Sticky banofee loaf with toffee sauce

A sticky toffee pudding and banana loaf mash-up. Leftover loaf will keep for a few days and is great with a cuppa. The sauce will keep for a couple of weeks to be drizzled over ice cream or cakes.

SERVES 6 (with leftovers) PREP 10 mins COOK 50 mins EASY V

100ml dark rum (optional)

2 tsp bicarbonate of soda 200g chopped dates

100g vegetarian suet

250g plain flour

1 tsp vanilla extract

100g golden caster sugar

2 ripe bananas, chopped crème fraîche or vanilla ice cream, to serve (optional)

For the tofee sauce

150ml double cream

100g dark brown sugar

75g butter

1 Pour the rum and 200ml water into a saucepan (if you’re not using the rum, add an extra 100ml water). Bring to the boil, add the bicarb and dates, then leave to cool, allowing the dates to soak up the boozy liquid. 2 Heat oven to 180C/160C fan/gas 4. Pour the dates and the liquid into a bowl and add the suet, four, vanilla and sugar. Beat until completely mixed, then fold in the banana and spoon into a lined 900g loaf tin. Bake for 40-45 mins until an inserted skewer comes out clean. Leave to cool.

3 While the cake is cooling, put the cream, sugar, butter and a small pinch of salt in a saucepan. Bring to the boil and cook until you have a bubbling sauce. Slice the banofee loaf, pour over some sauce and serve with some crème fraîche or vanilla ice cream, if you like.

GOOD TO KNOW 1 of 5-a-day

PER SLICE 732 kcals • fat 35g • saturates 20g • carbs 95g • sugars 61g • fibre 4g • protein 6g • salt 1.2g