A marvelously delicious South African Classic 🙂 A spongy caramelized pudding, made with apricot jam, served with a side of custard and/or ice cream.
Malva pudding is a South African dessert staple – it can be found at many Braai’s and in many shops.
I have read various hypotheses as to where the name comes from – some people claim it is from the derivative of the Afrikaans word “malvalekker” which translates to marshmallow. Being likened to a marshmallow because of its spongy consistency of the cake. What really makes this a pudding more than a cake however is the rich, buttery sauce poured over as soon as it emerges from its glorious, golden bake.
Malva pudding has been around for ages. On researching various recipes, I found that most of them followed a similar formulae with the same ingredients, just in different proportions. What I’ve often seen critiqued at many family events where this is served however, is the level of sweetness of the dessert. I therefore tinkered around with the recipe a few times, to find that sweet spot ( see what I did there), where you feel like you are eating a dessert without being nauseas at the end of it.
Now, the great debate with Malva pudding is to which is the better partner – custard or ice cream? The former wins in my book, but if making this in the height of summer, a warm pudding contrasted by a slowly melting vanilla bean ice-cream works perfectly too.
The inclusion of the apricot jam does and a slight change of flavour, but you can be adventurous here and use marmalade instead.
I have also been quite curious, in addition to the marmalade, to grate a bit of orange zest into the batter before baking, and swapping out the water for strongly brewed Rooibos tea – to make a citrus and Rooibos Malva pudding. I have not ventured that far yet, so recipes are not meant to be stretched too far and I think this is one of them 🙂
My recipes are always written in grams, ingredients weighed on a scale for most accurate results, but given that many old recipe books I’ve consulted provide a cup measurement, I will do you all a service and add that in brackets ( though, still judging you, an avid baker, for not converting to a metric system which produces far more consistent and accurate results).
WHAT YOU NEED TO MAKE THIS MALVA PUDDING
Eggs – The whisking of the egg and sugar in the recipe is what creates air pockets for the sauce to soak into. It’s best to use large eggs, which when weighed outside of the shells are around 50g each. For best results, ensure that your eggs are at room temperature.
Brown Sugar – the brown sugar gives the pudding a caramel note and I find, due to the molasses, produces a slightly less sweet version than the white. But either will work here.
Granulated White Sugar – this is used to make the sauce. Ensure that it is dissolved into the sauce so that no granules remain when you pour it onto the pudding. Caster sugar can work too, but it is not essential.
Butter – Three tablespoons are included in the pudding, but the rest is all for the sauce. For once, using room temperature butter is not a necessity, as you will be melting it. I never fuss about using unsalted butter, which is more expensive and does not last as long, and I just reduce the salt in the recipe accordingly.
Apricot Jam – A quintessential ingredient in Afrikaans and Cape Malay cuisine, the jam imparts a sweetness as well as makes the pudding a rich dark caramel. I have never excluded the jam, but suspect that it should not alter the final product too drastically if you do not have it easily on hand.
Cake Flour – Cake flour has a much lower protein content than bread flour, so will produce a must softer bake with less gluten structure. There are no leavening agents included in cake flour, and we control this with the inclusion of bicarbonate of soda.
Bicarbonate of Soda – this helps with the rise of the pudding and is activated by the inclusion of the vinegar in the recipe. It’s best to dissolve the bicarbonate of soda in the milk, as I have read that some recipes produce a soapy aftertaste if the leavening is not properly dissolved.
Milk – I like bringing my milk up to room temperature by heating it in the microwave for a few seconds. It’s important that you use full cream milk for the recipe, as a lower fat content will impact the outcome and produce a drier sponge.
I have retested and adjusted this recipe on 10 September 2024.
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MALVA PUDDING
- 30g butter, room temperature (two tablespoons)
- 225g brown sugar (one cup and two tablespoons)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla essence
- 2 Tbs apricot jam
- 2 large eggs
- 120g cake flour (one cup)
- 125ml full cream milk (half a cup)
- 1 1/4 tsp bicarbonate of soda
- 1 tablespoon white spirit vinegar
METHOD
- Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celcius. Grease a 20cm square baking dish with some cooking spray and set aside. You want a fairly high dish so that the syrup has enough volume to be poured into.
- Beat the sugar and eggs until pale and voluminous- approximately 5 minutes.
- Then add in the apricot jam and melted butter, beat to incorporate.
- Add the vinegar and bicarbonate of soda to the milk and stir.
- Add the flour and milk mixture to the egg and sugar mixture and mix to combine.
- Bake for about 30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the pudding comes out clean. (The pudding does darken a fair bit due to the apricot jam’s high sugar content. If you do feel it is getting past a very deep brown, it is best to cover it with some aluminum foil).
SAUCE
- 150g caster sugar (three quarters of a cup)
- 125g butter (half a cup)
- 60ml water (quarter of a cup)
- 250ml whipping cream (one cup)
- 2 teaspoons vanilla essence
METHOD
- When the malva pudding is at the halfway mark, place all the ingredients in a medium size saucepan and heat on medium heat until the mixture comes to a boil.
- When the pudding comes out of the oven, pour over the sauce immediately. It is best to use the back of a spoon to break the pressure from the sauce damaging the soft sponge of the pudding.
- Serve the pudding whilst warm, with custard and/or ice cream.
Recipe by adventureswithsugar.com
3 Comments
Gingerbread Pudding – Adventures with Sugar
21 January, 2023 at 12:37 pm[…] Malva pudding is a staple at any dessert table, and I have made it a tad bit more festive by converting it into a gingerbread pudding. For those who are not familiar, malva pudding, it is a sweet caramel like sponge doused in a rich, buttery caramel sauce. My original recipe can be found here. […]
Trudy
12 March, 2024 at 6:20 pmIn the malva pudding method you say milk mixture. What are you referring to as a mixture? You don’t say what needs to be added to the milk to make it a mixture. Please advise.
Going to try this recipe once I have the information. Have yet to find a recipe for malva pudding, I can use all the time. Tried many but alas, it’s not to be. This may be the one .
suvar
22 March, 2024 at 10:45 amHi Trudy.
You read with a keen eye 🙂 (which is very good for baking recipes which require precision).
Sorry about the confusion, it is just the milk which you should add. I have edited the recipe to read more clearly now.
I hope this is the malva pudding for you! (But if it is not, then do let me know what you are looking for and I can tinker around with the recipe – I love getting feedback, even if it is constructive negative feedback :))