An eight-inch square date sponge softened with hot water and baking soda, served with a warm brown-sugar and cream toffee sauce.

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Heat oven to 350°F and line an 8-inch square metal pan with parchment. Put 8 oz chopped pitted dates in a heatproof bowl, pour over 1 cup boiling water, stir in 1 tsp baking soda and let stand 10 minutes.
Beat 6 tbsp softened butter with ½ cup packed dark brown sugar until combined, then beat in 2 eggs one at a time and 1 tsp vanilla. Whisk 1¼ cups all-purpose flour, 1 tsp baking powder and ½ tsp fine salt separately. Fold dry mixture into butter mixture, then fold in softened dates and all their soaking liquid.
Spread batter in prepared pan and bake at 350°F about 35 minutes, until a skewer in the center comes out without wet batter. While it bakes, gently heat 4 tbsp butter, ¾ cup packed brown sugar and ¾ cup heavy cream in a small saucepan, stirring until dissolved and slightly thickened; stir in ¼ tsp fine salt.
Poke the warm baked cake with a skewer and pour roughly half the warm sauce across the top; rest 10 minutes. Cut into eight squares and divide remaining warm sauce among all eight portions. Record sauce yield and cake texture at test.

Recipe-development draft; not kitchen-tested. Timing and yield are estimates. Nutrition has not been calculated.

Additional chilling, resting or cooling time: 20 minutes, included in the total.

Untested estimate: 10-minute date soak and 10-minute sauced-cake rest in additional time; sauce cooks during cake bake, not added to the total.

Serving Size: One of eight cake squares with one eighth of the measured toffee sauce