Heavenly it seems

Well - I've had a lot of very positive comments about this one, several along the lines of 'I am going to abduct you so you become my food slave and cook this all day'. Ahem.

I do wish that I could take credit for this recipe, but it is all due to dear old Jamie Oliver - Jamie's dinners.

For 8 (apparently - more like 4 greedy people, but don't attempt to count the calories)

Put a teasoon of bicarb on 225g dates (without stones), pour some boiling water over it and leave for ~10 mins. The dates will fizz for a bit - don't be scared, all part of the fun. Then drain and mash up. Does end up looking a bit like baby diarrhoea, don't be put off by it.

Cream 170g caster sugar & 85g unsalted butter together, add 2 whole eggs, 170g self raising flour, a good sprinkle of mixed spice and ground cinnamon. Then add ~2 tablespoons of Ovaltine (I LOVE Ovaltine, even though it is a bit 80s, they do still sell it, believe it or not). Mix together well, fold in 2 tablespoons natural yoghurt and the mushed up dates.

Pop in an overproof, buttered dish and bake at 180C for ~35mins. I have to admit the best pudding ever is out of the bottom shelf of an Aga - but living in a postage sized flat in London who has access to this kind of thing....?

While the beautiful pudding is happily baking away, make the toffee sauce. This again, works *so* well on an Aga, but never mind. Low heat on any old chavvy hob will do. Hmpf.

Melt 115g muscovado sugar, 115g unsalted butter an 140ml double cream slowly until it bubbles with excitement and smells divine.

Pop the pudding out of the oven, pour over the sauce and serve with vanilla ice cream. Mmmmm....