Sticky Toffee Cupcakes

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Sticky Toffee Cupcakes are as soft, squidgy and irresistible as the classic pudding they are mimicking. Each cupcake is full of tender dates and comes topped with gloriously rich and buttery toffee sauce along with a little buttercream. They are bound to be a hit with family and friends.

If you like toffee or caramel on your cupcakes you should also check out my coffee caramel cupcakes.

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What are sticky toffee cupcakes?
Ingredients notes
Step by step instructions
Expert tips
Frequently asked questions
More recipes for Bonfire Night
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Sticky toffee cupcakes are lots of finger-licking, sweet fun. These cupcakes are a riff on the very popular British dessert sticky toffee pudding. This is a date-laden sponge drenched in a sticky and sweet toffee sauce. It’s pure heaven.

These sticky toffee pudding cupcakes are deliciously squidgy, with a deep and comforting flavour. They would be ideally suited to attend a bonfire party. Think of it this way: if you’ve got a sparkler in one hand, that leaves the other hand free for… a sticky toffee cupcake – correct?

What are sticky toffee cupcakes?

Classic British pudding reinvented! This recipe has transformed the much-loved sticky toffee pudding into cupcake form. It’s a fun interpretation not to be missed.

Just like the dessert, these sticky toffee cupcakes contain soft and squidgy chunks of dates inside the sponge. And I’ve made the sponge cake batter with muscovado sugar for that namesake toffee flavour.
Once the cakes are made, it’s on with the joyful task of dousing them with lashings of rich & buttery toffee sauce.
Finally, they are decorated with velvet-smooth toffee buttercream and adorned with a puddle of sticky toffee sauce in the middle. Yep, they are quite a mouthful of indulgence.

Why you’ll love them: Muscovado sugar & those delicately tender dates in the cake batter, along with the rich & buttery toffee sauce, work together in cupcake form just as harmoniously as they do as a satisfyingly filling winter pudding.

Have you seen my sticky ginger cake and golden syrup cake? Both will give you sticky fingers too.

Ingredients notes

Muscovado sugar: The rich caramelised flavour of muscovado sugar is an integral element of sticky toffee pudding. So, I’ve included light muscovado sugar in the sponge cake batter and dark muscovado in the toffee sauce.

Dates: essential for all sticky toffee pudding recipes. I use Whitworth’s blocked dates as they are very easy to chop finely. I go with tradition and soften my dates with hot water and bicarbonate of soda before adding them to my cake batter.

Butter: the best sticky toffee sauce is made with real butter so please use it if your diet allows. If you do need to use a dairy-free alternative, choose a block butter-style product and add in an extra large pinch of salt.

Golden syrup: this is a very British ingredient and it is essential when making sticky toffee pudding. It is, therefore, essential when making sticky toffee pudding cupcakes. It lends a mellow sweetness to the toffee sauce.

If you live outside of the UK, the best alternative would be light corn syrup. Honey and maple syrup are not good substitutions for golden syrup.

Step by step instructions

Full instructions and measurements are given in the printable recipe card at the end of this post.

Make the cupcakes

Begin by putting the dates and bicarbonate of soda into a small bowl and pouring boiling water over to just cover the fruit. Set aside.
Using electric beaters, cream the butter and sugar together until light & fluffy then add the eggs, one at a time, beating well.
Sift the flour and baking powder into the bowl and gently stir in, using a large metal spoon until thoroughly combined.
Drain the dates through a sieve – give it a good shake to remove the liquid. Quickly fold the dates into the cake batter.
Divide between the cupcake cases – filling each case around ⅔ full – and bake for approximately 20 minutes.
Test that the cupcakes are baked through: poke a cocktail stick into one of the cakes – if it comes out clean then the cakes are ready. If not, return to the oven for a couple more minutes, then test again.

Prepare the Sticky Toffee Sauce

While the cupcakes are baking measure all of the sauce ingredients (except the vanilla extract) into a saucepan.
When the cupcakes have around 10 minutes of baking time left, put the pan on a moderate heat and all the ingredients to fully melt, stirring with a wooden spoon frequently.
When everything has dissolved, turn up the heat and bring to a boil for 1 minute then reduce the heat to low, stir in the vanilla extract and keep the pan on the heat to keep warm.
As soon as the cupcakes come out of the oven drizzle 1 teaspoon of sauce over each cupcake, spreading it out a little (but it does not need to cover the top of the entire cake.
Let the rest of the sauce cool to room temperature.

Make the Buttercream

Put the butter into a medium bowl and beat until smooth and soft.
Sieve in the icing sugar 1 tablespoon at a time and beat well between each addition.
Once all of the icing sugar has been mixed in, beat in the cooled sticky toffee sauce .

Decorate the cupcakes

Decorating a sticky toffee cupcake with buttercream.

Use a 30 closed star nozzle to pipe a thin line of buttercream around the edge of each cupcake in a circle – around ½ cm in from the edge

Next pipe lines from the edge of the cupcake, over the circular line previously piped and finish ⅓ of the way into the cupcake. By the time you have gone around the cupcake, an un-iced hole will have appeared in the middle (My tip is to pipe lines at 12 o’clock, 3 o’clock, 6 o’clock & 9 o’clock and then fill in the gaps with more lines)

Decorating a sticky toffee cupcake with buttercream and toffee sauce.

Pour sufficient toffee sauce into the centre of each cupcake. Enough to fill the hole generously, but not enough to cause the sauce to overflow and run over your beautiful piping.

Finally, neaten up the cupcake by piping tiny stars around the edge of the toffee sauce in a tidy circle – those little stars can hide a multitude of piping sins!

Expert tips

Always use digital scales and gram measurements. It’s the easiest and most accurate way to measure the ingredients when baking.
Be careful making ingredient substitutions. The success of this recipe is in the careful selection of ingredients listed.
Drizzle the toffee sauce over the sticky toffee cupcakes as soon as they come out of the oven. The sauce will seep into the sponge cake better when they are hot.
Of course, you may also pipe a swirl of buttercream over the top of your cakes and then drizzle with the sticky toffee sauce instead.

And that's it. Really, those little stars can hide a multitude of piping sins.

Frequently asked questions

Why do the dates need soaking when making sticky toffee cupcakes?

I have come across a suggestion that soaking dates in hot water and bicarbonate of soda tottifies the dates. Whilst I’ve never managed to find the meaning of the word tottify, I can assure you that soaking the dates does plump them up and softens them very nicely. It’s almost as if they have been stewed.

The bicarbonate of soda also neutralises the acidic components of any tannic acid in the dates. This makes them less astringent and much more pleasant to eat.

Whether or not tottifies is a bona fide word remains a mystery to me…

Can I make sticky toffee cupcakes without using dates?

Honestly, this is a big no for me. Dates are an integral part of classic sticky toffee pudding, so leaving them out of a recipe for sticky toffee cupcakes would be akin to making chocolate cake without using chocolate. Don’t go down this route.

If you do not want to use dates you might be better off with different cupcakes altogether. Consider making my butterbeer cupcakes – you don’t have to fill them with candy melt pieces but you could drizzle butterbeer sauce over them.

Can I add spice to my sticky toffee pudding cupcakes?

Yes, you can. Go for cinnamon, mixed spice, chai spice or pumpkin spice. Around 1.5 teaspoons mixed into the sponge cake batter will be plenty.

More recipes for Bonfire Night

Have you seen my guide to catering for Bonfire Night at home – it’s loaded with plenty of recipe ideas and tips to ensure even cook gets to oooo and ahhh at the fireworks too.

Have you made these sticky toffee pudding cupcakes? Let me know how you got along by leaving a review. I love to hear from my readers.

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