sticky toffee pudding is a light, baked sponge studded with chopped dates and topped with a butterscotch sauce. See dates and butterscotch. It was made popular in Britain after it became a standby on the menu of the Sharrow Bay Country House hotel in Ullswater, Cumbria, in the early 1970s. Coincidentally, there was a rising affection for traditional puddings and desserts among the British dining classes, which was stimulated and encouraged by restaurant kitchens (which were more prepared to do the work than were private cooks). The two most significant examples of this tendency were sticky toffee pudding and Banoffee pie (a tart of caramelized condensed milk with sliced banana and an instant-coffee-cream topping) created by the Hungry Monk restaurant in Jevington, Sussex. Neither was traditional; both were excessively sweet.
