Pre heat the oven to 170C. Grease a 6 jumbo hole muffin pan or a normal 12 hole muffin pan or a 6-inch round pan.
In a large bowl, add cup of boiling water, finely chopped dates and baking soda and let it stand for 8-10 minutes till the dates are soft. You can also use full pitted dates here and puree the date mixture to coarse consistency. I alternate between both the methods. The puree leads a little more sticky cake whereas the finely chopped dates give a nice texture to the pudding.
Add eggs and melted butter to the date mixture and whisk well it incorporated.
In a separate bowl, sift flour, baking powder and salt together. Add to the wet mixture along with sugar and using a spatula fold till dry ingredients are fully incorporated in the wet ones.
Pour in the prepared pan and if baking in the 6 hole jumbo pan (my preferred pan for this) bake for 18-20 minutes, 14-16 minutes for the normal muffin pan and about 30-40 minutes for the 6-inch pan. The cake is done when the toothpick comes out clean in the middle
Let the cake cool before demoulding, and in the meantime, make the sauce.
Place the butter, cream, brown sugar and sea salt into a small heavy bottom saucepan. Melt over a medium heat for 5-8 minutes or until completely smooth. Pour over the date cake and serve warm with ice cream.