Making Malva Pudding

Malva Pudding is awesomingly delicioso. Usually only found on the dessert menus in traditional South African restaurants, I had to resort to making it from scratch so we could eat it more often that we eat at Moyo.

Luckily a blog I follow gave me this easy to make recipe (courtesy of CocoCooking.com.) Thanks Coco!

Here are some of the ingredients. Nothing too weird except that bicarbonate of soda is the same thing as baking soda. I did not know that. And smooth apricot jam. I would have probably just bought a bottle of regular apricot jam - complete with seeds - if I didn't see the can of Koo brand smooth apricot jam on the supermarket shelf.

Let me just come clean at this point lest you get the wrong impression about my baking prowess. Baking scares the crap out of me. When I bake, I follow the letter of the law in the recipe. If the recipe says smooth apricot jam, I buy smooth apricot jam. I never confuse dry measure with wet measure. I measure like my life depends on it and I never ever improvise. Ever.

And it is the reason why, in spite of my severe bake-a-phobia, I hosted a Christmas Cookie Exchange for ten years at my home in NJ for 45 domestic goddesses. I wanted to conquer my fears by meeting them head on. Unfortunately I failed. To this day, baking still scares the crap out of me.

cookie exchange feeding frenzy

Vince on the other hand is a master chef and baker who honed his craft under the tutelage of the Food Network's Alton Brown and by watching America's Test Kitchen on PBS. He uses a recipe more as a guideline rather than a rule. He likes to know the physics behind yeast rising and why whipping batter too much or too little will change a recipe. I do not care. I like to believe it is magic. This way when it fails - which it sometimes does - I can blame the bad juju.

cookies!

Which is why I am so pleased with my first Malva Pudding which I made all by myself. It is a thing of beauty and tastes awesomingly delicioso or as my Pilates Instructor Tammy says, ripping lekker!
 





It is so good in fact that I am making another one which I will top with strawberries and blueberries to bring to a Fourth of July braai on Friday night.

Wish I had some sparklers.