Sticky Date Pudding with Butterscotch Sauce

Hi all!

After drooling over countless pictures and recipes on the internet, I finally decided on a recipe to follow and made them last week. Amidst all the craziness associated with last minute studying for tests, I dared put my notes down and took some time off revision to bake these yummies.

Ingredients and instructions taken from the Masterchef Australia official website.

Pudding
180g dates, pitted and roughly chopped
1¼ cups (310ml) water
½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
¾ cup (165g) firmly packed brown sugar
60g butter, softened chopped
2 eggs
1 cup (150g) self-raising flour

Butterscotch sauce
50g butter
1 cup (220g) brown sugar
1 cup (250ml) cream
1 tsp vanilla extract

1. Preheat oven to 180˚C (160˚C fan-forced). Lightly grease eight (½ cup capacity) metal dariole moulds.

2. Place dates and water in a saucepan and bring to the boil over a high heat. Remove from the heat. Add bicarbonate of soda, stir until dates start to break down, set aside to cool, stirring occasionally.

3. Beat butter and sugar in a bowl using a hand beater, gradually add eggs one at a time, beat until light and fluffy.

4. Add date mixture, stir to combine. Carefully fold through sifted flour, divide mixture evenly between the eight moulds, until 2/3 full.

5. Place moulds in a baking tray, carefully pour water in tray until it comes up 1/3 of the side of the moulds. Bake in oven for 40 minutes or until golden and skewer comes out clean.

6. For the butterscotch sauce, combine butter, sugar, cream and vanilla in small saucepan over low heat until butter melts and sugar dissolves. Bring sauce to the boil, reduce heat and cook for 5-6 minutes or until sauce thickens slightly.

7. To serve, invert the hot pudding onto a serving plate and top with butterscotch sauce.

N.B. The original recipe included an almond praline, which I did not make. Also, I divided the pudding mixture into a 12-hole muffin tray and did not bake them in a water bath. I think it wouldn't make much of a difference.

The verdict?
Pudding was so soft and moist. It's on the sweet side, especially if you drench it in too much butterscotch sauce. Texture could be improved a little, maybe by adding a few more dates? It's another quick and easy to make recipe.. and with a few tweaks here and there, it will definitely be a winner! :)

Lemon and Orange Cupcakes

Another simple recipe I've tried and tested. Topped with a good buttercream frosting and you'll be in heaven! It's also a change from the basic vanilla cupcake.


Ingredients
135 g butter
1 tsp orange rind
1 tsp lemon rind
140 g caster sugar
2 large eggs
1 cup (150 g) self-raising flour
1/3 cup (50 g) plain flour
1/3 cup (40 g) almond meal
1/4 cup orange juice (include a small part of lemon juice)
2 tablespoons milk

1. Beat butter and sugar till light and fluffy. Add rind and eggs and mix well.
2. Fold in sifted flour and almond meal. Add juice, stir, then add milk.
3. Divide batter among cupcake cases. Fill up to about 2/3 full.
4. Bake at a 180C (or 160C fan-forced) oven for about 20 minutes or until cake tester comes out clean.

I tend to use my extra/rougher bits of almond meal for this recipe. You get them after sifting out the finer bits for making macarons! :)

Molten Chocolate Cake

For my family when they came over to Adelaide

Okay one thing you should know about me is that I always have dessert after dinner :) Everytime I want to whip up something quick, this is the recipe I go back to, time and time again. It's not the PERFECT molten chocolate cake/chocolate lava cake, but for something you can make in 10 minutes (excluding baking time), you really can't expect any better.

Ingredients
100 g dark chocolate
100 g unsalted butter
2 large eggs
50 g caster sugar
30 g self-raising flour

1. Preheat oven to 180C.
2. Melt chocolate and butter in a bowl in a microwave. Be careful not to burn the chocolate!
3. In a large bowl, whisk eggs and sugar until pale and frothy.
4. Pour melted chocolate and butter into the egg. Mix until just combined, then stir in flour.
5. Grease ramekins with melted butter and coat with cocoa powder. Fill up to about 3/4 full.
6. Bake for 10-11 minutes.
7. Remove from the oven and let cool for 1 minute. Loosen edges of ramekin with a knife and gently invert. Or if you can't be bothered, just eat it straight off the ramekin!

Enjoy!

Macaron charms

How cute are these? Complete with different coloured fillings too!

Got them as a gift, hand made by my very talented sister. Check out her blog for more handmade goodies! *click*