl and pour over the boiling water, then stir in the Bicarbonate of Soda. Leave the dates to soak for about 10 minutes.

Pop the butter, sugar and treacle into a saucepan and melt together over a low heat until smooth. Pour into a large bowl and leave to cool for 5 minutes. 

Crack in the eggs and Vanilla Paste and whisk together until smooth and all combined. Next up, sieve over the flour, Baking Powder and Mixed spice and fold together.  

Finally pour in the dates and water and fold to combine and evenly mix through the dates. Pour into your prepared tin and pop into the oven to bake for 30-35 minutes until risen and a skewer inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean.

Whilst your sponge is baking, it’s time to make the sauce; pop the butter and sugar into a saucepan over a low heat and stir until the butter has melted and you have a lovely smooth mixture. Turn the heat up to medium and let the mixture begin to bubble, once it begins to bubble remove from the heat and pour in the cream whilst stirring the sauce – be careful as it may splatter a bit! Set your sauce aside off the heat and then pop back over a low heat to warm through before serving.

We recommend serving your sponge warm with warm toffee sauce poured over, yummy!