Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Bring 1 cup of milk to a boil in a small pan. Chop your dates up in the smaller chunks and place into a bowl and top with 1 tsp baking soda and stir. Pour the boiling milk over your dates and let sit submerged for 10 minutes to soften up. Mash or blend the dates to create a paste. If blending, let milk cool before blending (don’t put hot liquid into a blender). Set aside.

In a large bowl add your date paste, eggs, brown sugar, butter, and vanilla. Use a hand mixer to mix. Add in flour, salt, and baking powder and mix again.

To an 8x8 square metal pan, add a piece of parchment paper to the bottom of the pan, grease the sides with a bit of butter. Pour your batter in and bake for 40(ish) minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean from the center (depends on your oven and which pan you’re using).

Remove from oven and let cool for 30 minutes. In the last 10 minutes of cooling, make your toffee.

In a large skillet, heat 1/3c of unsalted butter, 1 1/4c heavy cream, 3/4c brown sugar, a pinch of salt, 1 tsp of vanilla on medium heat. Whisk together. Bring to a light boil for 3-4 minutes and keep stirring (it will burn if you leave it). Remove from heat and wait 5 minutes. Add in 2 tsp of brandy or cognac (optional). Stir in. Let rest.

Scrape the sides of the cake with a knife and flip onto a cutting board. Remove parchment paper from the bottom. Using a serrated knife, carefully cute a THIN slice off each side of the cake (this is to make room in the pan to have the toffee get to all of the edges).

To the bottom of your cake pan, add a thin layer of the toffee. Return your cake to the pan. Using a toothpick, poke holes all throughout your cake. Cut into 9 squares. Pour toffee over the cake.

Let cake sit for at least 30 minutes. Serve with Brown butter ice cream and shortbread crumbles. Enjoy!