Malva Pudding

1. With an electric hand mixer, mix the soft butter and sugar.
2. Beat egg, bicarbonate of soda, and apricot jam together and add it to the butter and sugar mixture.
3. Beat well to get a fluffy mixture.
4. Add flour and stir with a spoon into the above mixture.
5. Gradually add the milk (¼ cup at a time) and stir until the mixture is smooth.
6. Pour it into the greased dish (with lid).
7. Bake in preheated oven at 180°C / 350°F for 45–55 minutes until cooked, and a tester comes out clean or, depending on your oven.

Sauce for the Malva Pudding

1. Measure out and mix all ingredients in a large pot.
2. Stir and mix until sugar is dissolved and bring to a boil, turn the heat down and simmer sauce for ±5 minutes but keep stirring continuously, as it may burn.
3. Set aside.
4. When Malva pudding is done and coming hot out of the oven, prick it with a thin cake tester needle, and poke lots of holes in the pudding.
5. Pour the hot sauce over the hot pudding and return to the oven (turned off) for 5–10 minutes, as this will help the sauce soak into the pudding.
6. You will think you have way too much sauce, yes you do, but add it all (as you will see below **)
7. You can serve the Malva pudding hot or cold with custard and/or ice cream or anything you like to add as a topping.

Malva Sauce Custard **

1. Approx 1½ cups liquid from the pudding ** – excess (in total you should have 2½ cups of liquid)
2. I made lots of sauce ** for the Malva Pudding as I wanted to try to make the custard from the excess and it’s super delicious. WOW will do this again.
3. Make the sauce as indicated above and pour ALL on the Malva pudding.
4. Let it soak in as best possible and then drain that which does not soak into the pudding into a glass bowl. I ended up with approx. 1½ cups of sauce.
5. Add all excess sauce,  ±1 extra cup of milk, and the custard powder in a glass bowl and whisk with a handheld whisk until well blended and no lumps visible.
6. Microwave for 5–8 minutes on high. Stir 2-3 times while cooking and till it’s thick enough. Time may vary depending on the strength of your microwave.
7. The thickness will depend on how you like it.
8. Add more custard powder if you want it thicker or more milk to thin it out.

Note: Once the custard is cold it will become thick and it’s easy, just add milk, mix through, and heat again as desired. Enjoy.

My husband loved the Malva sauce custard** and said he prefer that above the standard and plain custard I usually made, so this is a new one to remember and I will do it again.