Malva Pudding - South African dessert recipe

Almost every cafeteria in Cape Town has Malva Pudding on its dessert menu. It is one of those ubiquitous dishes that one has to side-step diplomatically, as a tour boss organising menus for a week of dinners for clients on walking holidays. If you're not particular you could end up with a gastronomic tour of Cape Town's Malva Puddings! That's not to say that it is not a good dessert choice. It is rich, delicious and indulgent and has to be tasted at least once on a glutton tour of Cape Town. Along with many other original South African dishes it gives a nod to the Netherlands for its origins. Essentially a rather homely baked cakey pudding, its cafeteria version soaks itself in a rich, creamy sauce to take on a mantle of decadence, while elegant versions serve themselves up with a few poached apricots alongside too.

No-one seems to know where the name Malva pudding came from - suggestions range from a original accompaniment of Malvasia wine, a heavy dessert wine, to a woman named Malva creating it back in the mists of time.

Desserts Food

I tried out my sister-in-law's recipe to make a dessert to consequent our Sunday lunch of roast chicken and roast potatoes. Hers is a home version rather than cafeteria one and gives details for the cake without drenching it in the creamy sauce. It produces a comforting cross-between steamed pudding and cake, with a tantalising hint of the apricot jam that flavours it and a pleasing, practically caramelly overtone. It is served warm with custard and cream alongside. Leaving out the stage of drenching it with the sauce makes it a lot less rich and calorific, but does mean that you can eat a lot more of it!

Malva Pudding - South African dessert recipe

Malva Pudding Recipe

Serves 6-8

1 heaped tablespoon butter

3 heaped tablespoons apricot jam

1 egg

1 cup flour

1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

½ cup sugar

½ cup milk

Cream together the butter and sugar. Add the beaten egg and jam and beat together. Add the dry ingredients and milk alternately and stir into the mixture. Pour the batter into a greased round dish approx 21cm / 8 inches. Cover either with a lid or tinfoil and bake at 180C / 375F for 30 minutes until the top is browned and a skewer comes out clean. Serve warm with custard and cream.

If you would like to try the rich and more original version of Malva Pudding, and I think it should be done once in a while, here is a recipe for the sauce to drench it in as soon as it leaves the oven.

Sauce

1 cup cream

4oz / 100g butter

½ cup sugar

60 ml hot water

Warm together the ingredients until the butter has melted and the sugar dissolved and pour over the pudding as it comes out of the oven. You can prick holes in the top to help the sauce soak in.

With the sauce incorporated into the Malva Pudding you hardly need anyone else to accompany it, the cream being already inside! Just for appearances' sake though you might like to serve it with a conservative dollop of vanilla ice cream, or a few poached apricots and a drizzle of cream. The other compromise is to support some of the sauce to serve alongside the pudding rather than letting the whole number soak in.

Copyright 2007 Kit Heathcock

Malva Pudding - South African dessert recipe

all clad copper core 2 quart saucepan