Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius. Grease and line a 20cm round cake tin with a baking paper bottom and sides.
Add the dates and water to a small saucepan, and bring to a simmer for 5 minutes or until the mixture is thick.
Take dates off the heat and add bicarbonate soda; the mixture will bubble up, so stir in fast with a metal spoon.
Leave the date mixture to cool; beat together the butter and sugar until creamy.
Add beaten eggs to the batter and keep beating until light and fluffy; add vanilla essence and beat in also.
Fold in dates to batter with the metal spoon, followed by the flour. Make sure that all ingredients are combined evenly.
Pour into a prepared cake tin and bake for 45 minutes or until a golden-brown colour.
While the cake bakes, you can move on to the sauce, which is pretty easy!
In a saucepan, add butter and allow to melt together over low heat until smooth and you can no longer see sugar crystals.
Pour in the cream and stir over low heat until well combined.
Take off heat and set aside to cool.
To serve as a whole cake, ice the cake with the sauce once it has cooled enough to be thick or if serving as slices, cut the cake and then drizzle over warm sauce plus, add a bit of fresh whipped cream or vanilla ice cream to the side, and you have yourself one delicious sticky dessert!