Steamed pudding, which is very popular in England and Ireland, is cake batter that is steamed rather than baked in an oven. By steaming this cake, you are introducing a lot of moisture instead of using an oven, which uses dry heat and may dry out other types of cake.
Now, depending on where in the world you live, you might call this a 'pudding', for example, in the United Kingdom, these types of cakes are referred to as puddings because of the type of bowl used in cooking and the method of cooking too, which is steaming.
steamed cherry pudding
For those of you who aren't familiar with steaming cakes, or puddings, I've given some easy instructions with photos on how to make a cover for the pudding during steaming, and of course, if you're familiar with this, simply skip that part of the instructions. I hope those of you who haven't done this before find the photos helpful!
Well, look at it this way, you won't be able to burn or over brown your cake! Here's another of our steamed cakes, it's a Chinese recipe called Ma Lai Go, and often served as part of Dim Sum. It's soft, light and absolutely delicious!
Traditionally, steamed puddings are served warm with custard. We have a lovely recipe for homemade custard. For this steamed cherry cake, you can serve with custard, vanilla ice cream or simply eat on its own.
If you're making this steamed cherry cake ahead, you can cover it and keep chilled for a day and then simply pop in the microwave to warm up and then serve. It will also freeze well too. Again, allow to defrost and microwave for about a minute if warming the whole cake then serve.
The key is to make sure your bowl is the right size to fit inside the multi cooker. I have only recently purchased my multi cooker (and I love it!). I didnt have a pudding bowl to fit so I bought one as most of my baking equipment is in a storage box right now (moving house soon!).
2. Grease the inside of the pudding bowl and place the cut out piece of parchment paper in the bottom. This will stop the cake from sticking. You can also use our easy pan release for baking instead of greasing with butter if you prefer.
We'd love to hear from you and what you thought of our delicious steamed cherry cake recipe. Did you make any changes or add some other goodies? Let us know in the comments below. Thanks for reading and happy cooking!
1. Prepare your pudding bowl as follows; Place the bowl on a sheet of parchment paper and draw around the base and cut out the circle. My pudding bowl is diameter: 6 Inches or 16 cm at the top and 4 inches or 10cm in height. You need to make sure your bowl will fit in your multi cooker. This size is a perfect fit for mine.
13. Turn the plate and pudding bowl upside down and remove the bowl. You may have to wait a minute or so for gravity to work. The cake should drop easily. If it doesn't, just run a knife around the edge of the bowl to loosen the cake then try turning it upside down again and the cake should drop.
The name is a bit of a misnomer, as it is a moist cherry cake and not a pudding. Here in York County, it's usually eaten in a bowl with milk and sugar sprinkled on top, though it is just as good eaten out of hand.
Generously grease the pudding basin and lid.
in a bowl put the flour, sugar butter, eggs, almonds and extract, and mix together until everything is combined. If the mixture is a bit thick add some milk until the batter looks pourable.
Add the morello cherry conserve to the bottom of the basin, then pour the batter all over it, then seal with the lid.
Place in the boiling water and cover, cook on a low flame or elec mark 1.5, for 1 hour.
The Best part of this is turning it upside down on a plate and watching the conserve ooze down the side of the pud.
I serve mine with custard, but cream would be great too.
Make a start on this super pud by digging out your slow cooker and heavily buttering your 1.2 litre (2 pint) pudding basin. Next, take your frozen cherries and pop them into a small saucepan along with 3 tablespoons of caster sugar.
Take your pudding bowl, butter well, then spoon in the cherries. There may seem a lot of juice, but I added it all as I like a saucy pudding. Spoon on the pudding batter and level the top a little. Cover the pudding bowl with foil or a silicone lid then place in your slow cooker. Pour on enough boiling water to reach half way up the bowl then close the lid and cook on High for 3 and a half to 4 hours. The pudding is ready when the top feels firm and a skewer comes out clean when poked in the middle of the sponge.
In the United States, pudding means a sweet, milk-based dessert similar in consistency to egg-based custards, instant custards or a mousse, often commercially set using cornstarch, gelatin or similar coagulating agent such as Jell-O. The modern American meaning of pudding as dessert has evolved from the original almost exclusive use of the term to describe savoury dishes, specifically those created using a process similar to that used for sausages, in which meat and other ingredients in mostly liquid form are encased and then steamed or boiled to set the contents.
In the United Kingdom and some of the Commonwealth countries, the word pudding is used to describe sweet and savoury dishes. Savoury puddings include Yorkshire pudding, black pudding, suet pudding and steak and kidney pudding. Unless qualified, however, pudding usually means dessert and in the United Kingdom, pudding is used as a synonym for dessert.[1] Puddings made for dessert can be boiled and steamed puddings, baked puddings, bread puddings, batter puddings, milk puddings or even jellies.[2]
In some Commonwealth countries these puddings are known as custards (or curds) if they are egg-thickened, as blancmange if starch-thickened, and as jelly if gelatin-based. Pudding may also refer to other dishes such as bread pudding and rice pudding, although typically these names derive from their origin as British dishes.
The word pudding is believed to come from the Latin word botellus, meaning sausage, possibly leading to the French boudin, originally from the Latin botellus, meaning "small sausage", referring to encased meats used in medieval European puddings.[3][2] Another is from the West German 'pud' meaning 'to swell'.[2]
According to the Oxford English Dictionary the word 'pudding' dates to the thirteenth century. It refers to the entrails or stomach of a sheep, pig or other animal stuffed with meat, offal, suet, oatmeal and seasonings.[4] By the 1500s the word was used to refer to the guts or entrails or the contents of other people's stomachs especially when pierced with a sword, as in battle.[5] The Oxford English Dictionary describes puddings also as 'A boiled, steamed or baked dish made with various sweet (or sometimes) savoury ingredients added to the mixture, typically including milk, eggs, and flour (or other starchy ingredients such as suet, rice, semolina, etc.), enclosed within a crust made from such a mixture'.[4]
The modern usage of the word pudding to mean a dessert has evolved from the almost exclusive use of the term to describe a savoury dish, specifically those created using a process similar to sausages, where meat and other ingredients in a mostly liquid form are encased and then steamed or boiled to set the contents. The most famous examples still surviving are black pudding and haggis. Other savoury dishes include suet pudding and steak and kidney pudding. Boiled or steamed pudding was a common main course aboard ships in the Royal Navy during the 18th and 19th centuries; pudding was used as the primary dish in which daily rations of flour and suet were employed.
Commonwealth dessert puddings are rich, fairly homogeneous starch- or dairy-based desserts such as rice pudding or steamed cake mixtures such as treacle sponge pudding (with or without the addition of ingredients such as dried fruits as in a Christmas pudding).[1]
In the United States and some parts of Canada, pudding characteristically denotes a sweet milk-based dessert similar in consistency to egg-based custards, instant custards or a mousse, often commercially set using cornstarch, tapioca, gelatin, or similar coagulating agent such as the Jell-O brand line of products. In Commonwealth countries (other than some Canadian regions), these foods are known as custards (or curds) if they are egg-thickened, blancmange if starch-thickened, and jelly if gelatin-based. Pudding may also refer to other dishes such as bread pudding and rice pudding in North America, although typically these names derive from their origin as British dishes.
One of the first documented mentions of pudding can be found in Homer's Odyssey where a blood pudding roasted in a pig's stomach is described.[4] This original meaning of a pudding as a sausage is retained in black pudding, which is a blood sausage originating in the United Kingdom and Ireland made from pork or beef blood, with pork fat or beef suet, and a cereal.[6]
In the United Kingdom and some of the Commonwealth countries, the word pudding can be used to describe both sweet and savoury dishes. Unless qualified, however, the term in everyday usage typically denotes a dessert; in the United Kingdom, pudding is used as a synonym for a dessert course.[1]
Puddings had their 'real heyday...', according to food historian Annie Gray, '...from the seventeenth century onward'. It is argued that 'the future of the boiled suet pudding as one of England's national dishes was assured only when the pudding cloth came into use' and although puddings boiled in cloths may have been mentioned in the medieval era[10][2] one of the earliest mentions is in 1617 in a recipe for Cambridge pudding, a pudding cloth is indicated; 'throw your pudding in, being tied in a fair cloth; when it is boiled enough, cut it in the midst, and so serve it in'.[3][11] 2ff7e9595c
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