Place dates, bicarb and boiling water in bowl to soak for 15mins

Line slow cooker with baking paper and spritz lightly with non stick spray

Cream together butter, sugar and vanilla

Add eggs one at a time and combine each one into the mix

Add flour and soaked dates mixture (with any remaining water included) and fold through to combine

Pour this pudding mix into a slow cooker lined with baking paper

Cook on HIGH with tea towel trick for approx. 1hr 10minutes, or until cooked through when skewer inserted in middle comes out clean

(Times will vary between slow cookers as the larger the cooker the thinner the pudding and the faster it will cook. I used a 5L slow cooker for this recipe)

Turn slow cooker off but leave pudding sit in the warm cooker while you make the sauce

On stove top combine all sauce ingredients.

Stir as you bring it to the boil then turn back to a simmer for 5-10mins until thickened slightly. Stirring continuously. Remove from heat.

Lift pudding out of slow cooker by baking paper and place on serving dish. Poke holes all over the pudding with a wooden skewer. Pour half of the sauce mix over the pudding slowly to allow it to soak down through these holes.

Slice pudding into serves and use remaining sauce to drizzle over each plate when served. Add vanilla ice cream on the side and enjoy this amazing sweet treat!

This recipe is also in our new book READY SET SLOW