Ginger Pudding

I’m sitting in a kitchen in Warrnambool typing this up. It’s cold and I am sitting in a warm kitchen with a head cold and throat thing that makes me sound like a man on the phone. Like a man with a blocked nose. Not so blocked that I can’t smell the delicious soup being prepared for me. Honestly, where better to spend a weekend in the depths of winter, than a small ex-whaling town facing the Antarctic, smelling soup and writing out cake recipes.

Why am I in Warrnambool you ask? I am taking a study break, free of kitteh distractions (and they are many thanks to Clingy McVelcro aka Mini, who cannot leave me alone for one second when I am on my computer or reading a textbook), and thought that I could combine this with my need to catch up with my friend Sarah. We decided while I’m here, we could both go and see the sights of Warrnambool. We had a pub meal at The Warrnambool Hotel. Delicious. We went to the whale watching lookout. We saw no whales. We went to the breakwater where I obligingly gasped in awe at the size of the waves crashing up and over it, and doubted the effectiveness of the breakwater when even mild waves crashed up and over it. We went Cheeseworld. Cheeseworld is a large cheese shop across the road from one of the two milk factories in the area. It isn’t necessarily the rollicking tourist destination I was expecting (it's a cheese shop), although there is a local museum of Old Dairy Farm Equipment which was interesting, however the wide selection of local cheeses made it really worth the visit. Really it did. I am in cheese heaven right now. The leek and potato soup being cooked will contain a piece of cheese and I am yet to decide which of the five I bought it will be.

Due to a freak weather moment that affected much of Victoria yesterday, I even saw a little bit of snow on my way here. This was both enchanting and alarming, as frankly, I have no idea how to drive with snow. There wasn’t that much on the road by the time I drove through, but there clearly had been judging by the number of cars I saw resting in ditches and against trees and fences. So

Back to this cake. I wish I had made this cake yesterday to have brought with me. It’s such a good wintry dessert, and served with the orange sauce, you too will find it difficult to resist the second, third or eighth slice. Or that could just be me. I press the softness of my middle. Yes, maybe just me. This cake is on my ever growing ‘cakes to cook again’ list.

 

Ginger Pudding

½ cup All-Bran

½ cup milk

¼ cup butter

¼ cup brown sugar

1 egg

1 cup plain flour

½ tsp. baking powder

¼ tsp. bicarbonate of soda

1 tsp. ground ginger

Pinch salt

⅔ cup golden syrup (or honey)

½ cup raisins

Preheat oven to 160°C

Mix All-Bran and milk, set aside.

Cream butter and sugar, then add the egg and beat well. 

Stir in golden syrup, raisins then the milk and All Bran mix.

Sift the flour, bicarbonate soda, baking powder, ginger and salt together three times, then add to the mixture.

Spoon into a greased square cake tin and bake for 25 minutes.

Serve with orange sauce.

Orange Sauce

1 tbsp. cornflour

½ cup honey

1 cup orange juice

1 cup water

½ tsp. butter

1 tsp. grated orange rind.

Over a low heat, mix cornflour with honey, and gradually stir in orange juice, water until it thickens.

Stir in butter and orange rind.

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For those of you who are not in Australia, please find here a selection of Measurement & Temperature Conversion Charts which should help with the accuracy of your own cooking.