Malva Pudding – a sweet decadent South African dessert with a caramelized exterior and spongy interior soaked in tasty warm butter.
May be you need a dessert to add to your repertoire that you can serve for your African theme party. Maybe you desire a dessert that is rich and sinfully Delicious. This Malva cake can satisfy your needs and desires.
So what is Malva pudding? It is a sweet pudding that has its origin in South African. What sets it apart is, it’s caramelized exterior and spongy interior when baked. Then it is soaked in a warm butter sauce and served with whipped cream or ice cream.
I first made this cake during my Home Economics Class. Back then; any cake was a good cake. In Africa, where I grew up, cake is not an everyday occurrence like here, in the United States. It is reserved for special occasion. But this cake was all the rage, back in our class. I can never forget the warm butter taste on the cake. It was the first time; I tasted a cake so moist and decadent.
Of course, when I came across this recipe in Marcus Samuelsson cookbook, discovery of a continent, I knew I had to re-create this heavenly treat, and this one tasted so much like the one that we made but even better. I’ve stuck to this recipe with only a few changes of my own.
Enjoy!
Watch How to Make It
Malva Pudding
Ingredients
- 3/4 cup sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 1 tablespoon un-salted butter room temperature
- 4 tablespoon Apricot jam
- 1 1/2 teaspoon grated orange zest
- 1 cup or 5 ounces all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon vinegar
- ¾ cup milk
For the Sauce
- 1 cup evaporated milk
- 1/4 cup granulated sugar
- 1/4 cup brown sugar
- 8 tablespoons / 4 ounce. / 113 grams butter.
- ½ teaspoon almond extract
- 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
Instructions
- In a large bowl beat eggs, orange zest, sugar, butter and apricot jam, until light and fluffy. Then add the vinegar and milk to the eggs mixture
- In another bowl, sift together the flour, baking soda, and salt
- Gradually, fold the flour mixture into the egg mixture. The mixture might be runny that’s ok.
- Pour batter into a greased cake pan. Bake at 350 until a tester inserted into the center comes out clean, 25–30minutes
- While the cake is baking
- Heat the evaporated milk, butter, sugar, almond and vanilla extract, in a saucepan over medium heat until the sugar has dissolved and the butter has melted. Remove from heat
- Using a skewer poke holes in the cake extending all the way to the bottom of the cake.
- Pour the butter sauce on the cake. Serve immediately or set aside in the fridge. Until ready to use
Shaun Goodrich says
I have a question. I would like to make this in individual ramekins like the creme brulee type. How long should I bake? Do you see any issues doing it this way?
Amina says
Good question. Normally it would be half the baking time for a ramekin, but you may want to start checking it at around 10 minutes because everyone’s oven is a little different. Let me know how it turns out.