This is an interesting cake. It is basically a very rich, moist chocolate cake that is "iced" with chocolate pudding rather than a buttercream or ganache or some more traditional cake coating. It is baked as two 20cm (8") round layers, each of which are then split. Three of the resulting thin layers are used to assemble the cake and the fourth is crumbled and used to coat the outside.

I didn't get my batter divided quite evenly and one of my layers baked up a little thinner than the other. I was a bit nervous about trying to split the thinner one, so I just left it whole and split the thicker one only. I then stacked two of the resulting layers and crumbled the third. This, of course, resulted in a reduced overall surface area, so the filling and "icing" are somewhat more generous than they're really meant to be. (Same overall proportions, of course, just thicker layers since there are fewer of them.)

This worked fine, but did mean that the cake was a little more... wobbly than it would have been had I made it with the "correct" number of layers.

Honestly, if I had two 18cm (7") round pans, then I'd be tempted to bake my cake in those next time. The 8" layers baked up fine. But I would've felt more confident about splitting them had they been slightly thicker. I think 6" layers would probably be too thick/tall. But 7" might be just about right. Sadly, I only have one 7" pan at the moment. Which still might be worth trying next time. It just makes it slightly more difficult to get the batter divided evenly and, obviously, ends up requiring double the cooking time since you have to bake the layers one after the other rather than in tandem. So, possibly something to consider, but definitely not ideal.

Other than my lack of confidence in splitting the layers though, this recipe worked out great! The cake was delicious and moist with deep chocolate flavour. (Which the coffee and brown sugar help to accentuate.) And the pudding was also pleasingly rich and thick. A winner all 'round!

Chocolate Blackout Cake

Slightly adapted from The Perfect Cake by America's Test Kitchen

Ingredients

Pudding

• 1 c. heavy (35%) cream
• 2 c. milk
• 1 1/4 c. sugar
• 1/4 c. cornstarch (cornflour)
• 1/4 tsp. coarse sea salt
• 170g unsweetened chocolate
• 2 tsp. vanilla extract

Cake

• 110g all-purpose flour
• 2 tsp. baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. baking soda
• 1/4 tsp. coarse sea salt, ground
• 1/2 c. unsalted butter
• 3/4 c. Dutched (alkalized) cocoa powder
• 1 c. brewed coffee
• 1 c. buttermilk
• 1 c. brown sugar
• 1 c. sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract

Directions

1. Combine cream, milk, sugar, cornstarch, and sea salt over medium heat.
2. Break chocolate into pieces and add to milk mixture.
3. Cook, whisking frequently, until chocolate has completely melted and mixture is smooth and homogenous.
4. Continue cooking until bubbles begin to form and pudding thickens.
5. Remove from heat, stir in the vanilla, and set aside to cool.
6. Chill for at least 3-4 hours.
7. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 160°C (325°F) and grease and flour¹ two 20cm (8") round baking tins.
8. Sift together the flour, baking powder, and baking soda.
9. Mix in the salt.
10. Melt the butter over medium heat.
11. Mix in the cocoa and cook for 1 minute.
12. Remove from heat and stir in the coffee and buttermilk.
13. Add the brown sugar and granulated sugar.
14. Mix in the eggs, one at a time.
15. Mix in the vanilla.
16. Divide the batter as evenly as possible between the prepared tins.
17. Bake at 160°C (325°F) for 30-35 minutes.
18. Transfer cake layers (still in their tins) to a cooling rack and allow to cool for 15 minutes.
19. Invert tins onto cooling racks and carefully remove the cakes from their tins. Allow to cool completely (1-2 hours).
20. Once cake layers are completely cool, divide each one horizontally.²
21. Place one layer on a serving platter.
22. Spoon ~1 c. of pudding on top and spread all the way to the edges of the layer.
23. Top with a second layer and repeat the process: spreading 1 c. of putting on top.
24. Place a third layer on top and spoon the rest of the pudding over it, completely covering the entire cake -- top and sides.
25. Crumble the fourth layer and sprinkle the chocolate crumbs on top of your assembled cake, covering the top and sides. You will have to press slightly to get the crumbs to adhere to the pudding. Especially on the sides of the cake.
26. Serve immediate or refridgerate for up to 2 days.

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¹ You may wish to line the bottoms with parchment paper and grease the paper before flouring. This adds an extra step, but will help ensure that the cake relases from the pans cleanly. ^Back
2 The folks at America's test kitchen recommend doing this with a serrated knife. The outline a procedure of scoring the perimeter of the cake layers and then cutting through along the scored lines to get a level split. Personally, I have always preferred my mother's method of using a piece of thread. You simply take a long piece of thread and wrap it around the cake (doing your best to make sure it's roughly level/even all the way around), then grab both ends and pull tightly. The thread should slice neatly through the cake! I've found it a ver quick and reliable method and prefer it to faffing about with knives or cake levelling contraptions. ^Back

I really liked the pears with this pudding. And the coconut was nice. Although I didn't feel it came through as strongly as I would have liked. The pudding was also very thick. I ended up thinning mine out with milk before eating it. It was good though. We all enjoyed it. I just wonder if it might be improved by using slightly more liquid or less rice during the preparation. That said, adding the milk after the fact also worked fine, so it wasn't a big deal either way. Although, now that I think about it... we also ran out of pears well before we ran out of pudding, so maybe less rice would be the way to go. That way there'd be a better pudding-to-pear ratio and the pudding would hopefully have a somewhat looser consistency. Something to try for next time.

Coconut Rice Pudding with Gingered Pears

Slightly adapted from Dessert of the Day by Kate Laidlaw

Ingredients

• 1 c. basmati rice¹
• 1 c. half-and-half (10% MF), divided
• 3 c. milk
• 1 (~440mL) can coconut milk
• 1 c. sugar
• 1/8 tsp. coarse sea salt
• 1 1/2 c. unsweetened shredded or flaked coconut
• 2 pears, peeled and chopped
• 1"/2.5cm piece of fresh ginger, peeled and grated
• 2 Tbsp. brown sugar

Directions

1. Combine rice, 1/2 c. of the half-and-half, milk, coconut milk, sugar, and salt and bring to a boil over medium-high heat.
2. Reduce heat to medium-low, cover, and cook, stirring occasionally, until rice is very tender (~30 minutes). Remove from heat and set aside.
3. Preheat oven to 180°C (350°F) and spread coconut out on a lined baking sheet.
4. Toast coconut in oven until golden (3-5 minutes). Set aside to cool.
5. Toss pears with ginger and brown sugar and set aside for at least 20 minutes to macerate.
6. Stir remaining 1/2 c. of the half-and-half into the pudding.
7. Serve topped with pears and toasted coconut.

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¹ The original recipe called for 1 1/2 c. of rice, but, as noted above, this seemed like a bit too much, so I've scaled it back here. ^Back

This is another Weight Watchers recipe. But, unlike some of the previous ones that I've tried, I actually quite like this one. I think my main issue with it is that it's still pretty high in Points. Although it is at least very quick and easy to make.

Pineapple Fluff

From Simple Nourished Living

Ingredients

• 1 (590mL) can crushed pineapple
• 1 (4-serving) package sugar-free vanilla pudding
• 1 c. light whipped cream

Directions

1. Mix the crushed pinapple with the dry pudding mix, then fold in the whipped cream.
2. Cover and chill for at least 1 hour.

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Variations

There are a lot of possible variations on this theme (none of which I've tried yet).

1. Different fruit: peaches, pears, fruit cocktail, mandarin oranges, etc.
2. Different pudding: chocolate or white chocolate... or cheesecake, pistachio, coconut cream, or banana cream if you can find them.¹
3. Different toppings/mix-ins: toasted coconut, marshmallows, cherries, chopped nuts, etc.
4. Different extracts: vanilla extract, coconut extract, orange extract, rum extract, etc.
5. Whipped cream substitutes: light Cool Whip, plain Greek yogurt, fat-free cottage cheese, vanilla yogurt, etc.

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¹ If you're not worried about Points/calories/sugar, then you can get the regular (non-sugar-free) pudding mixes and have a lot more flavour options. ^Back

Carrot Pudding

This was a fun one. I started out browsing Cooking in the Archives looking for a vegetable side dish. I ended up settling on a carrot pudding that they did a write-up for a while back. But the original recipe was damaged and there were a few words at the edge of the page that had become illegible. Here is a transcription:

To make Carrot Pudding
Take Six Carrots not to large Boyle them well & as many pip[pins]
w^th y^e juce of one Lemon & four Sugar Rouls Beat them very
well in a Marble Mortor Mix with these a pint of Cream
& three Eggs Sweeten it to your tast Bake it in a Dish w^th pa[xxx]
& put in Cittern & Candid Oringe

The recipe looks pretty straight-forward overall, but not knowing what that missing word was was driving me nuts! The ladies over at Cooking in the Archives transcribed it as "pu[xxx]", but after staring at it for a while I started wondering if the second letter might actually be an "a" and the missing word might be "paste" -- as in "pastry".

I ended up calling in TM's help on this one. After staring at it for a while and comparing it to similar recipes, the best guesses we could come up with were either some sort of crust or some sort of fat. (We looked at another early modern carrot pudding recipe that called for a large quantity of melted butter to be added to the custard just before baking.)

I think this pudding would work nicely as a sort of tart or pie. It's basically a carrot custard and we put pumpkin custard into pie shells all the time! I think it would make a lovely pie. That said, I ended up making it without the crust this time. Mostly because six carrots, six apples, three eggs, and nearly half a litre of cream makes A LOT of custard and I didn't want to deal with either a stupidly huge pie or lots of smaller ones. So I just did one big, crustless pudding this time around. I think it would be fun to experiment with combining this custard with different pastries though. My go-to would probably be shortcrust, but I think a nice flaky/rough puff could also be nice.

I really enjoyed the citrus flavours with the carrots in this. Honestly, it was really good just as it was. But it could also be interesting to try adding different spices. Cinnamon and orange came up in other early modern recipes. And, although I didn't see any that called for ginger, I think that would also be really nice.

TM also pointed out that it's possible that the "sugar rouls" in this recipe are meant to be fresh breadcrumbs or something similar rather than sugarloaves as I'd originally assumed. And, based on what seems to have been the typical size of a sugarloaf -- 3-5 lbs. -- I think TM probably had it right. Four 3-lb. sugarloaves would be an insane amount of sugar. I ended up using 200g of sugar for my pudding. And, based on similar recipes (and my tastebuds), 100-225g seems to be about right for this amount of carrots. I think it'd be interesting to try it with breadcrumbs at some point, but I was really feeling the custard-y approach today, so I left out the starch this go 'round.

Carrot Pudding (Custard-y)

Adapted from Ms. Codex 631 [Recipe Book] by Judeth Bedingfield

Ingredients

• 6 carrots
• 6 apples
• juice of 1 lemon
• 200g sugar
• 2 c. table (18%) cream¹
• 3-4 eggs²
• 40-50g candied citron and/or orange peel and/or mixed peel

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 180°C (350°F) and grease a casserole dish.
2. Peel and chop the carrots and apples and place them in a pot with enough water to cover them.
3. Bring to a boil and cook until very tender.
4. Drain and purée the carrots and apples.³
5. Blend in the lemon juice, sugar, cream, and eggs.
6. Pour the custard into the prepared dish and sprinkle in the citron/orange.
7. Bake at 180°C (350°F) for ~2 hours or until just set.

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¹ I ended up using whipping cream (35%) for my pudding, but I think table cream probably would've been more appropriate. ^Back
2 The original recipe only called for three eggs, but that didn't seem like very much egg to set that amount of custard. I had an extra egg white left over from making a pie, so I tossed that in. I'm not confident that it would've set up without the extra white. Some of the other recipes called for even more egg. I think I'd lean toward using four eggs in the future. ^Back
3 I decided to try mashing my carrots and apples this time, just to see how the pudding would come out. It was delicious, but I think it would've been even better with puréed custard for a smoother texture. ^Back

Rice Pudding (Early Modern -- with Flour)

I was craving dessert last night but I didn't want more tiramisu and we didn't have anything else easily to hand. At first I was thinking of making some sort of hot chocolate but, as usual, I wandered off on a bit of a tangent. I went from hot chocolate to possets to pudding and eventually settled on rice pudding as an appropriate midnight snack.

I found that Cooking in the Archives had done a couple of rice pudding recipes. One that pretty closely resembles a lot of the modern European rice puddings that I've seen: rice, cream, sugar, cinnamon, egg... The only major differences were that the early modern recipe contained no vanilla (which I would normally expect to see in a modern rice pudding) and did contain a few ingredients that would now be considered unusual, exotic, or down-right weird: breadcrumbs, rosewater, bone marrow, and ambergris.

That recipe sounded pretty interesting -- and I probably will give it a try at some point (minus the ambergris) -- but for now I focused my attention on the other rice pudding recipe. It looked very different from any modern rice pudding recipes I've seen (European or otherwise). Mostly because it called for rice flour rather than whole rice grains. It also called for a lot more eggs and butter than I'm used to.

In the end it came out almost like a flan (minus the caramel, of course). It was wobbly and custardy. Fairly bland, lightly sweet, and went very well with a quick mixed berry compote.

Rice (Flour) Pudding

From Cooking in the Archives

Original Recipe

To Make a Rice Pudding

Take six ounces of rice flower a quart of milk set them over y^e fire & stir them well together while they are thick, then put in half pound of Butter six eggs one nutmeg sweeten to y^r tast, Butter y^r Dish that you bake it in /

Modern Recipe

(Halved from original)

Ingredients

• 85g rice flour
• 2 c. whole (3.25%) milk
• 2 Tbsp. sugar
• 1/2 tsp. ground nutmeg
• 3 eggs, beaten

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 180°C (350°F) and grease a 23cm (9") pie plate or similar baking dish. (one that won't leak!)
2. Combine the rice flour and milk and cook, stirring constantly, over medium-low heat. I chose to add my sugar at this point as well rather than waiting for the mixture to thicken. Either way is fine.
3. It will seem like nothing's happening for a while and then the mixture should thicken quite suddenly all at once. Remove from heat.
4. Mix in the butter. I chose to do this 1 Tbsp. at a time.
5. Mix in the nutmeg.
6. Mix in the eggs. (I mixed them in one at a time.)
7. Pour the mixture into the prepred pie plate and bake for 40 minutes. It will still seem very jiggly and wobbly, but it should be nicely browned on top.
8. Allow to cool (I definite did not follow this instruction), slice, and serve with your choice of toppings: fresh fruit, jam, compote, whipped cream, etc.

I have fond memories of making pudding with my mom. Butterscotch was always my favourite. I used to be able to whip up a batch of pudding from memory, but it's been a while and I've forgotten how. Fortunately, pudding recipes aren't exactly hard to come by. I pulled this one out of an old Cook's Country issue.

Vanilla Pudding

Slightly adapted from Cook's Country April/May 2018

Ingredients

• 2 3/4 c. whole (3.25%) milk, divided
• 1/2 c. sugar
• 1/8 tsp. coarse sea salt
• 1/4 c. cornstarch
• 3 large egg yolks
• 2 Tbsp. unsalted butter
• 1 Tbsp. vanilla extract

Directions

1. Combine 2 1/2 c. milk with the sugar and salt and bring to a simmer, stirring frequently, over medium heat.
2. Meanwhile, whisk the cornstarch into the remaining 1/4 c. milk until completely smooth.
3. Whisk the egg yolks into the cornstarch mixture.
4. Once the hot milk mixture comes to a simmer, remove from heat and gradually whisk it into the egg yolk mixture to temper the eggs.
5. Pour the mixture back into the pot and bring back to a simmer over medium heat, stirring constantly.
6. Once mixture has thickened, remove from heat and stir in butter and vanilla.
7. Serve chilled.

I've been itching to try making a queen of puddings for a couple years now. Ideally I'd been hoping to wait 'til I had some cake crumbs to use for it. I still didn't have cake crumbs for this baking, but I did have some frozen waffles and muffins! I still think cake crumbs would probably be better, but the muffins and waffles worked just fine.

Overall, this was a nice pudding, but quite bland. The custard itself didn't seem nearly sweet enough, especially next to the extremely sweet meringue. I suspect this is less of an issue when you use cake crumbs for the custard layer. Having a flavourful cake in the base would also likely give it a fuller flavour. If I were to do it with breadcrumbs again, I'd probably add more sugar and a bit of vanilla. I also think it could've used a lot more jam. The orginal recipe called for 3 Tbsp. of jam, I used 1/4 c. and that definitely seemed skimpy. I'd up it to 1/3 c. next time.

Queen of Puddings

Slightly adapted from Edmonds Cookery Book

Ingredients

• 2 c. milk
• 2 Tbsp. unsalted butter
• 1 c. soft/fresh breadcrumbs or cake crumbs
• 2 large eggs, separated
• 6-8 Tbsp. sugar, divided
• 1 tsp. lemon zest
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1/3 c. raspberry jam

Directions

1. Heat milk and butter until nearly boiling, then remove from heat.
2. Pour hot milk mixture over crumbs and set aside for 10 minutes.
3. Grease a 6-cup casserole dish and preheat oven to 180°C (350°F).
4. Add egg yolks to crumb mixture.
5. Add up to 1/4 c. of sugar depending on how sweet your crumbs are and how sweet you'd like your custard.
6. Pour custard mixture into prepared dish and bake at 180°C (350°F) for 25-30 minutes. (Custard should be just set.)
7. Heat the jam until runny and easy to spread.
8. Carefully spread the jam over the custard. Be careful not to break the skin.
9. Beat the egg whites until soft peaks form.
10. Beat in 1/4 c. of sugar 1 Tbsp. at a time. Beat until stiff peaks form.
11. Spread meringue on top of the jam. (Pipe it on if you want to be fancy.)
12. Bake at 180°C (350°F) for 10-15 minutes.
13. Serve hot.

"Are we planning anything that needs eggs?" TF asks me. "No," says I as I pack up all 12 of our remaining eggs to be given to TM.

I mean, to be fair, at the moment the question was asked, I wasn't planning anything that required eggs. But an hour or so later I suddenly desperately wanted to bake something. Not bread, we've already got lots and I'm way to tired today anyway. Something quick and easy. A cake or maybe some muffins! Oh right, those are things that generally require eggs. Drat! Cue an hour of aimlessly flipping through recipes muttering about eggs.

I wasn't in the mood for a pie or a crumble or shortbread, so that eliminated a lot of the non-bread egg-less options. I considered making scones or making muffins or quick bread with flax eggs in place of the chicken egg, but none of those quite tickled my fancy tonight. I had initially written off this cranberry pudding recipe since we didn't have any frozen cranberries left... or so I thought! After some contemplation I decided that maybe it was worth double-checking the cranberry situation. Turns out we still had most of a bag in the freezer! Score!

This recipe apparently hails from Maine and is pudding in the British sense of being a sweet dessert-type dish rather than pudding in the North American sense of being a custard-y milk-based concoction. Looking at the recipe, it looks an awful lot like sticky toffee pudding but with cranberries taking the place of the dates. I still think I prefer traditional sticky toffee pudding, but this is an interesting variation on the theme.

Cranberry Pudding

From Taste of Home

Ingredients

Cake

• 1/4 c. unsalted butter, softened
• 1/4-1/2 c. sugar¹
• 1 c. all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• 1/8 tsp. coarse sea salt, ground
• 1/2 c. whole (3.25%) milk
• 1 1/2 c. frozen cranberries, halved

Sauce

• 1/2-1 c. brown sugar¹
• 1 Tbsp. all-purpose flour
• 1/16 tsp. coarse sea salt, ground
• 2/3 c. water
• 1 Tbsp. unsalted butter
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract

Directions

Cake

1. Grease and flour a 20cm (8") square cake tin and preheat oven to 180°C (350°F).
2. Cream sugar with butter.
3. Combine flour, baking powder, and salt.
4. Mix flour mixture into creamed mixture alternately with milk.
5. Stir in cranberries.
6. Spread mixture evenly into prepared tin.
7. Bake at 180°C (350°F) for 40 minutes.

Sauce

1. Combine sugar, flour, and salt.
2. Stir in water until smooth.
3. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat.
4. Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer, stirring occasionally for 3 minutes.
5. Remove from heat and stir in butter and vanilla.
6. Pour sauce over warm cake.

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The original recipe is written for the larger amount of sugar, which is what I used this time. However, I found the results overly sweet. If I'm going to have cranberry pudding, I'd like for the cranberries to be able to really shine. I'll probably try scaling back the sugar in either the cake, the sauce, or both next time. ^Back

This pie did not go as planned. Just about everything that could go wrong, did. I mixed the gelatin in at the wrong point. The meringue didn't whip up properly. I had to ditch the whole batch and start over again. I ended up making a French meringue rather than the Swiss one called for in the recipe. And then, because the French meringue is uncooked, I had to try to bake it in the oven rather that giving it a quick blast under the broiler to brown it. On top of that, I ended up baking it to at too high a temperature which then required me to take it out before the meringue had fully set. And heating the pie back up caused filling to liquefy, so then I had to toss it back in the fridge to try to get it to set again. By the time I'd reached the end of the whole process and managed to assemble the pie, I felt like it was cursed.

Even with all that, this pie was amazing! Seriously, so delicious. I can't even imagine what it would've been like if I'd managed to do it right. Definitely one to try again.

Banana Pudding Pie

Adapted from Cook's Country April/May 2020

Ingredients

Crust

Original Recipe

• 4 c. Nilla Wafer cookies
• 3 Tbsp. brown sugar
• 1 Tbsp. flour
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• 6 Tbsp. unsalted butter, melted

Lazy Way

• 1 ready-made graham cracker pie crust

Filling

• 2 tsp. unflavoured gelatin
• 1 3/4 c. half-and-half (10% cream), divided
• 3/4 c. sugar
• 5 large egg yolks
• 2 Tbsp. flour
• 1/8 tsp. coarse sea salt, ground
• pinch ground cinnamon
• pinch ground allspice
• 2 Tbsp. unsalted butter, chilled
• 1 Tbsp. vanilla extract
• 2 ripe bananas, peeled and sliced

Meringue

Swiss Meringue¹

• 1/4 c. sugar
• 1/4 c. brown sugar
• 4 large egg whites
• 1/4 tsp. cream of tartar

French Meringue

• 4 large egg whites
• 1/4 tsp. cream of tartar
• 1/2 c. sugar

Directions

Crust

Original Recipe

1. Pulse cooies, sugar, flour, and salt in food processor for ~10 pulses.
2. Add melted butter and pulse until combined, scraping down sides of bowl as needed.
3. Transfer to 9" pie plate and use your hands to press the crumbs firmly up the sides of the plate. The walls should be at least 5mm thick and go all the way up to the top edge of the plate.
4. Press the remaining crumbs into an even layer on the bottom of the plate. Be sure to firmly press into the corners.
5. Bake at 160°C (325°F) for 18-20 minutes.
6. Transfer to wire rack to cool.

Lazy Way

1. No prep needed. Crust is ready to use.

Filling

1. Sprinkle gelatin over 1/2 c. of the half-and-half and set aside.
2. Whisk sugar, egg yolks, flour, salt, cinnamon, allspice, and remaining 1 1/4 c. half-and-half until fully combined.
3. Cook over medium heat, whisking constantly and scraping corners, until mixture thickens (5-7 minutes).
4. Remove from heat and whisk in butter, vanilla, and gelatin mixture.
5. Stir bananas into hot filling.
6. Pour filling into crust.
7. Cover and chill for 4-24 hours.

Meringue

Swiss Meringue

1. Whisk all ingredients together in a heatproof bowl.
2. Place bowl over saucepan filled with a couple inches of boiling water.
3. Whisking gently but constantly, cook until mixture reaches 71-73°C (160-165°F). This should take ~8 minutes.
4. Remove from heat and whisk on high speed until meringue forms stiff peaks (2-3 minutes).
5. Uncover pie and spread meringue over filling. Make sure to spread it all the way to the edges.
6. Heat broiler and broil until meringue is well-browned (1-2 minutes).

French Meringue

1. Combine egg whites and cream of tartar and beat until frothy.
2. Add sugar 1 Tbsp. at a time while continuing to beat on high speed.
3. Continue beating until stiff peaks are formed.
4. Uncover pie and spread meringue over filling. Make sure to spread it all the way to the edges.
5. Bake at ?? for ??. I tried baking it at 450°F (230°C), but had to take it out after only 8 minutes as the top had become excessively brown and was in danger of burning. I'll try 400°F (200deg;C) next time and see how that goes.

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¹ The original recipe calls for 2/3 c. sugar total (1/3 c. granulated, 1/3 c. brown). This did NOT work at all for me. I don't know if the problem was too much sugar or something else, but it certainly seemed like A LOT of sugar for the amount egg and the mixture was thick and sticky and syrupy, almost like molasses. I didn't want to try the Swiss meringue again after one failed attempt, so I just whipped up a quick French meringue since they're reliable and I've never had one fail. If I were going to try the Swiss meringue again, I'd start by adding less sugar and see if that helped at all. Hence the reduced sugar quantities above. ^Back

I've had my eye on this one for a while. TF loves both dark chocolate and orange and especially so when they're combined. As long as you plan ahead a little to account for the chilling time, this makes for a very quick and easy dessert to throw together. And if you're concerned about eating raw eggs you could always look for pasteurized ones.

Chocolate-Orange Mousse

From Cook's Country February/March 2019

Ingredients

• 225g semi-sweet chocolate, chopped
• 2 large eggs
• 2 egg yolks
• 1/4 c. brown sugar
• 1/2 tsp. grated orange zest
• 1 c. heavy (35%) cream
• 3 Tbsp. orange juice

Directions

1. Gently melt the chocolate and set aside to cool¹.
2. Combine eggs, yolks, sugar, and orange zest in a blender and process until light and frothy (~1 minute).
3. Add cream, orange juice, and chocolate and process until slightly thickened (~1 minute).
4. Pour ~1/2 c. each into six ramekins, cover, and chill until set (~3 hours).
5. Uncover and let sit at room temperature for ~10 minutes before serving.

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¹ The original suggests melting the chocolate in the microwave -- 1-2 minutes at 50% power. Something went wrong with my microwave settings though and the chocolate ended up slightly burnt. I think next time I'd just do it on the stove. ^Back

Pineapple Upside-Down Pudding (Cake)

Pineapple upside-down cake is a well-known classic here that I have somehow never made nor even tasted. Edmonds has a recipe for it though and I've been craving sweets lately, so I decided it was time to take a crack at it. There's also a recipe for it in The Perfect Cake by America's Test Kitchen. It uses fresh pineapple cut into small pieces though. And I'm sure it's absolutely lovely. That said, I really wanted that classic look with the pineapple rings and cherry centres for my first time through, so I went with the Edmonds recipe. Maybe I'll try the ATK one next time.

I'm very pleased with how this came out overall. It tastes lovely. It looks great. The mixed spice works really well in the topping! I was worried that the cake part would be too bland, since it doesn't have any flavouring in it, not even vanilla, but it's actually fine. The fruit and spices in the topping are enough. That said, I don't think you'd go wrong with a little vanilla in the batter. If I were to make the pear version at some point I'd be tempted to add a little crystallized ginger to the batter as well. It'll be interesting to see how the flavours in the American version compare if I end up making that one at some point.

One thing I should point out: Don't try to be clever like me and bake it in a springform pan. I thought it would make it easier to unmold since I could just take the sides off and then invert it onto a plate without having to worry about getting it out of the tin or having it stick to the sides. Once it was upside down, I could then just lift the flat metal disc off to reveal the pineapple-y goodness. To be fair, this did, in fact, work. The issue was all the brown sugar topping leaking out the bottom and burning on the bottom of the oven. That part was less good. Next time I'll just bake it in a regular cake tin and trust that it won't stick.

Pineapple Upside-Down Pudding

Slightly adapted from Edmonds Cookery Book

Ingredients

Topping

• 25g (~2 Tbsp.) salted butter, melted
• 1/4 c. brown sugar
• 1 tsp. mixed spice
• 1 tsp. corn syrup or golden syrup (optional)¹
• 6-8 tinned pineapple rings, drained²
• 6-7 glacé cherries³

Pudding (Cake)

• 125g (~9 Tbsp.) salted butter, softened
• 1/2 c. sugar
• 2 large eggs⁴
• 1 tsp. vanilla (optional)
• 1 c. soft (plain/standard/cake) flour
• 2 tsp. baking powder
• 2 Tbsp. milk

Directions

Topping

1. Combine the butter, brown sugar, mixed spice, and syrup (if using).
2. Spread the mixture over the bottom of a greased 20cm (8") round cake tin⁵.
3. Arrange 6 or 7 pineapple rings on top of the brown sugar mixture. If you're using a 20cm tin, you'll probably only fit 6 rings. If you've got a 23cm pan, you can probably get 7. I also chopped up an 8th ring and used the pieces to fill in any gaps.
4. Place a cherry in the centre of each pineapple ring.

Pudding (Cake)

1. Preheat oven to 350°F (180°C).
2. Cream the butter with the sugar until light and fluffy.
3. Beat in the eggs, one at a time. Vanilla (if using) may also be added at this point.
4. Sift in the flour and baking powder and fold⁶ into the creamed mixture.
5. Stir in the milk.
6. Pour the batter over the pineapples and cherries in the tin and spread to form an even layer.
7. Drop the tin a couple times to knock out any air bubbles.
8. Bake at 350°F (180°C) for 40 minutes. (Less if you're using a 23cm/9" tin.)
9. Invert onto serving plate so the pineapple and cherries are on top.
10. Serve warm with cream and/or custard.

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¹ I ended up using a 23cm (9") round tin rather than a 20cm (8"). I added just a touch of corn syrup to the topping just to give it a little more volume and make it a bit easier to spread. ^Back
2 You can make it a pear upside-down cake/pudding by substituting tinned pear halves for the pineapple rings. Edmonds suggests a 425g can of pear halves. ^Back
3 Edmonds calls for glacé cherries. I prefer maraschino, so that's what I used for mine. Feel free to use either. ^Back
4 Our eggs were on the small side, so I tossed in an extra one. ^Back
5 You can also use a 23cm (9") round tin, just don't bake it for quite as long. I ended up taking mine out of the oven after only 20 or 30 minutes. (I lost track of time slightly, so I'm not sure exactly how long it was in.) ^Back
6 Edmonds says to fold the dry ingredients into the creamed mixture, which is what I did. Next time I think I'd probably just use the electric mixer on low to mix them in. Possibly there's some reason why I shouldn't do this. Maybe they're trying to prevent air from being knocked out of the butter so they want the dry stuff mixed in extra gently. But I haven't had any problems with using the beaters to mix flour into batters using the creaming method in the past, so hopefully it shouldn't be an issue. ^Back

Bread and Butter Pudding

I love bread pudding but, until today, I'd never actually made it myself. It turns out that your basic bread pudding is super easy to make! I'll definitely be making some tweaks and trying different flavour combinations but, as a first attempt, this made for a perfectly acceptable (if somewhat bland) pudding.

Basic Bread and Butter Pudding

Slightly adapted from Edmonds Cookery Book

Ingredients

• 2-4 Tbsp. salted butter, softened¹
• 6-8 thick slices stale bread²
• 2-4 Tbsp. jam (optional)
• 2-4 Tbsp. currants or raisins³
• 1/4-1/2 c. sugar⁴
• 1 Tbsp. lemon zest
• 4 large eggs
• 2 c. whole (3.25%) milk
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract (optional)

Directions

1. Butter the bread¹.
2. Spread (or toss) with jam, if using.
3. If the bread isn't already in small pieces, cut into triangles.
4. Combine currants (or raisins), sugar, and lemon zest.
5. Arrange buttered bread in an ovenproof dish sprinkling in the sugar mixture along the way.
6. Beat the eggs with the milk and vanilla (if using).
7. Pour the egg mixture over the bread and let stand for 30 minutes, periodically pressing the bread down into the liquid.
8. Sprinkle top with more sugar if desired.
9. Bake at 325°F (160°C) for 1 hour.

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¹ In theory you're supposed to butter the slices of bread. In practice, I didn't have slices, I had bits and pieces of crusts and heels. So, rather than trying to spread soft butter on them, I tossed them with some melted butter. It seemed to work pretty well. Although I did have to use more than the 2 Tbsp. called for in the original recipe. ^Back
2 As noted above, I didn't have slices, I had random scraps and chunks of bread. I measured out ~6 cups (with a lot of air space) for this recipe. ^Back
3 The currants were nice, but I would've preferred a) a lot more of them and b) if they'd actually been raisins. ^Back
4 With only a quarter cup of sugar, this pudding was treading the line between sweet and savoury. Possibly this was down to the fact that I was using whole wheat bread. Maybe with white bread 1/4 c. would be enough. I also didn't use jam. If I had, then obviously that would've brought some sweetness to the table, so I might've been able to get away with the smaller amount of sugar. If you're using whole wheat bread and/or you're skipping the jam, I recommend upping the sugar to 1/2 c. to make sure it comes out sweet enough. ^Back

This is the first thing I've made where I've felt a little like I was trying to do a Great British Bake Off technical challenge. I had a recipe, but I had no idea what it was supposed to come out like. And the recipe seemed very odd to me. The description made it sound like a sort of lemon self-saucing sponge pudding. But the recipe only contained 2 Tbsp. of sugar and looked a bit more souflé-like.

In the end, it came out very light, pale, and almost meringue-like with -- as promised by Edmonds -- a layer of lemon custard at the bottom. I think it probably could've used a couple tablespoons more sugar, but that could just be down to the size of my lemon.

Lemon Delicious

From Edmonds Cookery Book

Ingredients

• 1 c. full fat milk¹
• 1/2 c. sugar
• juice and zest of one lemon
• 2 Tbsp. soft (plain/standard/cake) flour
• 1 Tbsp. salted butter, melted
• 2 eggs, separated

Directions

1. Whisk together milk, sugar, lemon juice, lemon zest, flour, butter, and egg yolks until smooth and well-blended.
2. Preheat oven to 325°F (160°C) and grease a small casserole dish and set it inside a larger ovenproof dish or pot filled with enough water to come about halfway up the sides of the casserole.
3. Beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form.
4. Gently fold egg whites into lemon mixture being careful not to knock too much air out.
5. Pour mixture into prepared casserole.
6. Bake at 325°F (160°C) for 40 minutes.

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¹ I ended up using 2 Tbsp. of heavy (35%) cream and then adding 1% milk to make a cup. That seems to have done a reasonable job of approximating whole/full fat milk. ^Back