Sticky toffee pudding rocks!

My foodie weakness is puddings. Real old-fashioned British puddings.

Nothing too sweet, nor something that'll leave me feeling queasy afterwards, but something tasty and just sweet enough to be satisfying. Rhubarb crumble and custard... apple pie and real vanilla ice-cream (not that icky synthetic stuff that might have come out of a Mr Whippy van)... you get the idea.

And if it's a fruit pudding, like those, I can even kid myself I've had one of my 5-a-day at pudding time. Couldn't be better.

But when I go to a restaurant, I have to exercise a great deal of willpower if there's sticky toffee pudding on the menu and I'm trying to have a don't-eat-too-much sort of day.

Because there's hardly anything to beat a good sticky toffee pud.

What do I mean by a "good" sticky toffee pud? Well, here's what makes it for me:

• A sponge that's sweet but not too sweet, and light enough not to lie like a brick on the stomach afterwards.
• Plenty of fat juicy dates in the sponge.
• Butterscotch sauce poured over, again not too sweet and it's best if made with dark muscovado sugar.
• And a generous blob of good-quality vanilla ice cream on top. No pouring cream (yuck) and no trying to be clever by serving it with chocolate or strawberry ice cream. It's got to be either vanilla, or something like toffee fudge or honeycomb ice cream.

Mmm. I'm hungry now. Perhaps I'll postpone the home-grown-blackcurrant crumble I'd planned for this weekend and try making a sticky toffee pud instead...