1. Preheat the oven to 180 C. Grease and flour a 23 cm ring tin.

2. In a large bowl, stir together the dates, water, coffee, vanilla essence and baking soda. Allow to stand for 10 minutes.

3. Beat the softened butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.
Gradually beat in the eggs.

4. Carefully stir the flour into the creamed mixture with the date mix.
The batter should be quite sloppy.

5. Pour the mixture into the prepared tin.

6. Bake in the preheated oven for 30 minutes or until a skewer inserted comes out clean. Stand in the tin while preparing the sauce. 

7. For the sauce, put the butter, sugar, cream and pecans or walnuts (we added dried figs in ours) into a saucepan and simmer together for 5 minutes.

8. Turn the pudding out onto a serving plate and serve in thick slices with plenty of sauce to accompany and scoops of vanilla ice cream. 

Recipe: Wooleen Station, Chef Jane
Photography: Elli Jennings