A Truly Strange Butterscotch Cake Pudding

Leafing through vintage cookbooks this afternoon, I came upon this recipe from Favorite Recipes of Colfax Country Club Women, and I just couldn't believe it could possibly work. No eggs, almost no shortening.... it's such a strange recipe that I just had to try it.

To my surprise, it works just fine - although next time I'll add some nuts.  It is very sweet. And very simple. And it would make any child deliriously happy. 

 For the Syrup

1 cup brown sugar

1 tablespoon butter

11/2 cups boiling water

 Add the brown sugar and butter to the boiling water, stirring until the sugar dissovles.  Bring the mixture to a boil again, reduce heat and simmer for about 10 minutes, or until the syrup coats a spoon. Cool.

 For the Cake

1/2 cup sugar

1 tablespoon butter at room temperature

1 cup flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

a pinch of salt

1/2 cup milk

1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 cup raisins

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Combine sugar, butter, flour and baking powder in a bowl.  Stir in some of the milk, then slowly add remaining milk. Beat only until smooth. Fold in the spices and raisins.

Pour the cooled syrup into a greased loaf pan.  Spoon the batter into the center of the syrup and bake for 35 minutes, or until a cake tester comes out clean.  Let cool for 15 minutes, then invert onto a serving dish.  Serve with unsweetened whipped cream.

 

 

Comments

Mamasminutia.blogspot.com

Made this, fed it to 7 (very happy) kids, and blogged about it. Thanks! http://bit.ly/xJPz3q

01/10/2012 at 11:25 AM

D

Ha! It's funny you mention the Bourbon, because I added a little too, but it sounded a bit boozy for so early in the morning!

01/08/2012 at 02:55 PM

Ruth Reichl

Yes, agree that it took me at least 20 minutes to turn the brown sugar and water into a syrup. Love the idea of adding vanilla, but next time I think I'll try Bourbon.

And a few dates in place of the raisins would turn this into an approximation of sticky toffee pudding.

01/08/2012 at 12:59 PM

D

I made it this morning, and it definitely took closer to 15 or 20 minutes for the water, brown sugar and butter to become syrupy. I added a little vanilla after it had cooled.

I also decreased the sugar in the cake batter to 1/4 cup and added about 1/2 cup toasted chopped walnuts with the raisins (I used golden).

The resulting cake unmolded with a lovely pool of syrup, but with some coaxing much of it was soaked up through the bottom of the cake while on the plate. It slices very nice, and goes a long way because of the sweetness.

It reminded me of a simpler-tasting sticky toffee pudding. I'll make this again. Thanks Ruth!

01/08/2012 at 12:21 PM

Mandyslavin

This reminds me of a chocolate pudding cake I used to make as a child, and still do, from time to time ....brown sugar ....a lot of boiling water (added after combining the other ingredients)..Yummy!

01/08/2012 at 07:11 AM

Ruth Reichl

It's suposed to be, actually, 13/4 cups. I cut it down a bit to a cup and a half. But ti definitely needs to be cooked for a while.

01/07/2012 at 07:36 PM

Alba17

I was wondering if the amount of water is correct. Is it supposed to be 1/2 cup or 1 and 1/2 cups? I made this, and it was delicious, but there seemed to be a lot of liquid. It definitely wasn't syrupy after 10 minutes of cooking, so I ended up cooking it about 20 minutes.

01/07/2012 at 06:57 PM