Southern Banana Pudding vs Sticky Toffee Pudding with Toffee Sauce

Both desserts rely on butter, eggs, vanilla and cream, but they put them to very different work. In the banana pudding, egg yolks thicken a stovetop milk custard finished with butter and vanilla, which is layered with vanilla wafers and sliced bananas, topped with meringue or whipped cream, and chilled until cool and creamy. The sticky toffee pudding creams butter with brown sugar and eggs into a batter rich with softened dates, saving its cream for a hot butter-and-brown-sugar sauce. The result is a darker, more intense dessert defined by its warm, baked structure.