Beer-laced sticky toffee and ginger pudding

Method

1. Heat the oven to 180°C/160°C fan/gas 4. To make the sponge, put the ale, stem ginger, stem ginger syrup, dates and vanilla bean paste in a medium saucepan, then bring to the boil and simmer for 3 minutes. Remove from the heat, then stir in the bicarbonate of soda. Set aside.
2. Cream the butter and sugars together in a large mixing bowl until smooth using an electric hand mixer (the mixture won’t turn pale and fluffy due to the high proportion of sugar). Add the first egg, then beat the mixture really well until smooth and becoming lighter in colour. Add the second egg and 1 tbsp of the flour, then beat together well. Sift over the rest of the flour, ground ginger and baking powder, then gently fold in with a metal spoon.
3. Bring the date mixture back to the boil. Slowly strain the liquid from it into the creamed mixture and beat well to make a smooth batter. Stir in the dates from the sieve, then pour the mixture into the prepared tin or baking dish. Bake for 30 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.
4. Meanwhile, for the toffee sauce, put the cream, dark muscovado sugar and butter in a saucepan and leave over a low heat until the sugar has melted. Stir in the stem ginger along with the stem ginger syrup and a pinch of fine sea salt.
5. When ready to serve, bring the toffee sauce back to the boil briefly. If you’ve used a baking dish for the sponge (as in the picture), pour half the sauce directly over the top of the baked sponge, drizzle with single cream, then serve in bowls with the remaining sauce and cream poured over. If you’ve used a tin, remove the sponge from the tin, cut into even pieces, place on warmed plates and pour over some of the sauce, then serve with cream or ice cream.