DAVE STANFORD rustles up an easy dessert.

I’VE been doing this column for almost 18 months now and the truly remarkable thing is I don’t appear to have dropped a major culinary faux pas.

One reader did complain about the colour of my pesto, but I’ve yet to be hauled over the coals by York’s answer to Gordon Ramsay because a recipe failed to come up to scratch.

The slightly less remarkable fact is that in all this time is I’ve yet to provide a recipe for a dessert.

There are two reasons for this. I’m not really a dessert man. Secondly, I have only one dessert recipe, and this is it.

It comes courtesy of Nigella Lawson and her book, Nigella Bites (It’s the only recipe I ever follow from this book, so the page is easily found – it’s the one covered in smudges, coffee rings and sticky toffee).

The reason I like this dish so much is the simplicity of it. It’s a little bit of magic – chuck everything in a bowl, mix, chuck in the oven and voila! – perfect sticky toffee pudding every time.

It’s particularly practical when you’ve got a large gathering for dinner, because you can prepare much of it in advance. Just as you dish up the main course, pour the boiling water over the ‘cake’ mix, put in the oven and leave.

Once everyone has polished off their main course, the toffee pudding should be just about ready to serve.

It looks really impressive, tastes even better and will wow your guests.

Easy sticky toffee pudding

Should feed a least six, at a push eight.

For the cake

100g dark muscovado sugar
175g self-raising flour
125ml full fat milk
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
50g unsalted butter, melted
200g chopped dates.

For the sauce

200g dark muscovado sugar
Approximately 25g unsalted butter in little blobs
500ml boiling water.

• Preheat the oven to 190c and butter a 1.5l pudding dish or similar Combine the 100g of sugar with the flour in a large bowl.

• Pour the milk into a jug, beat in the egg, vanilla and melted butter and then pour the mixture over the sugar and flour, stirring to combine.

• Add the dates and mix, then scrape into the pudding dish. Don’t worry if it doesn’t look very full – it will by the time it is cooked.

• Sprinkle over the 200g of sugar and dot with butter.

• Pour over the boiling water and transfer to the oven for at least 45 minutes.

• The top of the pudding should be springy and spongy when it’s cooked, with a rich, sticky sauce underneath.

• Serve with custard, or ice cream or creme fraiche – whatever takes your fancy.