The recipes

Heritage Bakes 2026

A delicious roundup of traditional South African bakes, reimagined with my own take on them.

  1. Milk Tart Crumble Bars
  2. Peppermint Crisp Traybake
  3. Malva Pudding with Crème Anglaise
  4. Milk Tart Slices
  5. Hertzoggie Squares
  6. Koesister Traybake

adventureswithsugar.com/heritage-bakes-2026/

Back to the collection

The recipe

Milk Tart Crumble Bars

adventureswithsugar.com/milk-tart-crumble-bars/

Method

Method: base and crumble

  1. Prepare the tin and the oven: Preheat the oven to 180˚ Celsius. Grease and line the base and sides of a 20cm square baking tin, with baking paper and set aside.
  2. Make the base and crumble: Set the melted butter, ground cinnamon and almond flakes aside. Place all the remaining ingredients in a bowl. Pour over the melted butter and use a bread knife to bring together. The dough may be a bit clumpy, but that is fine.
  3. Set aside the crumble topping: Remove about 40g of dough, mix through the ground cinnamon and place in the fridge as the crumble topping, until ready to use.
  4. Bake the base: Place the remaining dough in your baking tin and bake for around 15 – 20 minutes as a guide. The base is done when the edges start to get a bit brown and the top has a very tan colour to it. Remove from the oven and set aside.

Method: spiced apples

  1. Cook the apples: Place a medium pan on the stove and turn onto medium heat. Add the butter to the pan and heat until melted. Mix the apples with the rest of the ingredients, except the cornflour and water slurry. Add this to the pan and cook for about 3 – 5 minutes. The sugar should melt and the apples should soften a little. Avoid cooking the apples completely as they will bake in the oven and you want them to retain some texture.
  2. Add the cornflour slurry to thicken the mixture: Once the sugar has melted and the apples have released some moisture, add in the cornflour slurry and cook for a minute or two until the apples are coated in a thick syrup and are looking all jammy. I know pre-cooking the apples feels like an extra step, but this gives the bars a delicious flavour without releasing too much water into the final bake.

Method: milk tart filling

  1. Heat the milk, cream and spices: Place the milk, whipping cream, cinnamon, bay leaf and grated nutmeg in a medium saucepan. Heat on medium until the milk begins to simmer. Then turn off and let steep for 5 minutes.
  2. Mix the remaining ingredients: Place the flour and cornflour into a large heat-proof bowl. Slowly add in the water and mix to form a slurry. Add the water a little at a time so that the flours are well dissolved. Then add in the sugar, eggs and vanilla and whisk to combine everything.
  3. Temper the eggs with the hot milk: Slowly pour in the hot milk mixture into the egg mixture and whisk constantly to increase the temperature of the eggs, without scrambling them.
  4. Cook the custard: Then place this mixture back into the pot and cook on medium heat until the custard begins to thicken. Make sure you are constantly whisking to ensure that the eggs do not scramble and the custard does not catch at the bottom of the pot. There will be a moment when things look quite lumpy and curdled, but continue whisking vigorously and everything will come together.
  5. Add in the butter to the custard: To add a bit of richness and set to the custard, when it cools, add in the butter and whisk until it melts into the hot custard. Remove the cinnamon quill and bay leaf from the custard and discard.
  6. Add the custard to the shortbread base: Pour the milk tart filling onto the biscuit base and spread to cover the base, with an even layer of the custard.
  7. Add in the cooked apples and the crumble: Now add in the cooked apples randomly over the milk tart filling, to disperse the flavour. Then remove the crumble from the fridge and sprinkle the crumble over the milk tart filling. I like to keep some pieces of the filling chunky for extra texture. Then toss on the flaked almonds.
  8. Bake the milk tart filling and crumble: Place the milk tart crumble bars in the oven to bake at 180˚ Celsius for a further 20 – 25 minutes, until the crumble topping has browned slightly. Give the tin a shake, the custard may have a slight wobble in the centre, but should be firmly set around the sides of the tin. That is when you know that it is done.
  9. Remove from the oven and let cool: Remove the milk tart crumble bars from the oven and let it cool in the tin completely. Then place in the fridge for about 4 hours to set before lifting out of the tin. If you desire, and want to add a bit of additional sweetness, dust with some icing sugar before serving.

The recipe

Peppermint Crisp Traybake

adventureswithsugar.com/peppermint-crisp-traybake/

Method

Method: chocolate and caramel marble cake

  1. Prepare the toasted milk powder: Please see important note at the beginning of the recipe where I now use toasted milk powder instead of malted milk powder. Begin by preheating the oven to 180˚ Celsius. Place the milk powder on a baking sheet and place in the oven to toast for 10 minutes. Give it a mix every 3 minutes to ensure it does not burn. The milk powder is done when it is a light tan colour, not too brown. You can skip this step and just use untoasted milk powder, but the caramel notes of the cake are so much more pronounced with this.
  2. Prepare your oven and cake tin before baking: Preheat the oven to 180˚ Celsius. Grease and line a 20cm square cake tin with baking paper. It is important to do this properly, especially if using a shallow tin. To line the tin, cut a single piece of baking paper that will line the base, but also overhang off the sides, about 5cm higher than the height of the tin. This will ensure that the cake is easy to lift out of the tin, but also creates a collar once you add the peppermint crisp topping. Then line the remaining two sides with separate pieces of baking paper, coming 5cm up over the tin. Fold this over the edge of the tin so that it does not burn.
  3. Prepare the wet ingredients: In a jug, add in the eggs, milk and vanilla essence. Whisk by hand for about 30 seconds until the yolks are broken up and everything looks like a homogenous mixture.
  4. Combine the remaining ingredients in a bowl: Place the butter, oil, muscovado sugar, golden syrup, self-raising flour, toasted milk powder and bicarbonate of soda in a bowl.
  5. Combine the wet and dry ingredients: Pour a third of the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix for about 30 seconds, the mixture should look like wet sand. Then add the next third and mix for 30 seconds and then the final third of the eggs and milk. Once the final mix is added, let it mix for about 45 seconds to a minute until the mixture looks thick, glossy and slightly voluminous. The batter may sometimes look slightly curdled, but that is no reason to worry. It will come together as it bakes.
  6. Make the cocoa swirl batter: Begin in a larger bowl than you think you will need, as you will ultimately transfer half the batter into this bowl. To begin, place the cocoa powder and boiling water and mix to form a thick paste. Then add in about a quarter cup of the caramel batter and mix until everything is well combined. Then, transfer some of the remaining caramel batter into the bowl and gently mix into the cocoa mixture. In total, you want half the batter to be chocolate and half to be caramel.
  7. Add the batter to the tin and marble: To ensure you get a proper marbled effect, use a tablespoon to dollop random patches of caramel batter into the tin. Then fill in the gaps with the chocolate batter. Once you have a base layer, then repeat the process randomly with a second layer of chocolate and caramel batter. Use the back of a sharp knife to swirl the batter together to make a marble pattern.
  8. Bake the cake and let it cool before frosting: Bake the cake for 35 – 45 minutes, checking on it after 20 minutes. The toasted milk powder could cause it to brown quite quickly. To avoid a burnt look, simply cover with a sheet of foil and continue baking for the remaining time.
  9. Prepare the cake for frosting: Once out of the oven, let the cake rest for 15 minutes before removing from the tin and letting it cool completely. If the top has domed slightly, trim that off so that it sits flat. Frost the cake only once completely cool. Once ready to frost, add the cake back into the tin with the baking paper you prepared earlier coming up around 5cm over the tin.

Method: Peppermint Crisp frosting and decoration

  1. Beat the butter first: To make the icing, beat the butter for about a minute until pale and fluffy.
  2. Add the remaining ingredients and mix: Then add in the mascarpone, tinned caramel and whipping cream and whip for about a minute until everything is combined and the whipping cream is stiff. Be careful not to whip for too long, or you could overbeat the ingredients and it will go from silky smooth to grainy and split.
  3. Prepare the Peppermint Crisp chocolates: Chop up the Peppermint Crisp chocolates, reserving one for the garnish at the end. Fold the remaining two into the caramel mixture.
  4. Add the caramel mixture onto the cake: Now is the time that the collar you have made for the cake, with the additional layer of baking paper, is important. Ensure it comes up over the sides of the tin. Then add the caramel mixture onto the cake and smooth out.
  5. Prepare the caramel swirl: Simply heat the tablespoon of caramel and cream in the microwave for 15 seconds, before mixing to combine. Then dollop in between the caramel mixture and swirl with a sharp knife.
  6. Add on the Peppermint Crisp chocolate: The one chocolate which we reserved for garnish can now be sprinkled on the top. Then place the cake in the fridge to set for 30 minutes, before removing from the tin, slicing and serving.
  7. Garnish with mini Tennis Biscuits: If you want, just before serving, you can add on mini Tennis Biscuits to complete the look of this delicious Peppermint Crisp marble traybake.

Important things to note about this recipe

Why is lining the tin so "complicated"?

Most people have shallow 20cm tins. This means that the height of the tin is around 5cm. The cake and the filling combined may be slightly higher than this and I want people to have the most success in making the Peppermint Crisp traybake as pretty as possible, so have been more pedantic about lining the tin.

Why do you use toasted milk powder?

I initially used malted milk powder for this recipe, Horlicks being the most popular one. I have recently discovered however, that Horlicks has changed its formula which does not work so well in the recipe. I also think milk powder is more accessible and cheaper and is therefore better.

Why has my peppermint caramel filling split?

The whipping cream in this recipe, coupled with the mascarpone cheese can result in overwhipping and the fats separating from the water. So be careful when overwhipping.

The recipe

Malva Pudding with Crème Anglaise

adventureswithsugar.com/malva-pudding/

Method

Method: malva pudding

  1. Preheat the oven and prepare the dish: Preheat the oven to 180˚ Celsius. 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. I have tested this in a 5 cup bundt tin as well and it works wonderfully, with it being fully soaked through.
  2. Beat the sugar and eggs: Beat the sugar, vanilla and eggs until pale and voluminous – approximately 5 minutes.
  3. Add the jam and butter: Then add in the apricot jam and melted butter, beat to incorporate.
  4. Prepare the milk: Add the vinegar and bicarbonate of soda to the milk and stir. The mixture will tend to become frothy.
  5. Combine: Add the flour and milk mixture to the egg and sugar mixture and mix to combine.
  6. Bake: 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 aluminium foil).

Method: sauce

  1. Make the sauce: 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.
  2. Pour over the sauce: When the pudding comes out of the oven, prick the pudding with a fork and 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.
  3. If using a bundt tin: If you are using a bundt tin, wait five minutes until you can loosen the pudding slightly. Then pour in half the sauce and let it seep in before flipping over, this could take about 2 minutes to soak through. Ladle the remaining syrup over the top of the bundt tin.
  4. Serve: Serve the pudding whilst warm, with custard and/or ice cream.

Method: crème anglaise

  1. Combine the milk and cream: Add the milk and cream to a large saucepan.
  2. Add the vanilla and heat: Scrape the seeds of the vanilla bean and add it to the milk mixture. Heat it until it comes to a rolling simmer, but not until it is boiling.
  3. Whisk the remaining ingredients: Whilst the milk is heating up, place the remaining ingredients into a large bowl and whisk to combine.
  4. Temper the eggs: Then, a quarter cup at a time, add the hot milk to the egg mixture to temper the eggs and increase their temperature, without scrambling it.
  5. Cook the custard: Add this mixture back to your saucepan and cook on a low heat until the custard coats the back of a spoon, and you can run a finger through it, with the trail still being visible.
  6. Strain and serve: Strain the custard into a bowl. This can be served hot or cold, but usually a cold custard with a hot malva is the perfect balance.

The recipe

Milk Tart Slices

adventureswithsugar.com/milk-tart-slices/

Method

Method: milk tart slices

  1. Preheat the oven: Preheat the oven to 180˚ Celsius.
  2. Prepare the pastry: Unroll the puff pastry sheet and trim it, so it fits neatly in a 20cm square tin. Dock it with a fork, place a piece of baking paper onto it and weight it down with another pan or baking beans.
  3. Bake the pastry: Bake for 20 minutes, then remove the weight from the top sheet and bake for another 5 – 10 minutes, or until golden brown.
  4. Cool and repeat: Once slightly cool, transfer to a cooling rack. Repeat this with the second sheet.
  5. Heat the milk: For the custard, place the milk, cream, half the sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg into a pot and heat until it just comes to a boil.
  6. Whisk the eggs and sugar: Place the remaining sugar, eggs, cornflour and salt in a bowl and whisk to combine.
  7. Temper the eggs: Then slowly pour about a cup of the milk mixture into the egg mixture. Make sure to constantly whisk to avoid curdling.
  8. Cook the custard: Pour the egg mix into the rest of the milk and cook on medium heat. Constantly whisk to prevent curdling, until the custard thickens and begins to bubble.
  9. Add the butter: Remove from the heat and add in the butter, let it completely melt into the custard.
  10. Line the tin: To assemble, line your pan with baking paper, so that the paper comes up the sides. This makes it easier to lift out.
  11. Assemble: Place the first sheet of puff pastry into the tin, then pour in the custard and place the second pastry on top to cover the custard.
  12. Chill overnight: Cover with cling wrap and set in the fridge for at least 12 hours, or overnight for the custard to set.
  13. Lift out: When set, use the overhang of baking paper to lift out of the tin.
  14. Dust and slice: When ready to serve, dust with some cinnamon and icing sugar, and cut into slices.

The recipe

Hertzoggie Squares

adventureswithsugar.com/hertzoggie-squares/

Method

Method: cake

  1. Preheat the oven and prepare the tin: Preheat the oven to 180˚ Celsius. Grease and line a deep 20cm cake tin with baking paper. If using a shallower tin, create a baking paper collar extending at least 3cm above the rim to allow room for the meringue topping.
  2. Rub the zest into the sugar: Place the caster sugar and lemon zest in a mixing bowl. Rub the zest into the sugar using your fingertips until fragrant. This helps release the oils from the zest and intensifies the lemon flavour.
  3. Cream the butter: Add the butter and vanilla, then cream together for 4 – 5 minutes until pale, light and fluffy.
  4. Add the egg yolks: Add the egg yolks one at a time, beating well after each addition and scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed.
  5. Add the dry ingredients and milk: Add the cake flour, baking powder, desiccated coconut and milk to the bowl. Gently mix until a smooth batter forms, taking care not to overmix.
  6. Spread and top with nectarines: Spread the batter evenly into the prepared cake tin. Arrange the nectarine wedges over the top, gently pressing them into the batter.
  7. Bake: Bake for 25 – 30 minutes, or until the cake is lightly golden and a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.

Method: coconut meringue

  1. Make the meringue while the cake bakes: While the cake is baking, prepare the coconut meringue.
  2. Whisk the egg whites and sugar: In a clean bowl, whisk the egg whites until frothy. Gradually add the caster sugar, one tablespoon at a time, whisking well between each addition. Continue whisking until the meringue is thick, glossy and holds stiff peaks.
  3. Fold in the coconut: Fold in the vanilla and desiccated coconut until evenly distributed.
  4. Spread on the jam: Once the cake has finished baking, remove it from the oven and immediately spread the apricot jam evenly over the surface.
  5. Top with the meringue: Spoon the coconut meringue over the jam layer, gently spreading it to the edges and creating a few swirls and peaks for texture.
  6. Bake again: Return the cake to the oven and bake for a further 25 – 30 minutes, or until the topping is golden brown and lightly toasted.
  7. Cool and slice: Allow the cake to cool completely in the tin before removing and slicing. This helps the jam layer set and ensures neat slices.
Baker's note

The amount of apricot jam can be adjusted to your preference. Use 250g for a more balanced sweetness or up to 300g if you prefer a more traditional hertzoggie-style jam layer.

The recipe

Koesister Traybake

adventureswithsugar.com/koesister-traybake/

Method

Method: syrup

  1. Make the syrup: Place all ingredients in a saucepan and bring to a boil for 10 minutes, before turning off and letting it cool and infuse.

Method: koesister traybake

  1. Prepare your equipment: Preheat the oven to 160˚ Celsius. Grease and line the base and sides of a 20cm square cake tin.
  2. Cream the fats and sugar: Cream the butter, oil, sugar and vanilla until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes.
  3. Add in the eggs: Add in the eggs one at a time, making sure to incorporate well before adding the next.
  4. Add in the dry ingredients and sour cream: Sift the flour and the spices together and fold half into the egg mixture, followed by the sour cream and the remaining flour.
  5. Bake: Bake for 40 – 50 minutes, or until a skewer inserted comes out clean.
  6. Cool and add some syrup: Let the cake cool in the tin for 20 minutes, before turning out and brushing with about two thirds of the syrup, letting it soak all in. Wrap the cake in cling film and let cool completely. Once completely cool, brush on the remaining syrup and dust with the desiccated coconut on the top and sides.
  7. Finish: Pipe on the whipped cream and apricot jam and enjoy.
What should I know about making this koesister traybake?

  • All my recipes are tested based on the conditions described within the recipe method. If you bake this cake in a different sized tin, the baking time and final height of the cake will vary.

  • The syrup should be made first to allow the spices sufficient time to infuse. As it cools, the flavours from the cinnamon, cardamom, star anise and orange peel become much more pronounced.

  • Don't skip creaming the butter and sugar properly. This step incorporates air into the batter and helps create a lighter crumb. The mixture should become noticeably paler and fluffier before moving on to the next step.

  • The eggs should be at room temperature. Cold eggs can cause the batter to curdle, resulting in a denser finished cake.

  • Once the flour is added, mix only until combined. Overmixing develops gluten and can make the cake tough rather than soft and tender.

  • The cake should still feel slightly warm when the first layer of syrup is brushed on. Warm cake absorbs syrup much more readily than cold cake. Whilst it may seem like a lot of syrup, don't be tempted to add it all at once. Applying it gradually allows the cake to absorb it evenly without becoming soggy. Wrapping the cake after applying the first layer of syrup helps trap moisture and allows the flavours to distribute throughout the crumb.

  • The whipped cream and apricot jam should only be added shortly before serving for the freshest finish.