Sticky Date Pudding slice

Absolutely looooove sticky date pudding. Warmed with vanilla ice-cream = sososo delicious. This recipe is just excellent. Very moist. The icing is lovely. I cut em up and served some for guests at lunch and then put the rest in cupcake liners to take to work. Very addictive.

Sticky Date Pudding slice
Adapted from The English Kitchen recipe

Ingredients
Cakey part

250g ( 1 1/3 C) pitted dates, chopped roughly
1 tsp baking soda
215g unsalted butter, divided (a scant cup, 9/10 to be exact)
185g ( 1 1/2 C) self raising flour
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp baking powder
3 large eggs
90 ml (1/3) cup milk, divided

Frosting:
2 tbsp soft light brown sugar, packed
90g (3/4 C) sifted icing sugar
90g (3/4 C) chopped toasted walnuts (I omitted these but I'm sure it would be a lovely addition)

1. Preheat oven to 160C (fan-forced). Line a 9 inch square (mine was 7x11 inch) baking pan with baking paper. ( make sure it hangs well over two sides so that you can just lift the bars out to cut when finished)

2. Place the dates into a saucepan with 200 ml of water. Bring to the boil, and then reduce the heat and allow to simmer for about 10 minutes, gently. Make sure the water doesn't completely evaporate (I had to add about 50ml). Add the baking soda, and set aside to cool.

3. Place 185g of the butter (NOT ALL), the flour, vanilla, baking powder, eggs, and 75 ml (NOT ALL) of the milk into the bowl of a food processor and mix together in short bursts for 1 minute or so, until well blended. Add the dates and pulse again to blend. Do not overprocess.

4. Scrape the batter into the prepared pan and bake for about 20 minutes (mine took about 30 mins), or until a skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean. Set aside to cool.

5. To make the frosting combine the remaining butter, the brown sugar, and remaining milk into a small sauce pan. Heat gently to dissolve the sugar.

6. Add the icing sugar and mix together well. Spread over the cooled cake mixture and sprinkle with the toasted walnuts.

7. Cut into squares to serve. Store in an airtight container (I kept mine in the fridge).