Preheat the oven to 180°C/160°C fan/350°F/gas mark 4. Grease an approx 20-23cm / 8-9in square baking dish (mine is about 20.5 x 24.5cm).

Place the chopped dates and bicarbonate of soda in a large jug and stir in the 200ml of boiling water. Set aside to soak for 10 minutes so that the dates are nice and soft.

Add the oil, milk, dark muscovado sugar and treacle to the date mixture (don’t drain off the soaking liquid!).

Use a stick blender to blitz it until it is fairly smooth. It doesn’t need to be 100% smooth, you just don’t want there to be any chunks of date left. Alternatively, you can transfer the lot to a blender to blend it if you don’t have a stick one.

In a separate large bowl, sift together the plain flour, baking powder, ginger and a pinch of salt.

Add the blended date mixture to the dry ingredients and stir to form a smooth batter; don’t over-beat it, just stir until no dry lumps remain.

Transfer the batter to the greased baking dish, spread it level and bake for 20-30 minutes until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.

Make the sauce while the pudding is baking. Place the butter, light brown soft sugar and treacle in a saucepan over a low heat. Stir until it is melted and smooth.

Add the cream and vanilla extract, stir until smooth, bring up to a simmer then remove the pan from the heat. You can add a pinch of salt if you feel it needs it.

Allow the pudding to cool in the dish for 10 minutes then prick the surface all over with a toothpick and drizzle over ½ to ⅔rds of the toffee sauce, making sure that the top of the pudding is fully covered.

Leave to cool for 20 minutes then serve with ice cream or custard and the rest of the sticky toffee sauce. (The sauce will thicken as it cools, simply reheat it in a pan or in the microwave for a few seconds until it becomes pourable again).